Browsing by discipline "Pedagogik"

The aim of this thesis was to gather more information on the topic of values education from the perspective of primary school teachers in Finland. While the topic has been examined to some extent in previous studies, the focus of this thesis differs from those earlier works. Paula Suhonen (2012), for example, has studied the role and realisation of values education in schools, and the ideas and attitudes the teachers have concerning their role as value educators. My study continues her work by further examining especially the latter topic. Above all, the goal was to examine how teachers themselves view their role as a value educator, and how conscious this role is. Furthermore, the aim was to determine how teachers see values in general: as absolute and immutable, or more dependent on time and place. The theoretical background of the thesis leans on general deninitions of values and values education and - as in most previous research - values education is here linked to moral philosophy. The research was carried out as focused interviews of three teachers of various ages and career stages. The focused interview as a method suited the process well, as the aim of the research was to record the teachers' thoughs as personal and authentic as possible. The interview material was then phenomenografically analyzed by creating categories portraying teachers´ perceptions of themselves as value educators. These descriptional categories were based both on theory and the interview material. The findings of the thesis supported those of previous studies: in addition to the school curricula and the Finnish law, the values of the interviewees were based on their own upbringing and personal experiences in life and at the workplace. While being highly conscious of their role as "quardians of a lot", they also view the busy everyday encounters at the school as rather concrete interaction, where values education is carried out mainly through solving ordinary, everyday problems. Each of the teachers experienced values education as an essential part of their work, but what they hoped for was that their role would be specified more clearly, for example in the school curricula. This would be a good topic in future research on values education, as previous studies have also called for by suggesting that The aim of this thesis was to gather more information on the topic of values education from the perspective of primary school teachers in Finland. While the topic has been examined to some extent in previous studies, the focus of this thesis differs from those earlier works. Paula Suhonen (2012), for example, has studied the role and realisation of values education in schools, and the ideas and attitudes the teachers have concerning their role as value educators. My study continues her work by further examining especially the latter topic. Above all, the goal was to examine how teachers themselves view their role as a value educator, and how conscious this role is. Furthermore, the aim was to determine how teachers see values in general: as absolute and immutable, or more dependent on time and place. The theoretical background of the thesis leans on general deninitions of values and values education and - as in most previous research - values education is here linked to moral philosophy. The research was carried out as focused interviews of three teachers of various ages and career stages. The focused interview as a method suited the process well, as the aim of the research was to record the teachers' thoughs as personal and authentic as possible. The interview material was then phenomenografically analyzed by creating categories portraying teachers´ perceptions of themselves as value educators. These descriptional categories were based both on theory and the interview material. The findings of the thesis supported those of previous studies: in addition to the school curricula and the Finnish law, the values of the interviewees were based on their own upbringring and personal experiences in life and at the workplace. While being highly conscious of their role as "quardians of a lot", they also view the busy everyday encounters at the school as rather concrete interaction, where values education is carried out mainly through solving ordinary, everyday problems. Each of the teachers experienced values education as an essential part of their work, but what they hoped for was that their role would be specified more clearly, for example in the school curricula. This would be a good topic in future research on values education, as previous studies have also called for by suggesting thatvalues education should be more closely linked to actual studying material. The questions of values and their immutability divided opinions among the teachers - which might have though been affected by their differing interpretations of the research questions on the topic. values education should be more closely linked to actual studying material. The questions of values and their immutability divided opinions among the teachers - which might have though been affected by their differing interpretations of the research questions on the topic.

