Finnish Comprehensive School Research Articles

Mastery of the Concept of Percentage and Its Representations in Finnish Comprehensive School Grades 7–9

This research was conducted in 2019 in collaboration with Japanese colleagues, with the research tasks translated from the original Japanese. In Finland, a total of 1112 students from grades 7–9 in primary school participated in the study. In our article, we examine Finnish students’ mastery of the concept of percentages and how they express their mathematical thinking about percentages in a multimodal way. A multimodal expression of mathematical thinking can typically take the form of natural language, written mathematics, pictorial representations, mathematical symbolic language, or combinations of these, which can be used to manage information, such as through tables. Our focus is on Finnish primary-school students’ mastery of the concept of percentages, and we then narrow our analysis to tasks where students have used a multimodal approach. We analyze the representations of the concept of percentages and the related thought processes. The concept of percentages was best mastered in grade 9 and weakest in grade 7. Students mostly used a combination of pictorial language, natural language, and mathematical symbolic language to describe their solution processes. However, describing their thinking in different ways did not necessarily highlight possible errors in their reasoning.

Depoliticized and decontextualized equality promotion in the gender equality planning of Finnish comprehensive schools

ABSTRACT This study critically examines gender equality planning (GEP), which has been obligatory in all Finnish comprehensive schools since 2015. GEP has been welcomed as a promising method of systemizing perspectives on gender in Finnish basic education. A regionally representative, discretional sample of gender equality plans (N = 140) was analysed using a critical discourse approach to examine how these plans discursively bent, stretched, fixed or shrank the meaning of gender equality along with the consequences of these approaches for equality promotion. The analysis shows that the GE plans constantly bent and stretched equality to separate it from gender and fixed it to free-floating gender equality measures, which left gendered power relations undisturbed. Consequently, equality promotion was represented as depoliticized. However, through the shrinking, the contextual construction of gendered power relations was recognized, and GEP exhibited the potential to politicize gender equality. In this paper, we argue that GEP has potential in gender equality promotion if the planning processes recognize contextual construction of gendered power relations and if equality promotion is not reduced to technical measures. Otherwise, the tool might actually impede equality rather than promoting it.

Technology use and employee well-being among teachers during Covid-19: moderating effects of school support and detachment from work

PurposeThis study examined whether job and personal resources could buffer the negative effects of technostrain and information and communication technology (ICT) availability demands on employee well-being.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected among Finnish comprehensive school teachers (n = 323) between December 2020 and February 2021 through an online questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were employed to analyse the main and moderating effects.FindingsThe results indicated that technostrain was positively associated with burnout and negatively associated with work engagement. These associations were stronger than those of ICT availability demands. The moderated regression analyses revealed that psychological detachment buffered the negative effects of technostrain on cynicism and a sense of inadequacy. School support acted as a moderator by buffering the negative impact of technostrain on emotional exhaustion and cynicism. Furthermore, school support was found to be an important job resource in terms of boosting work engagement when ICT availability demands were high.Originality/valueThis study provides insights into the role of resources in buffering possible burdening effects of technology on teacher well-being when adopting online teaching in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Micropolitics in smooth and sticky events of mundane school life

ABSTRACT This study contributes to the discussion of children’s participation in educational practices. In particular we are interested from the moments that reach beyond formal modes of participation. For this purpose, we use the concept of micropolitics and examine happenings in which children’s actions collide with everyday school practices and larger social and political surfaces. The data consist of one year-long ethnographic fieldwork produced in two Finnish comprehensive schools. Based on the analysis, we identified two different types of events – ‘smooth’ and ‘sticky’ – to which micropolitics entangled. Identifying these two types of events aids us in understanding the kinds of situations in which children have or do not have political power in their everyday school lives. Our analysis show that children take part in discussing wide societal issues, such as social class and local education policies, but it raises questions about the ability of schools as institutions to recognize children’s initiatives. Based on the findings, we propose that the concept of micropolitics can be particularly useful in understanding why some modes of participation become difficult and stay hidden while others are easier to recognize.

Does mindfulness-based wellbeing training increase self-reported and perceived health among teachers?

