Browsing by Author "Makkonen, Kirsi"

The purpose of this study was to examine the significance of developing learning skills during the year of voluntary additional basic education in Seurakuntaopisto (The Church Training College), Järvenpää. Every student, including those having learning difficulties, will benefit from good learning skills. The knowledge of one’s own learning practices and learning skills helps us in different contexts during our whole life. The research material consisted of empathy-based narratives written by students, two different multiple choice inquiries, and the change of grades of final certificate during school year in 2013-2014. The research target group included 13 students. The evaluation is based on students´s own experience of different methods and tasks used by teachers. In the beginning of autumn 2013, I made a suggestion to other teachers to particularly handle different learning methods on each subject. In the end of spring 2014, I studied how students had experienced their progress. The research material was collected as a part of standard feedback in the college. The method of empathy-based stories was not a good choice because of the scarce texts. Only one student actually wrote the whole story, most students only listed briefly their experiences. The most important newly acquired learning method was ability to make notes both of written and spoken material. Especially the students liked study visits. Based on the grades of the final certificates, the study year was good. The minimum improvement of grades of different subjects was by three grades and maximum by eleven per student. The grade per one single subject was raised at least by one point, in many cases even more. The mean value of whole student group raised by 1.1 (min. 0.58 and max 1.84).