Tavoitteet. Tämän tutkielman tarkoituksena on tutustua narratiivisella otteella kasvatusfilosofiaan kirjallisuuden avulla ja tutkia mitä voidaan tarkoittaa puhuttaessa kasvatuksen tavoitteista ja arvoista, sekä tarkastella miten nämä liittyvät toisiinsa. Käsittelen arvoja ja niiden merkitystä kasvatuksessa. Ensimmäisessä luvussa johdannon jälkeen käsittelen kasvatusta. Toisessa pääotsikossa tarkastelen kasvatusfilosofiaa sekä aiempaa tutkimusta ja kirjallisuutta. Nostan esille muutamia aiempia tutkimuksia, kuten Leevi Launosen väitöskirjan. Viimeinen pääotsikkoni ennen yhteenvetoa ja pohdintaa on arvot. Siinä keskityn arvojen ja kasvatuksen tavoitteiden määrittelyyn. Tarkastelen arvoja sekä niiden merkitystä kasvatuksen tavoitteissa. Menetelmät. Tutkimuksessani hyödynsin kasvatustieteellisiä sekä kasvatusfilosofisia menetelmiä ja sivusin hermeneuttisen tutkimussuuntauksen perinnettä. Valitsin kasvatusfilosofiseen kuvailevaan kirjallisuuskatsaukseeni sopivia teoksia ja julkaisuja. Tulokset ja johtopäätökset. Kasvatusfilosofiaa tarvitaan kasvatustieteen rinnalla vastaamaan esimerkiksi arvoja sekä tavoitteita koskeviin kysymyksiin. Kasvatusfilosofian kiinnostuksen keskiössä ovat juurikin kasvatuksen tavoitteet. Näyttäisi siltä tutkielmani perusteella, että arvot ovat erottamaton osa kasvatusta ja tämän tavoitteita.

The purpose of this study was to discover how Asperger syndrome is connected to child’s intelligence, giftedness and motivation in school and teaching context. Research questions were: 1) How true is the image of intelligence and giftedness often associated with people with Asperger syndrome and how does this image appear in school context? 2) How do special interests characteristic of Asperger syndrome affect child's study motivation? In former studies the syndrome has often been seen in the light of challenges in social communication and there is less information about teaching children with Asperger syndrome and how do these children learn. Thus this study brings out further information about academic performance of a child with Asperger syndrome. This study was carried out as a descriptive literary survey. Scientific publications of experts in the field of autism spectrum and Asperger syndrome were used as sources and sources were searched for in libraries of The University and City of Helsinki and in databases of the Internet. As a result was discovered that the image of intelligence and giftedness was partly a myth. Most children with Asperger syndrome had normal intelligence and a relatively small number of children with Asperger syndrome were especially gifted or intelligent. Child's style of speaking and vocabulary gave an impression of intelligence and hid other problems. Performance in intelligence tests was uneven and giftedness was often narrow and connected to child's special interest. Many children had difficulties in other areas such as concentration and social relations. Some children with Asperger syndrome are however truly gifted and teacher has to be able to take both child's gifts and weaknesses into account. As a result was also discovered that special interests affected child's study motivation. Child was motivated to gather more information about his special interest but wasn't necessarily motivated to study other subjects or to do assignments. Using special interests one could on the other hand get child interested in new things and assignments. Therefore teacher should be aware of child's special interests and incorporate them into teaching with deliberation.

The purpose of the study was to find out what challenges may arise with a child with Asperger in elementary school physical education. Previous studies have pointed out that most of the children need special forms of support to be successful in studies. In addition, motor difficulties and unsuitable instruction have shown to have a negative connection in individual’s motivation towards exercise. The study was conducted as a narrative figurative literature view. The purpose was to find out what kind of research can be found on special characteristics of Asperger’s Syndrome in physical education and how to support Asperger children during physical education. Materials selected from both Finnish and English databases were Finnish and international books and articles mainly based in the 2000s. Also, Finnish Autism Union website was utilized for additional data. The findings were that special characteristics with children with Asperger’s can cause difficulties in school physical education, but they can also be supported in various ways. Challenges were especially caused by social problems, linguistic difficulties, sensory defensiveness, routines and subjects of interest. In addition, difficulties were found in cognitive control and attention. From forms of supports significant factors were teacher’s competence and personality. On top, support was provided with the help of preliminaries and flexible curriculum.

