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Research on student engagement, study engagement and academic entitlement has followed separate paths. This research examined how the concepts relate to each other among traditional and non-traditi...

In this study, we examined whether high-school students experienced optimal educational and well-being outcomes when they perceived that they and their classmates received an equal, rather than unequal, and high amount of autonomy support from teachers. In a prospective study that aimed to predict academic grades and well-being outcomes, surface analyses of polynomial regression equations pointed that perceptions of equal autonomy support were the most optimal in terms of yielding highest levels of need satisfaction, autonomous forms of motivation and happiness with math courses. Additionally, in accordance with tenets of self-determination theory, we demonstrated that effects associated with perceptions of equal autonomy support were mediated by autonomous forms of motivation and psychological needs. Findings suggest that researchers and practitioners may be able to facilitate optimal educational and well-being outcomes by encouraging teachers to distribute autonomy support equally across students.

The radical changes in today's competitive environment created a “big bang” effect: companies and industries are being disrupted in an unprecedented short time. The challenge has shifted from predicting the unknown or conventional method of venture creation to agile actions, which is to act rapidly before the competition catches up and eliminate any advantage one may have, especially for entrepreneurs and small businesses with significant resource constraints. The objective of this research is to investigate alternative approaches under a time-constrained setting. A recent national open innovation initiative of Finland challenged practitioners and researchers to transform technologies into commercializable innovations in under six months. A high-tech case within the challenge piloted the agile effectuation of a business model with three parallel approaches: effectuation, causation and lean startup method, thus providing antecedent on how effectuation theory can be integrated with agile development and business model theory.

This descriptive study sought to understand the complexities of integrative processing during collaborative online reading. Student pairs constructed a collaborative understanding while reading online information about a controversial issue by connecting, combining and organizing information that originated from prior knowledge, self-selected online texts, and discussions during an online inquiry task. Thirty-eight students from an upper secondary school in Finland worked in pairs to read online information and write an essay with the help of an argument graph tool. Primary data sources consisted of: prior knowledge; discussions; notes recorded with a graphic representational tool; video capture files of online use; and essays. The following results emerged: 1) a methodology and a taxonomic system were developed for the study of information sources involved in collaborative synthesis; 2) the integration of ideas from multiple online texts was difficult for adolescent students; 3) students with better essays used more online information whereas students with less remarkable essays relied more on prior knowledge that was activated during online reading. The methodology used in this study provides initial direction for research on the complexities of synthesis during collaborative online reading, an increasingly important aspect of learning in schools. Limitations and future directions for research are discussed.

As well as physical technology in society and digital technology in society, there is also technology in society within the non-conscious human mind. In particular, unconscious preference for least cognitive effort and subconscious preference for least social resistance can coincide in groupthink about technology in society, which include fads, hype, lock-ins, path dependencies and success traps. Ideation concerned with new applications of technology in society is often constrained by groupthink. In this paper, an exploratory study addressing the influence of these constraints on ideation is reported. The study involved use of nine science-based techniques across the “preparation-incubation-illumination-verification” model of ideation. Findings indicate that the constraining influence of groupthink can be reduced, but much work may be required to do so. Hence, it can be anticipated that technology in society within the non-conscious human mind will continue to exert influence over new applications of physical and virtual technology in society.

The study explores the extent and sources of Teachers’ Self-Efficacy (TSE) for inclusive practices among 261 Japanese and 1123 Finnish teachers. Measurement invariance was tested to ensure the chosen scales’ cross-cultural validity. In both countries, mastery experience was identified as the strongest of the four sources contributing uniquely to TSE. However, the two groups differed in how verbal persuasion predicted TSE. The findings indicate that the effects of the four sources on TSE depend strongly on sociocultural context, and that, in Japan, other sources may exert a powerful influence. Practical implications are discussed, with particular regard to teacher training programs. peerReviewed

Many geographers graduating from universities enter an international and project-based professional life, which includes working in geographically dispersed project teams. In Europe, the Bologna process aligned study programs and supported student mobility to prepare students for such a work environment. However, research on higher education has reported few examples of international courses that include collaborative learning during which students have experience of both co-location and geographical dispersion. This paper reports on a pilot course that implemented international student-led research projects in two Geography Departments: the Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin and the University of Turku. We monitored the students’ learning processes via a survey that was administered at the beginning, middle and end of the course, complemented by observations, informal discussions and student team reports. We analysed the survey and observations within a proximity-distance framework to identify the ke...

