This article bewilders dominant discourses about child-animal relations by acknowledging and challenging the work of Gail Melson who positions animals as providing emotional, social and pedagogical support for children. Melson's psychological approach rests upon implicit assumptions that shape and support anthropocentrism whilst also critiquing a…

This paper describes the process of developing classroom culture that promotes reciprocal intercultural encountering in the primary school. Storycrafting, an oral storytelling method used for democratic encounters between participants, was used to connect classes in Scotland, Finland and Belgium over three cycles of design-based research.…

There are calls for developing ways to teach language that can inspire and motivate students to study additional languages. While previous research has pointed toward benefits of arts-based activities in language learning, combining language and dance has mainly been studied with younger language learners. Contextualized within the course…

This research focussed on the use of formative assessment in Finnish initial teacher education. Pre-service teachers' perceptions of using formative assessment to promote learning were explored. A convenience sample (N = 60) was taken from two pre-service teacher cohorts in which two methods of formative assessment were used during a period of…

Traditionally, feedback is regarded as crucial in the context of learning and teaching public speaking. In the current course, we analyzed the feedback provided to students by an artificial intelligence (AI) coach and students' learning experiences in developing public-speaking skills via this tool. The MySpeaker Rhetorich speech coach application…

Engagement can be situative and, when it occurs, a number of experiences will co-occur. The present study examined the co-occurred experiences of optimal learning moments (OLM), a type of situated engagement, using the novel network analysis and including data from two countries: Finland and the US. Both samples were from high schools and were…

Transformative learning in teacher education qualitatively changes future teachers' meaning systems of learning, teaching, and education. In this study, I explored transformative learning in Finnish class teacher education. Data were collected by observing student teachers over two academic years. Data also contains writings that student teachers…

Information and communications technology (ICT) is now widely used in education. However, the effect of ICT on the development of students' scientific higher-order thinking skills (S-HOTS) is a controversial issue in science education research. This has attracted significant attention from researchers worldwide in the field of educational…

This case study aims to identify which characteristics that define the concept of Community of Practice (CoP) can be recognised at the primary school teacher education practicum and how stakeholders perceive digital pedagogy in the context of practices for co-development. The case study took place in a primary school teacher education practicum at…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore Master of Social Services students' (MSS) thoughts of transversal skills in higher education studies and working life practice. Transversal skills are general skills that are transferable from field to field. For instance, transversal skills can promote individuals' employability in the labor market…

This study uses a person-centered approach to investigate construction workers' learning at work, focusing on their approaches to learning, self-efficacy beliefs and work engagement and how these vary according to their goal orientation profiles. Survey data were collected from Finnish construction sector employees (N = 1,280) in June 2021. The…

This study analyzed collaborative invention projects by teams of lower-secondary (13-14-year-old) Finnish students. In invention projects, student teams design and make materially embodied collaborative inventions using traditional and digital fabrication technologies. This investigation focused on the student teams' knowledge creation processes…

Mathematics teachers' beliefs are central to mathematics teaching and student learning. Because different aspects of motivation and affect--particularly enjoyment--primarily develop within the classroom context, examining how different teachers' beliefs may affect student outcomes in mathematics is imperative. The current study examines teachers'…

This qualitative study investigates the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support students' independent learning within a flipped classroom (FC) pedagogy. The main challenge of FC has been students' insufficient preparation for classroom activities. To address the challenge the Essentials of Business Law course was implemented with FC…

This study explores the pedagogical impact of incorporating improvisation practices into the curriculum of Classical piano students in higher education. Drawing from Bourdieu's social reproduction theory highlighting the concept of habitus, the research investigates how intentional disruptions to students' ingrained Classical training can foster…