Syftet med kandidatavhandlingen är att göra en studie kring krisen i småbarnspedagogiken. När jag talar om ”krisen i småbarnspedagogiken” relaterar jag till den pågående samhällsdebatten. Det är inte frågan om en pedagogisk kris i sig utan en samhällelig kris som påtalar brister i strukturella frågor och personalbristen. I avhandlingen granskas hur krisen kunde lösas och hur den påverkar barnets rättigheter till en god småbarnspedagogik. Attityder till aktivism inom småbarnspedagogiken är en genomgående frågeställning. I studien används en fenomenologisk forskningsmetod (kvalitativ ansats) och utgår från empiriska data som jag samlar på basis av intervjuer. Jag intervjuar fyra personer (två som jobbar på fältet, professorn i småbarnspedagogik och barnträdgårdslärarförbundets ordförande). Resultatet visar att de intervjuade hade en positiv attityd till aktivism och alla informanter var redo att strejka för att få bättre löner. Den låga lönen och yrkets låga status ansågs vara de främsta orsakerna till personalbristen i branschen men också den inre konflikt som uppkommer hos behörig personal som inte har resurser att utföra sitt arbete i enlighet med styrdokumenten. Barnets rättigheter påverkas av krisen såtillvida att barngrupperna är för stora, personalstyrkan och kompetensen är ojämn och småbarnspedagogiken är ojämställd- kvaliteten på pedagogiken varierar drastiskt mellan olika daghem och kommuner.

Everyone in the Swedish speaking minority in Finland does not come easily in contact with the Finnish language. At the same time, there is an increase of Swedish-speaking Finns moving to Sweden. One of the reasons for emigration to Sweden is language. It is important that all Swedish-speaking Finns have the chance to learn and master the Finnish language to have the same opportunities in the Finnish society as the native Finnish speakers. The purpose of this study is to observe the attitudes towards the Finnish language among pupils in Swedish speaking schools. To get a wide perspective a comparative study was conducted between so to say pair schools (where a Finnish and a Swedish speaking school are sharing the school property) and a regular Swedish speaking school. In this quantitative study, the data was collected by a paper questionnaire that pupils in grades 4-6 filled in. Two pair schools and one regular school participated in this study. The sample consisted of N=81 pupils and the data where analysed in the statistical program SPSS. The results showed that the pupils in general had a relatively neutral or a slightly more positive attitude against the Finnish language. The pupils in the regular school had slightly a better attitude towards the Finnish language than the pupils in the pair schools. Students that spoke Finnish regularly had a better attitude towards the Finnish language. The pupils in the pair schools where not that interested in interaction with the pupils from the Finnish speaking schools.

Ambitions. The main focus of this research is to study links between attributions and self-esteem from young adults` point of view. The framework for this research is in Susan Harter`s theory of self-esteem and Bernard Weiner`s attribution theory. The topic for this study developed from my personal interest towards social psychology and its many phenomena. When becoming a teacher, I feel the need to be on top of this topic since self-esteem is the basis for one's actions. In this research, the goal is to develop means to support children and adolescents` self-esteem. Previous research proves that negative attributes towards themselves are connected to low self-esteem whereas persons with strong self-esteem do not feel the need to blame themselves when experiencing a failure. Methods. I executed this bachelor`s thesis as a quantitative research, where I analyzed Risto Hotulainen and Kristiina Lappalainen`s (2012) control research material. The people participating in this research were 30-year-old young adults, who were sent a questionnaire in December 2012. This questionnaire was answered with 167 young adults during spring 2013. In this research, I compared the control research`s four attribution groups` averages and dispersions ergo variances in social, study and work-related situations. I studied the possibility to statistically recognize the significant differs between these groups. As my method, I used variance analysis. Results and conclusions. The research indicated that the group with attributions towards themselves, had statistically significant lower self-esteem experiencing failure comparison to the other attribution groups. This means that when a person accuses himself in experiencing failure, he has low self-esteem. The same result occurs in both study and work-related situations. This result supports my theory's summary. In these results' point of view, it is reasonable to state that supporting ones` self-esteem and the formation of attributions is important. Throughout this, it is possible to build ones` self-esteem and motivation, which fosters for example learning. It is crucial for teachers to recognize attributions and their meanings to self-esteem because one's well-being develops when self-esteem is being established.