Both disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge is needed in order for a student to succeed as a professional after graduation. Interdisciplinary knowledge, such as project management skills are important in working life regardless the competence area. In order for a student to gain competences relevant for working life, both traditional and agile project management frameworks should be a part of their studies – in theory and in practice. In this article, a case study is presented on the integration of an agile project management framework into university-industry collaboration projects. First, the methodologies used in theFIRMA are introduced. Thereafter, the activities and the roles of theFIRMA are described and an externally funded R&D project is presented. Finally, the experiences of past and current activities are discussed, and future development thoughts are presented.

This volume presents a three-year research project on Content and Language Integration in Swedish Schools (CLISS). CLISS particularly focused on sciences and economics programs in senior high schools (Grades 10-12; 245 participants), which intended to prepare students for higher education. Divided into five sections, the book explores the language, rather than content, side of CLIL. The volume starts with background information concerning CLISS and CLIL in Sweden. The following four sections of the book concern assessment and motivation (Chapters 4-5); English vocabulary, reading comprehension and exposure to English (Chapters 6-9); students’ L1 proficiency and development through CLIL (Chapters 10-13); students’ and teachers’ views and experiences in CLIL (Chapters 14-16). The volume concludes with an epilogue discussing issues highlighted by the project findings and making suggestions for future research and CLIL implementation.

On-the-job medical training is known to be challenging due to the fast-paced environment and strong vocational profile. It relies on on-site supervisors, mainly doctors and nurses with long practical experience, who coach and teach their less experienced colleagues, such as residents and healthcare students. These supervisors receive pedagogical training to ensure that their guidance and teaching skills are constantly improved. The aim of such training is to develop participants’ patient, collegiate and student guidance skills in a multiprofessional environment, and to expand their understanding of guidance as part of their work as supervisors of healthcare professionals. In this paper, we investigate open-ended answers on guidance experience of 281 healthcare supervisors that participated in these training courses. To automate the analysis of the contents of the answers, we apply clustering to the natural language processed textual data. The results summarize the most common guidance experiences and allow an automatic grouping of the healthcare supervisors’ reflection. Such an evidence-based knowledge can be used to further improve the organization of the training courses.

The aim of this study was to investigate the conceptions of teachership among graduates (n = 126) from a Finnish higher education study programme called Pedagogical Studies for Adult Educators. The conceptions of teachership comprise notions of teaching and of oneself as a teacher. Accordingly, the conceptions of teachership are viewed as one element in the process of constructing teacher identity. Currently, we have little knowledge about the professional identity construction of adult educators, even though there is a growing need for adult pedagogics in the changing professional life. Based on a qualitative thematic analysis of open-ended questionnaire data, three main conceptual categories were identified: (1) teachership as an activity, (2) teachership as a personal disposition, and (3) teachership as a process. It was concluded that in studying teacher identity it is essential to focus on the interplay between the personal and the social. Thus, the findings suggest that in understanding and supporting the construction of teacher identities, one should pay particular attention to the intertwined relationship between individual and collective needs. peerReviewed

In recent decades, a range of policy measures to support young people’s school-to-work transitions has been initiated across Europe. However, these transition policies have rarely been studied systematically, particularly from a comparative perspective. Thus, the aim of this article is to compare Swedish, Danish and Finnish policies for supporting young people’s educational and school-to-work transitions. Synthesising and analysing recent research, the article critically draws on Walther’s (2006) classification of transition regimes that recognises a Nordic universalistic regime of youth transitions characterised by emphasis on collective social responsibility, individual motivation and personal development. We conclude that significant policy changes have occurred during the last two decades. Coercive measures have been adopted and social support reduced, making young people more individually responsible for the success of their transitions. Hence, current transition policies diverge in many respects from qualities traditionally ascribed to the Nordic transition regime. We also find significant differences between the three countries’ transition policies, which in some cases indicate policy trade-offs. In addition, we conclude that transition policies are generally weakly coordinated across policy domains, which increases the risk of unintended consequences of these policies.

This article analyses and compares the evolving role of general subjects in the curricula of initial upper secondary vocational education and training (VET) in Finland and Sweden during the 1990s and 2010s. The research illustrates how Bernstein’s concept of ‘pedagogic code’ supports comparative studies on principles guiding changes to curricula and how the role of general studies in VET has been redefined. The findings show that while a principle of ‘market relevance’ has been central to VET over the decades since the 1990s, it has been subject to varying interpretations. The shifts in interpretations have guided the organisation of VET in these two countries in different directions, including the role of general subjects within the curriculum. On a general level, the countries share some key similarities. Both countries emphasised lifelong learning and a broadening of VET in the 1990s, based on a core principle of ‘flexibility’. In the 2010s, the earlier promotion of flexibility and universal access to higher education was superseded by a stronger focus on employability and entrepreneurship in addition to students’ command of more specific vocational tasks.