Abstract Background Teachers are reporting increased stress, burnout, and workload at schools. Previous studies have shown that mindfulness-based (MF-based) programs are potential interventions to decrease stress and improve wellbeing among teachers. The aim of this Healthy Learning Mind -teacher study was to investigate the effects of a MF-based wellbeing training on several dimensions of wellbeing among teachers in Finnish comprehensive schools. Methods We developed a MF-based wellbeing training tailored for teachers (8 weeks) and organized the training by three teaching methods: 1) contact teaching; 2) online teaching and 3) combination of both contact and online teaching. Outcome variables are: wellbeing (The Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale), work ability (Work Ability Index) and perceived stress (Single Item Measure of Stress). A total of 50 teachers answered to both baseline and follow-up questionnaires. Additionally perceived health benefits were reported. Results MF-based wellbeing training showed beneficial effects on teachers’ perceived health: better ability to calm down, relax, regulate emotions and to manage difficult situations as well as better tools for stress management in classrooms. Additionally teachers reported that their own mindfulness practice had a beneficial effect on students’ calmness, attention and kindness as well as on interaction with students. Analysed results on outcome variables will be presented at the conference. Conclusions First results suggest that MF-based wellbeing training has several perceived health benefits among teachers in strengthening teachers’ ability to regulate emotions and decrease stress and to adopt tools for solving challenging situations with students. Furthermore, teachers reported that their own mindfulness practice had a favorable effect on students’ wellbeing and social-emotional competence. Enhancing teachers’ wellbeing is beneficial for both teachers themselves and for students. Key messages • MF-based wellbeing training can be seen as a potential intervention to decrease perceived stress and increase perceived health benefits among teachers and to support teachers in their profession. • More research is needed to understand how teachers’ own mindfulness practice affects wellbeing among students and interaction in classrooms.

Experiences of technostressors during the Covid-19 pandemic among Finnish comprehensive school teachers

The Covid-19 pandemic caused significant changes to teachers’ work, including a rapid switch to remote teaching. This increased the role of ICT in teachers’ work and made teachers susceptible to technostress. In this study, we aimed to identify ICT-related stressors (i.e., technostressors) in comprehensive school teachers’ work in Finland during the Covid-19 pandemic. The data, consisting of answers to two open-ended questions, were gathered as part of a questionnaire (n=361), and qualitative content analysis was applied. Based on the analysis, technostressors were divided into five categories: rapid ICT adoption, technological inadequacies, ICT-related pedagogical challenges, limitations in social interaction, and multichannel communication and availability pressure. The findings indicate that schools were not prepared for the pandemic-induced online teaching, which showed in inadequate resources and support for teachers. Moving forward, schools could reduce technostressors by, for example, organizing technical and pedagogical support, developing shared practices to decrease the digital communication load and availability pressure, and fostering interaction and collaboration in online environments.

Finnish Teachers’ Perspectives on Caring and Meaningful School Development Work

A variety of new policy requirements set for learning and teaching affect the work in schools. The local context in which a school is located forms the grounds for school-level policy adjustments and development work. Caring is a common pedagogical concept and depending on the context its interpretation and meaning varies. Teachers can express their caring attitude in their interactions with students and other teachers. We investigated teachers’ perceptions of school development and elements that encourage and motivate teachers to engage in school development work. We also studied caring as one feature in the descriptions related to the work cultures of the schools. The data were teacher group interviews (N = 10) in five different Finnish comprehensive schools located in five different municipalities. In total, 44 teachers participated in the study. We used conventional content analysis allowing a data-driven descriptive approach to the material. The data were thematized and classified into categories concerning the aspects of development work. The categories were further examined to analyze caring. The analysis resulted in finding categories concerning meaningful school development and prerequisites to development that reflected and were aimed at the caring elements in the work culture.

Development of Students’ Attitudes towards Technology Education between Years 1993-2022 in Finnish Comprehensive School

Technology is affecting our lives more and more. It has consequences to every human being, and we find ourselves faced with both positive and negative aspects of technology. Certainly, this has an effect on our attitudes towards technology. In this study, we tried to find out if there have been any changes in attitudes towards technology among Finnish school children during the last 30 years. The attitudes measured in 1993 were compared with the results from 2012 and 2022. The number of test participants was 267 in the first measurement, 317 in the second and 284 in the last measurement. The age of the student respondents was 11–13 years. The measurements were done with exactly the same Likert scale attitude questionnaire in all three measurements. Some positive changes were found in attitudes towards technology in girls test group. Unfortunately, boys’ development between years 2012-2022 is alarming and should be of great concern The development in attitudes can be explained by the changes in technology education curriculum. From a broader point of view, the development in attitudes can be due to the changes in society as a whole.