Mål: Forskningens syfte var att analysera vilka stöd som rekommenderas för olika inlärningssvårigheter och sedan relatera detta till en helklass miljö inom lågstadiet. Syftet var att komma fram till vilka stöd som är återkommande och om det finns stöd som skulle fungera för alla inlärningssvårigheter. Detta är relevant i Finland då man allt mer börjar jobba enligt en inkluderande praxis. Metoder: Denna studie är en beskrivande litteraturöversikt vilket betyder att litteratur har använts för att i relation till forskningsfrågan påvisa vilka stöd som rekommenderas. Resultaten har sedan påvisats genom att de lagts till i en tabell där man kan se deras förekomst. Resultat och slutsatser Studien visade att det som förväntat oftast rekommenderades att eleverna fick ett visst intensifierat stöd av läraren. Under studien uppkom inget stöd som i sig självt skulle stöda alla samtidigt. Däremot visade det sig att man antagligen måste dela upp när de olika inlärningssvårigheterna stöds extra mycket för att stöden ofta kräver resurser eller annat som begränsar arbetet. Det visade sig också att mycket stöd varierar från elev till elev och därför måste man pröva sig fram för att hitta det optimala stödet för en viss elev.

Luokanhallinta ja auktoriteetin saavuttaminen ovat haasteita etenkin uusille kokemattomille opettajille. Tämän kirjallisuuskatsauksen tavoitteena oli selvittää, miten pedagoginen auktoriteetti määritellään ja mitkä tekijät vaikuttavat sen rakentumiseen. Kirjallisuuskatsaus tarjoaa tietoa opettajille siitä, millaisten tekijöiden kautta he voivat ymmärtää omaa asemaansa pedagogisena auktoriteettina. Käytin tutkimusmenetelmänä kuvailevaa kirjallisuuskatsausta. Aineistoa etsin käyttäen Helka- kirjaston hakupalvelua, Eric-tietokantaa sekä Google Scholaria. Tutkielman aineistoksi valikoitui sekä suomalaisia että ulkomaisia artikkeleita. Lähdekirjallisuuden perusteella pedagogiselle auktoriteetille löytyi useita erilaisia määritelmiä, joiden mukaan sitä voidaan tulkita. Esille nousi pedagogisen auktoriteetin ymmärtäminen sosiaalisena konstruktiona sekä autoritaarisen ja auktoritatiivisen vallankäytön erot. Erilaisiksi auktoriteetin muodoiksi lähdekirjallisuuden perusteella nousivat episteeminen eli tiedollinen auktoriteetti sekä deonttinen eli käskyjä antava auktoriteetti. Muita esille nousseita auktoriteetin muotoja olivat asiantuntija- karismaattinen- traditionaalinen sekä oikeutettu auktoriteetti. Nämä muodot voivat esiintyä osana opettajan auktoriteettia myös samaan aikaan. Pedagogisen auktoriteetin rakentumiseen vaikuttaviksi tekijöiksi aineiston perusteella löytyi opettajan ammatillinen kokemus, pätevyys ja asiantuntijuus sekä huumori ja karisma. Lisäksi vaikuttaviksi tekijöiksi löytyi luottamus ja yhteistyö oppilaiden kanssa sekä kontekstuaaliset tekijät.

The aim of the study was to describe participation in children's playful activities. The theories of participation used in the early childhood research are derived from sociology and its models of participation. In earlier studies, the levels of participatory approaches have been applied with the aim of finding out what kind of participation is characteristics for the experience of small children. Early childhood education documentation acknowledges play as a part of the overall growth, development and learning of children. The purpose of the study is to find out how the play promotes or restricts the participation of children in free play of the kindergarten. The study was conducted as a theoretical content analysis. The material used was video material collected in Leikin polut varhaiskasvatuksessa -project in 2014. The study examined free play of ten children aged from 3 to 6 in a kindergarten. The results of this study were that children feel that they are a significant part of the play community. The central result was the common meanings that children create while playing allow play to develop to a long-lasting play, and thus the likelihood of participation is increased. On the other hand, the results showed the experience of non-participation, which was particularly evident at the time of joining the play. Children can prevent a child from experiencing participation by leaving a child out of play or during play contributing to non-participation. The findings confirm previous research where play is a tool for participation. The role of adults is to create favourable structures and circumstances for long-lasting play. In particular, the sensitivity and activation of adults in the child's joining the play is essential. Children need successful experiences of playing together to enhance participation. It would be good for the kindergarten team’s to discuss the importance of play and playfulness in the development of participation.