Search results for "Cognitive science"
showing 10 items of 6580 documents
Verbal counting skill predicts later math performance and difficulties in middle school
2019
This study examined the role of verbal counting skill as an early predictor of math performance and difficulties (at or below −1.5 standard deviation in basic math skills) in middle school. The role of fourth-grade level arithmetical skills (i.e., calculation fluency, multi-digit arithmetic i.e. procedural calculation, and word problem solving) as mediators was also investigated. The participants included 207 children in central Finland who were studied from kindergarten to the seventh grade. Path modeling showed that verbal counting in kindergarten is a strong predictor for basic math performance in seventh grade, explaining even 52% of the variance in these skills after controlling for th…
Investigating former pupils’ experiences and perceptions of CLIL in Finland: a retrospective analysis
2019
The educational approach known as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), in which content is taught partly through a foreign language, has gained great popularity in Europe in the past few decades. In Finland, CLIL has been in use since 1991 and, despite some fluctuations in its popularity, has gained a relatively stable place in the Finnish education system. CLIL has been extensively studied, but previous CLIL research has mostly focused on pupils currently enrolled in CLIL. This study takes a novel perspective by investigating CLIL retrospectively, through the eyes of former pupils. The data used are in-depth interviews with 24 former pupils who attended a CLIL class in Finland …
Individual Creativity and Career Choices of Pre-teens in the Context of a Math-Art Learning Event
2021
A sample of 392 students (aged 12-13 years, M± SD: 12. 52% girls) completed a learning module integrating informal hands-on mathematics and arts activity (extending STEM to STEAM). Within a 140 minute workshop period participants worked with commercially available ‘4Dframe’ Math and STEAM learning toolkits to design and create original, personal and individual geometrical structures. Two science pedagogues acted as tutors supervising the process and intervened only when needed. A pre-/post-test design monitored individual creativity, relative autonomy, and career choice preference. Path analysis elaborated the role of creativity (measured with two subscales: act and flow), and it showed tha…
Meaningful learning in teacher education
2018
This study explores meaningful learning in the context of teacher education. The study showed the importance of course design in generating meaningful learning. Opportunities to gain strong experience are crucial to meaningful learning. Meaningful learning provides space for both positive and uncomfortable emotions. peerReviewed
Pre-service subject teachers’ personal teacher characterisations after the pedagogical studies
2020
This study explored how five pre-service subject teachers characterised themselves as teachers after completing their year-long pedagogical studies in a Finnish university. Our narrative analysis of the interview data showed that the students shared a social representation of a past teacher characterised by wide power and emotional distance between pupils and the teacher. The students differentiated themselves from this kind of teacher character, and rather positioned themselves as interactive and caring educators identifying with their own ideal teachers as well as meaningful learning experiences in the pedagogical studies. Consequently, the study showed that engaging pre-service subject t…
‘The best guess for the future?’ Teachers’ adaptation to open and flexible learning environments in Finland
2021
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…
Longitudinal Effects of the Home Learning Environment and Parental Difficulties on Reading and Math Development Across Grades 1–9
2020
This study focuses on parental reading and mathematical difficulties, the home literacy environment, and the home numeracy environment as well as their predictive role in Finnish children’s reading and mathematical development through Grades 1–9. We examined if parental reading and mathematical difficulties directly predict children’s academic performance and/or if they are mediated by the home learning environment. Mothers (n = 1590) and fathers (n = 1507) reported on their reading and mathematical difficulties as well as on the home environment (shared reading, teaching literacy, and numeracy) when their children were in kindergarten. Tests for reading fluency, reading comprehension, and …
Intra‐individual dynamics of lesson‐specific engagement: Lagged and cross‐lagged effects from one lesson to the next
2020
Background Student engagement denotes active participation in academic work through commitment and involvement in learning tasks (Appleton et al., 2006, Journal of School Psychology, 44, 427). This study looks at questions such as whether engagement experiences in one lesson have an effect on the next lesson. In the present study, process‐oriented analyses were conducted to examine lower secondary school students’ engagement experiences and the stability of those experiences from one lesson to the next. Aims (1) To what extent are students’ engagement experiences, in terms of behavioural and cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, and disaffection, stable from one lesson to the next (au…
Change, Resistance to Change and Organizational Cynicism
2016
Abstract Over the past decades, the focus of the scientists has shifted towards the area of organizational change. The concept has been approached from several perspectives and studied by numerous disciplines and refers to a shift or transformation of an organization, of several components of the organization or of the processes that lie within. Being in an environment characterized by competitiveness and complexity, organizations are under a constant need of change, of progress, while the aim of each change is to improve the aspects that make this happen. The dynamics of the labour force market has contributed to the creation of an environment in which organizations are permanently facing …
Assessing violence in the family : social work, courts, and discourses
2016
This article investigates social work, decision-making, and gendered violence in the family in Finland. Discourses on gendered violence in the family are compared in custody disputes, handled in district courts, and out-of-home placements, dealt with in administrative courts. Both data sets altogether include 237 cases. Proceedings in both courts share a legislative emphasis on the ‘child’s best interest’ principle, and both contexts also rely on documentation provided by social workers. The examination of the two studies is based on discourse analysis, through which we have identified hegemonic discourses that are active in both courts. The study found that violence was often disregarded o…