Teachers’ work engagement and burnout profiles: Associations with sense of efficacy and interprofessional collaboration in school

This study provides new insights into the work-related well-being of teachers, defined here as engagement and burnout, by investigating their associations with the teachers’ sense of efficacy and interprofessional collaboration in school. Using a person-oriented approach and latent profile analysis, a sample of Finnish comprehensive school teachers (N = 355) were classified based on their work engagement and burnout. Three profiles were identified: engaged, engaged-exhausted, and burned-out. Teachers with distinct profiles differed from each other in terms of their sense of efficacy and experiences of interprofessional collaboration, suggesting that both might have an important role in enhancing work engagement and preventing burnout.

Alternative futures of Finnish comprehensive school

Inevitable and constant change is challenging school systems worldwide, and COVID-19 has further intensified the debate on the future. This article examines the possible futures of Finnish comprehensive schools through three scenarios generated by analysing data from a Delphi panel of 30 Finnish experts in the field of education. This study contributes to two major intertwining debates: first, who or what determines the content and goals of the curriculum. The study’s theoretical framework builds on the curriculum as a social practice model, which views curriculum work as interwoven layers and sites of practice. Another topical debate concerns the tension between powerful knowledge and competences in the curricula. This is explored through Young and Muller’s model of three types of knowledge: knowledge of power, tacit knowledge and powerful knowledge. The results show that Finnish comprehensive schools have various substantially divergent trends. In the three scenarios, the role of the teacher as a curriculum maker varies from non-existent to a strong interpreter. International policy flows can be transferred to schools to varying degrees. The three types of knowledge included in Young and Muller’s model can be recognised in the three scenarios. Competences can be identified as learning outcomes in all scenarios, but the intensity varies. Scenarios are not predictions of the future or policy recommendations but an efficient tool for provoking strategic debate, generating new visionary thinking and considering the need for system-wide change in education.

Identifying core beliefs of an intercultural educator: How polyculturalism and group malleability beliefs shape teachers’ pedagogical thinking and practice

Manifestations of educational inequity in diversifying societies have led to a wide acknowledgement of the need to develop all teachers’ competencies to work in the context of diversity. The domain of beliefs and attitudes is generally included as one key component of teachers’ intercultural competence, but there is little consensus over what the core beliefs shaping teachers’ intercultural competencies are. This mixed methods study draws from social psychological research on inter-group relations and explores the role of polyculturalist beliefs and group malleability beliefs in shaping teachers’ orientation to teaching for diversity and social justice. A hypothesized model was tested on survey data from Finnish comprehensive school teachers (N = 231) with structural equation modeling. Findings indicate that polyculturalism, in particular, strongly explains teachers’ teaching for social justice beliefs and enthusiasm for teaching in the context of diversity. Furthermore, we present a case analysis, based on classroom observations and stimulated recall interviews, of how polyculturalism actualizes in one Finnish elementary school teacher’s pedagogical thinking and practice, and discuss the implications of our findings for teacher education and further research.

Teacher agency in the professional community and association with burnout: a longitudinal person-centred approach

ABSTRACT Agentic teacher learning is central for teachers’ professional development, school development and student achievement. The purpose of the study was to explore trajectories of teachers’ professional agency in the professional community during a three-year follow-up period. The data comprised surveys with Finnish comprehensive school teachers (N = 2645) and latent profile analysis was used to identify subgroups of teachers. Four trajectories were identified: High agency, Increase in agency, Decrease in agency and Moderate agency. The results showed that the profiles were partly predicted by school type, teachers’ work experience, leadership role and turnover intentions. Moreover, agency in the professional community was connected to the teachers’ experiences of socio-contextual burnout; teachers with a strong sense of agency in the professional community experienced lower levels of burnout symptoms. The findings imply that teachers’ agentic learning within the professional community can facilitate both their professional development and work-related well-being.

