Search results for "Mathematics EDucation"
showing 10 items of 1280 documents
Finnish Students' School Engagement Profiles in the Light of PISA 2003
2008
The aim of this study is to examine Finnish students' school engagement profiles in the light of the data collected in the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) in 2003. Even though Finnish students' cognitive achievement has proved excellent in various international assessments, their school engagement has not been flattering. The article first defines the concept of school engagement and discusses some previous findings on students' attitudes and socio‐emotional disposition towards school life. Next, on the basis of students' responses to the PISA 2003 survey questionnaire, students are grouped and the groups profiled by cluster analysis into six distinct clusters in terms…
Recent tensions and challenges in teacher education as manifested in curriculum discourse
2010
Abstract This study seeks to contribute to discussions on the development of teacher education by analysing teacher educators' talk concerning curriculum reform. The curriculum is understood as a mediating construction between teacher educators and the social context, and the development of the curriculum is seen as a negotiation process between global discourses and local actors. Our aim was to understand the contrasting discourses used by teacher educators in talking about curriculum development, on the grounds that such discourses frame interpretations that direct the implementation of teacher education as a whole. Five contrasting interpretative repertoires were found. We illustrate the…
Do different routes to becoming a special educator produce different understandings of the profession and its core concepts?
2014
There are multiple routes to becoming a special educator in Norway. In recent years, bachelor's degree programmes have offered an alternative to the traditional path in which special education coursework is taken as a part of teacher education. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether these different programmes produce different understandings of the special education profession and its core concepts. We surveyed 27 bachelor students and 36 teacher education students using open-ended questions concerning their future goals and expectations and the concepts of ‘inclusion,’ ‘learning disability,’ and ‘special educator’. Teacher education students were more likely to: (a) view incl…
The 5-Dimensional Model: A Finnish Approach to Differentiation
2021
This chapter focuses on differentiation in English language teaching. We present the 5-dimensional (5D) model of differentiation which has been created based on the Finnish educational context. The model is grounded in the postulate that differentiation is a proactive and student-centred approach that permeates all teaching and involves the entire school community. The 5D model progresses from general to specific. It advocates for differentiation to be implemented holistically in several dimensions of teaching which are teaching arrangements, learning environment, teaching methods, support materials and assessment. Furthermore, it proposes that all differentiation should be based on student…
PERCEPTIONS OF TODAY’S YOUNG GENERATION ABOUT MEANINGFUL LEARNING OF STEM
2020
The necessity of STEM knowledge is being more widely acknowledged as the priority in the development of education; however, students lack sufficient knowledge and interest in the acquisition of STEM subjects. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the teaching and learning methods that would correspond to the contemporary young generation and that would facilitate meaningful learning of modern students. Performing the survey of 256 students in Grades 10 – 12 of Latvia, students’ perceptions on how they understand and interpret their STEM learning and methods used by teachers have been explored. The questionnaire in the QuestionPro e-environment was designed according to the criteria de…
Teachers adapt their instruction according to students’ academic performance
2012
This study examined the extent to which a student’s academic performance in first grade contributes to the active instruction given by a teacher to a particular student. To investigate this, 105 first graders were tested in mathematics and reading in the fall and spring of their first school year. At the same time points, their teachers filled in a questionnaire on five successive days on the active instruction they have given a particular student. The results showed that the poorer the performance in reading a student showed in fall, the more active instruction teachers reported giving a student in spring. Moreover, the poorer the performance in mathematics a student showed in fall, the mo…
Enseñando música en inglés: un modelo de enseñanza basada en contenidos en educación secundaria obligatoria
2018
Over the past few years, there has been a growing interest in the teaching and learning of several languages in an attempt to generate multilingual education opportunities, particularly in Europe. In response to the demands of our globalized society, Content-Based Instruction (CBI), which has also been referred to as “immersion and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programs,” emerged as a teaching approach that combines the learning of curricular contents and the communicative competence in the target language. This study was carried out at a public high school set in a Spanish bilingual community, where music is taught through a CLIL approach in English class. The purpose of …
Teachers’ Ability to Identify Children at Early Risk for Reading Difficulties in Grade 1
2017
The aim of the study was to investigate what kinds of assessment practices classroom teachers and special educational needs (SEN) teachers use in assessing first grade students' pre-reading skills (letter knowledge and phonological skills). Further, we investigated to what extent teachers were able to identify difficulties in pre-reading skills of the children with the lowest achievement scores. The accuracy of teacher ratings of students' pre-reading skills was studied by comparing teacher ratings to actual test scores. The data from two Finnish longitudinal studies were used: JLD sample (class teachers, n = 91; SEN teachers, n = 51; 200 students) and First Steps sample (class teachers, n …
The Question of Creativity in the Finnish Elementary School Curriculum
2017
This article is intended to examine the role of creative education in the design of the national curriculum and the division of lesson hours during the period 2010-2014. During this process, pupils, private citizens and experts from different fields were given the opportunity to submit their contributions to the exercise. The article intends to examine whether the curriculum development exercise fulfilled the conditions for a wide democratic consultation process. Three professional groups, elementary school teachers, artists (writers, visual arts teachers, musicians) and academic engineers (n= 1163) were the main focus of this research project. Creativity related claims, which were posted o…
Exploring the Secret of Finnish Reading Literacy Achievement
1993
Abstract The article describes and analyzes the main findings of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Reading Literacy Study in Finland. The initial analyses indicate that in the international comparison the Finnish students had the highest literacy levels at both 9 and 14 years of age among the 31 participating nations. Possible explanations for the high scores are suggested and discussed from both Nordic and national points of view. In order to relate the reading performance not only internationally but also to the previous assessments, the results on some subtests are compared with the corresponding tests in the 1970 IEA reading comprehension …