Opening up learning environments : liking school among students in reformed learning spaces
The present study focuses on views of Finnish basic education students on open and flexible learning environments and the extent to which these views are associated with students’ liking of school. The data were based on an online questionnaire containing both structured ratings and open-ended questions filled out by primary school students (n = 684; grades 2–6; between ages 8–13 years) attending reformed learning environments. Ethnographic field notes and photographs of the schools were collected to provide contextual information about the settings. Quantitative analyses indicated that students had mostly positive evaluations of their renewed learning environments. Students’ perception of …
Embodied and affective negotiation over spatial and epistemic group territories among school-children : (Re)producing moral orders in open learning environments
This study investigates how schoolchildren organise their spatial and epistemic ‘territories’ among peer groups to constitute local social and moral orders in open learning environments. Open learning environments, the result of recent school reforms in Finland, challenge the conventional organisation of traditional classrooms. We use a microanalysis of naturally occurring video-recorded interactions to show the interactional dynamics of how children produce epistemic and spatial territories by creating moment-by-moment unfolding participation frameworks and emotional alliances. We suggest that the lack of institutional structures in open learning environments withholds children from the te…
Ilmiölähtöinen oppiminen valokeilassa : ymmärryksen rakentaminen ja reflektiivisyys yliopisto-opintojen alkuvaihesssa
Tarkastelemme artikkelissamme käsitteellisen ajattelun kehittymistä ilmiölähtöisessä oppimiskontekstissa yliopisto-opintojen alkuvaiheessa. Tutkimuksen kohteena olivat Jyväskylän yliopiston kasvatustieteiden perusopintojen Vuorovaikutus ja yhteistyö -kurssin opiskelijoiden laajat luentopäiväkirjat ja esseet. Näissä teksteissä opintojaksolla käsiteltyjä teoreettisia vuorovaikutusilmiöitä peilattiin omiin kokemuksiin tai käytännön esimerkkeihin. Tutkimuksemme teoriakehikko perustuu tieteellisen ajattelun, oppimisen henkilökohtaistamisen ja reflektion näkökulmiin. Tutkimme teksteistä, millaisia teorian ja käytännön yhteyksiä opiskelijat rakensivat ja minkälaista reflektiota ilmeni. Analyysi et…
Turning social inclusion into exclusion during collaborative between students with and without SEN
Creating opportunities for meaningful social relationships between students with and without special educational needs (SEN) through collaborative learning has been suggested as a way to facilitate all students’ social inclusion in classroom activities. However, little attention has been given to the peer interaction processes leading to unsuccessful knowledge co-creation in mixed-ability peer groups including students with and without SEN. This study addressed this research gap by conducting detailed observational analyses of the social exclusion during group work of students with and without SEN, and how the students with SEN responded to their positioning as unequal learning partners. Th…
Moral beings and becomings : children's moral practices in classroom peer interaction
This study investigates children’s social and moral practices as they appear in everyday classroom peer interaction. Its focus is on the relations between children’s interaction and moral understandings in situ. Juxtaposing the most archetypal ways of addressing and investigating morality in mainstream educational psychology, this study approaches morality is as it handled and man- aged as part of everyday intersubjective interaction. Ethnomethodological approaches alongside with sociocultural views of thinking are employed as theoretical and analytical frameworks to delineate how children as moral agents use language and other semiotic resources to accomplish their local organization of mo…
Diskurssianalyysista diskurssintulkintaan?
‘Because I point to myself as the hog’ : interactional achievement of moral decisions in a classroom
Abstract Drawing on the conversation analytic and sociocultural perspectives, this study investigates children's situated moral negotiations in classroom peer interaction in the absence of a teacher. The conversation analytic methodology is used to operationalise some of the key elements of the sociocultural perspective on moral development. In this way, this study enables readers to observe and study the semiotic, conversational and interactional mediations of moral functioning in real life, with the example of children's moral practices. The empirical analysis is based on video-recorded sequences in which primary school children work with the rules of a counting rhyme which is banned by t…
Ohjaajan vastaaminen opiskelijoiden esittämiin moitteisiin dialogisuuteen pyrkivän aikuiskoulutuksen vuorovaikutustilanteissa
Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää, miten dialogisuuteen pyrkivän aikuiskoulutuksen oppimisryhmissä käsitellään opiskelijoiden esittämiä moitteita, jotka kohdistuvat ohjaajan toimintaan tai hänen edustamaansa koulutukseen. Tutkimusaineisto koostuu Aikuiskouluttajan pedagogisten opintojen videoiduista oppimisryhmätilanteista (kaikkiaan 20 tuntia). Aineistossa opiskelijat aloittivat kahdeksan moitekeskustelua, jotka analysoitiin keskustelunanalyyttisesti. Tulokset osoittivat ohjaajan antavan moitetilanteissa opiskelijoille tilaa rakentaa ja esittää moitteensa. Moitteen esittämisen edetessä ohjaaja tuotti neljänlaisia vastauksia moitteisiin: uuden näkökulman tarjoaminen, selonteko, moi…
‘Cheaters and Stalkers’: Accusations in a classroom
This article explores accusations as collaboratively accomplished in classroom peer interactions in the absence of a teacher. The analysis shows how the children use local classroom rules and teacher authority as resources and warrants to invoke multi-layered moral orders and identities, and hold one child accountable through accusations about their behavior. The accused children are categorized in a duplicative way with morally degrading descriptions and as out-group members. This article argues that understanding children’s accusations requires understanding of how such interactions compose and reflect the school context that is co-produced through the implementation of accountable ways …
I will send badass viruses. Peer threats and the interplay of pretend frames in a classroom dispute
This paper explores threats as they appear in children's everyday dispute interactions. The main purpose is to extend understandings of children's interactions and disputes in order to show how young boys construct threats in pretend frames within a classroom peer dispute by drawing upon the resources of the video game world and a verbally constructed fight. The conceptual and methodological frameworks underpinning the analysis are conversation analysis and Goffman's concept of frame. The analysis focuses on one episode that illustrates how the boys, in the absence of the teacher, invoke, share and switch frames within the dispute. Using pretence, they posit threats and build attack strateg…
Vertaisvuorovaikutus toimijuutta tukemassa
‘The best guess for the future?’ Teachers’ adaptation to open and flexible learning environments in Finland
Finnish education has recently experienced reforms with respect to guidelines forming the curriculum framework for basic education and school architecture. Since 2016, all new schools incorporate open and flexible design, at least to some extent. The more open school design challenges the conventional organisation of space and pre-defined structures and interaction practices. This study investigates how teachers both adapt and are affected by new demands for pedagogy, team teaching and teacher-student relationships. Interview data of 21 teachers of six modern schools are reviewed through thematic analysis. The new school layouts provided some incongruence with the teachers’ aims and their p…