Eye gaze as a resource in handling trouble around mobile devices in EFL classroom interactions

This article offers an insight into how interaction is multimodally built during task-accomplishment around mobile devices in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. More specifically, it investigates eye gaze as a resource in recruiting help and pursuing response during interactional or task-related trouble sequences. The data come from videorecorded EFL lessons at Finnish comprehensive schools where mobile devices are used for learning tasks. Through multimodal conversation analysis, the article demonstrates that gaze is employed as one of the first resources to address trouble. Although tasks often require gaze to be directed at devices, it can be flexibly reoriented to peers when needed. The findings therefore highlight the need to study not only the use of technology but also the interaction around it. An emic perspective to applied linguistics is especially called for to understand how participants manage interaction in today’s technology-rich educational contexts.

Health Promotion Actions and School Violence-A Cluster Analysis from Finnish Comprehensive Schools.

(1) Schools have a significant role in violence prevention activities. This study aimed to first identify profiles of Finnish comprehensive schools based on school violence. The second aim was to examine the associations between profiles concerning health promotion actions, reactive or punitive actions, and school characteristics. (2) The study used the large-scale, nationally representative Benchmarking System of Health Promotion Capacity-Building (BSHPCB) data (n = 2057 schools) completed by the school’s principal together with a student welfare team. The data was analyzed by cluster analysis and Chi-squared and Kruskal–Wallis tests. For post hoc testing, Fisher’s exact test with odds ratios and Mann–Whitney U-test were used. (3) The cluster analysis yielded five profiles of school violence: “No violence”, “Adolescent violence” (violence both among pupils and from pupils towards staff, but not inappropriate behavior from school staff towards pupils), “Not known” (principals either did not respond to these questions or they did not know whether there had been any school violence incidents), “Peer violence” (school violence occurred among pupils but not from pupils towards staff, nor inappropriate behavior from school staff towards pupils), and “All violence” (all types of school violence and inappropriate behavior from school staff towards pupils). These clusters differed according to type of school and municipality. Additionally, both management and monitoring as health promotion actions were related to higher incidence of school violence whereas other actions, such as commitment, resources, common practices, and participation were not related to school violence. (4) The findings of this study indicate that schools have different profiles in terms of school violence and providing evidence and guidance for school violence prevention work.

Finnish comprehensive school principals’ descriptions of diversity in their school communities

ABSTRACT Changes in Finnish society have been rapid – from national homogeneity and unity to greater diversity. Traditionally, schools have represented an institution that has had an important role in maintaining national objectives. In this article, we examine how Finnish comprehensive school principals describe their understanding of diversity in their school communities. Supporting diversity in schools is part of the pursuit of equality, equity, and justice in school and society. Principals’ ways of conceptualizing diversity are crucial as they have a significant impact on school improvement, and school organization has a positive effect on teaching and learning. In qualitative analysis, the principals’ descriptions and reflections on diversity in their school communities formed a total of four thematic categories: Categorizations of diversity, Principal’s work, Visibility of diversity, and Attitudes and concerns. Finnish principals most often related diversity to visible and practical features. Their attitudes were mainly positive but reflected a somewhat shallow understanding of the concept.

과정으로서 초등학교 역사 배우기의 전제

In Korea, 2015, which are highlighted throughout the world through the curriculum revision in “nurturing core competencies” we are trying to. This is possible only when classroom instruction in school education is shifted from teacher-centered or state-led to student-centered or state-led classroom. In this sense, social constructivism is a teaching and learning theory and principle that is noticed, and the school operation system of the Finnish comprehensive school is a symbolic example that best illustrates student-centered classroom instruction based on the theory of social constructivism. Student-centered classroom instruction requires restructuring of teachers first, so the national level curriculum should be designed on the premise of restructuring of teachers. It is important to keep in mind that they can only function on the basis of the school management system, which transforms the principal''s hiring method which has an absolute influence on the reorganization of school culture and secures the professionalism and autonomy of the teachers. Therefore, the design of the national curriculum, the change of the method of hiring principals, and the professionalism and autonomy of teachers are closely linked to each other, which is a very important issue for the conversion and implementation of perceptions of each element within a system. They are the foundation on which the teacher''s professionalism and autonomy can be exercised in the classroom. It has the property that can be achieved through conduct study with teachers'' action research or university professors. That is, problems can be achieved only when the school operation is carried out from the bottom up based on the professionalism and autonomy of the teachers. Therefore, it would be difficult to switch from traditional teacher-centered classroom classes to student-centered classroom classes without restructuring the school management system. In spite of the theoretical studies of many classroom history lessons of elementary school, the classroom class does not change due to the fact that the school management system is not restructured. That the elementary school history education goals nurturing of historical thinking or in the elementary school history education, efforts to foster 21 century core competence is possible only student-centered classroom instruction based on social constructivism and student-centered classroom is possible only through the restructuring of school administration system, the Finnish comprehensive school is reveled symbolically.