Children’s ability to establish peer relationships is an important issue in early childhood education. Making and maintaining friendships fosters children’s social skills development. This longitud...

This study examined transactional associations between classroom-level math skills and teaching practices. Participants were 523 children from 31 classrooms. Math skills were assessed three times. Teaching practices were observed in Grades 1 and 3. Child-centered practices promoted subsequent calculation skills whereas teacher-directed practices were associated with a lower level of calculation skills. Higher problem-solving skills at Grade 2 predicted more child-centered practices and less teacher-directed practices in third grade. Moreover, calculation skills mediated the effect of child-centered practices on problem-solving skills. The results suggest that teaching practices and math skills are mutually related across the first years of primary school.

In this study, we examined self-regulatory efficacy and sources of self-efficacy (mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasion and physiological/emotional states) and the relationships between self-efficacy and its sources among elementary school pupils. Two groups were compared: a population sample (PS, N = 1284) and pupils with difficulties in attention and executive functions (AED, N = 61). Data gathered from self-report questionnaires indicated that pupils in the PS group had more positive efficacy beliefs and mastery experiences and fewer negative physiological/emotional states than the AED group. Analyses showed strong connections between sources and self-regulatory efficacy. In the PS group, the sources had small unique influences on self-regulatory efficacy, indicating that most of the variance was shared between the sources. In the AED group, sources had less shared variance compared to the PS group. Mastery experiences alone had a strong effect on self-regulatory efficacy, while vicarious experiences had a negative effect on self-efficacy. peerReviewed

The possibility to participate in education and lifelong learning has been introduced in EU disability policy in recent decades as one of the key means to improve the socioeconomic position of disabled persons. Simultaneously, lifelong learning has been developed as the defining concept of EU education policy to increase social cohesion and economic competitiveness. However, the education, employment rate and socioeconomic status of disabled persons have remained far below the EU average. In this article, we theorize governmentality to explore (1) how EU lifelong learning and disability policy discourses constitute and govern disabled persons and (2) how disabled persons are positioned in the policy discourses. The data consist of the most relevant EU policy documents concerning lifelong learning and disability policy in the twenty-first century. We argue that the policies constitute and govern disabled persons as a group who do not fulfil the premises set for the lifelong learner, and that consequently, policy discourses marginalize disabled persons instead.

Access to higher education (HE) has a long history. To offer a view on the current debates and worldwide issues regarding access to HE, this editorial depicts how the control of educational access has historically been used as an instrument of governance at the interface of two processes: social stratification and the territorialisation of politics. Access to HE has remained embedded in these large structural processes even though HE has expanded from a highly elitist institution into mass education systems with equity of educational opportunities having become a desirable goal across societies. Analysing these processes helps understand the complex mechanisms producing inequalities in HE today, which are brought together by the ten articles composing this special issue. Tacking stock of how inequalities in access are produced in different continents, countries, HE Institutions, applying to different social groups though evolving mechanisms, these articles document the importance of contrasting methodological and theoretical approaches to produce comprehensive knowledge on this sensitive issue for democratic societies.

It is well-known that very preterm children perform at lower levels than full-term children in reading and arithmetic at school. Whether the lower performance levels of preterm children in these two separate domains have the same or different origins, however, is not clear. The present study examined the extent to which prematurity is associated with the overlap (i.e., common variance) of reading and arithmetic among Finnish school beginners. We also examined the extent to which the association of prematurity with the overlap between reading and arithmetic is due to different prereading skills, basic number skills, and general cognitive abilities. The participants (age 6-7) consisted of 193 very preterm children (

Early childhood education’s role in increasing equality in society has been highlighted by international organizations. However, it is unclear what is meant by the concept of equality in different situations, as the meaning fluctuates and reflects the cultural political contexts in which it is embedded. In this paper, we analyse the equality discourses of local early childhood education and care (ECEC) policymakers in Finland, drawing on different conceptualizations of equality and social justice. In doing so, we show that the way in which equality is conceptualized differs – along with the suggested remedies – depending on whether the subjects of equality are adults, children at the border of an institutional setting, or children within the ECEC institution. peerReviewed

This study examines teachers' adaptive expertise and their personal practical theories (PPTs), which include both explicit and implicit rationales for their actions. Teachers' ability to flexibly use their PPTs in demanding classroom situations is essential for understanding and developing teaching more in-depth. For this purpose, stimulated recall interviews were conducted with 17 primary school teachers, and the data were analysed using inductive coding. The results showed that the teachers’ adaptive expertise was characterised by a varying emphasis on a fixed versus open teaching orientation, and their level of adaptiveness differed. Teachers' ability to adapt during interactive classroom events was related to their use of these two types of orientation.