Migrant-Background Student Experiences of Facing and Overcoming Difficulties in Finnish Comprehensive Schools

This article considers what students with a migrant background in Finnish comprehensive schools report as difficult, and how they succeed in overcoming these difficulties. We draw on two sets of school wellbeing and learning surveys for migrant students, conducted in 2016 and 2021 in comprehensive schools (grades 1–9) in and around two major cities in Finland. We pay attention to student answers to three questions: What is difficult in school? How do you succeed in difficult tasks in school? and Who helps you in school? The datasets from the two points in time are compared to see whether changes in school demographic situation and the student length of stay in Finland had an impact on student experiences. Our findings show that theory-based school subjects that depend strongly on language, such as science subjects, maths, Finnish, Swedish and English, are considered difficult. Additionally, interaction with peers, which also relies on language, causes challenges. The students report turning to teachers, other professionals and peers for assistance and support, and also mention personal strategies they have developed to overcome school-related difficulties. Understanding what migrant students find difficult, as well as how, and with the help of whom, they overcome such difficulties is crucial for the development of effective and sensitive pedagogical practices.

Meme layers in the times of pandemic

During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020, art teachers put remote teaching in Finnish comprehensive schools into operation in varying ways. One popular implementation was classical art memes, an assignment that art teachers shared through professional networks in social media. This phenomenon brought out the question: what kind of meanings did art history-related memes construct during the pandemic in Finland? The authors collected and analysed empirical data that consisted of a questionnaire for art teachers (N = 14), students’ meme works (N = 45) sent to the authors by the teachers, and assignments that were given. The research approach was critical inquiry. The main components of the theoretical framework were meme theories and crisis pedagogy, with which the authors confronted the national curriculum. Although Finland has not been among the most afflicted countries by the pandemic, the sudden flip to remote teaching created anxiety and a sense of crisis among teachers, who tried to find a balance between their own workload, students’ confusion with the new learning situation and the demands of the curriculum. The analysis concentrated on four themes: the COVID-19 crisis in meme manifestations, teaching art history, art education through making and art education as copying and repeating. The authors concluded that it is crucial to highlight the conceptualizing and contextualizing of art beside actual art-making. From this emerges an essential challenge for in-service training: critical knowledge production and discourse practices.

Enhancing informed empathy as a key to promoting social justice in religious education classes

In the field of education concerning cultural diversity it has been recognized as vital to address justice in social structures. Although justifications for religious education in non-confessional contexts are heavily based on religious diversity, their advocates have paid little attention to justice and power relations. In this article, I analyse observations of five observed classroom activities on social justice designed for religious education and related pupil interviews. The participants were in the eighth and ninth grades of Finnish comprehensive school. The main question is: how do elements of informed empathy and perception of social justice emerge in interviews and RE classroom activities with Finnish lower secondary school pupils? The results show that the concept of informed empathy well describes the pupils’ emerging awareness of social justice, that pupils’ critical agency should be carefully fostered and that social justice has potential to make religious education more relevant for certain pupils.

The 21st Century Reforms (Re)Shaping the Education Policy of Inclusive and Special Education in Finland

In recent decades, an essential global aim of the reforms of special education has been the promotion of inclusive education. This article discusses the implementation of reforms with a focus on tiered support systems in the context of Finnish comprehensive school education. Based on earlier literature, legislation, and administrative documents, we provide a background for Finnish education policy and special education reforms. The focus of this article is on the description of parallel reforms targeting the re-structuring of the systems around support for students and funding of education in the 2010s. We discuss the processes leading to these reforms and the reforms themselves. In addition, we discuss their implications for the organization of the tiered support system. Finally, we highlight some challenges of reform implementation and the current education policy’s movements towards inclusive education.