Developing adaptive expertise with arithmetic problem solving is a much desired aim of primary school mathematics education. However, there are very few practical tools for teachers that would aid reaching this complex mathematical learning goal. The aim of the present study was to test the effects of a game-based learning environment in supporting primary school students' adaptive number knowledge and related arithmetic skills. Participants were 1168 students in grades four, five, and six. Classes were randomized in two conditions: in the experimental group regular mathematics teaching was enriched with gameplay using the Number Navigation Game (NNG), and in the control group students continued according to their regular math curriculum. An experimental design with pre- and post-test was used to measure students' adaptive number knowledge, arithmetic fluency, and pre-algebra knowledge. Overall, results showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group on adaptive number knowledge and math fluency. Results showed varying effects of the training in different grade levels, with more pronounced improvement of students' adaptive number knowledge in grade five. Game performance was related to the experimental group's post-test scores even after controlling for pre-test scores and grade. Results suggest that the NNG is effective in enhancing different types of arithmetic skills and knowledge in different grades of primary school education and can provide teachers with a practical and flexible tool to extend their regular classroom practice.

Understanding student attitudes towards people diagnosed with mental illness is central to realising evidence-based nursing education and policy at an international level. Redressing stigmatised views can assist in preparing nursing students to work in mental health settings and support the active involvement of consumers in all aspects of mental health service delivery (known as: consumer participation) at individual and systemic levels. Accurate research on nursing student attitudes is dependent on the availability of valid and reliable measures.Using data from and international study, this research sought to: (1) evaluate two measures of nurse student attitudes, and (2) explore whether attitudes to people labelled with a diagnosis of mental illness and who use mental health services is associated with more positive attitudes to consumer participation in mental health services.Self-report quantitative data gained via the Consumer Participation Questionnaire (CPQ) and Mental Health Nurse Education Survey (MHNES).University nursing students in Australia and Western Europe.Pooled CPQ and MHNES data from Australia, Ireland, Finland, Norway and the Netherlands.The MHNES and CPQ were evaluated via exploratory factor analysis and Rasch modelling. Hierarchical regression was applied to see whether attitudes to mental illness and mental health practice relate to attitudes to consumer participation after addressing demographic differences.Refined MHNES scales demonstrated overall fit on Rasch models. Reliabilities for MHNES ranged from 0.82 to 0.73. Perceived value of mental health nursing to consumers and lower negative stereotypes were associated with positive attitudes to consumer participation independent of age, gender and country [F (9, 381) = 15.78, p .001]. Students who considered mental health nursing made a valuable contribution represented the strongest association with a positive attitude towards consumer participation.Differences in openness to consumer participation are partly attributable to views about people diagnosed with mental illness and the perception that mental health practice makes a positive difference to these people within health service contexts.

This study examined the role of adolescents' (n = 190) temperament in their emotional reactions in achievement situations. Adolescents rated their temperament (i.e., surgency/extraversion, negative affectivity, effortful control) and completed achievement tasks in Grade 6. They also reported their emotions before and during challenging and non-challenging tasks. In addition, adolescents' autonomic nervous system reactions (i.e., skin conductance levels) were recorded. The results showed that high effortful control was related to higher levels of positive emotions independent of the degree of task difficulty. Low negative affectivity and high effortful control were related to lower levels of negative emotions before and during the achievement tasks. High surgency/extraversion was related to lower levels of negative emotions only before the achievement tasks. Finally, low negative affectivity and high effortful control were related to higher skin conductance level before the achievement tasks, whereas high effortful control was related to higher skin conductance level during both challenging and non-challenging achievement tasks. The findings enhance current understanding of the connection between adolescents' temperament and emotions in real-time achievement situations.

After reviewing the concepts of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and Translanguaging, this article presents an exploratory study of translanguaging in CLIL contexts. Employing illustrative extracts from a collection of CLIL classroom recordings in Austria, Finland and Spain, we argue that both pedagogic and interpersonal motivations can influence language choices. We suggest that the L1 should be appreciated as a potentially valuable tool in bilingual learning situations and that there is a need for increased awareness-raising around this question. peerReviewed

“…it is also important to raise the larger question of who gets to act as custodian of theory in our field—do we relegate that position to those…who conceptualize and police art education theories ...