The aim of the study was to explain the difference between the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 reading results for Finland and Estonia using characteristics of teaching and learning, and characteristics of the overall development of these countries. PISA data were collected via a reading test and student questionnaires…

Each child In Finland and in Estonia receives preschool training for a year before going to school, based on a new national framework curriculum of preschool education. The aim of the present study was to compare children's learning achievements in nine target areas, based on the teacher's evaluations at the end of the preschool year, in both…

Analyzes students' conscious second-language learning activity and language problems students themselves recognize. Students answered a questionnaire regarding their learning habits. Successful and less successful language learners did not differ from each other in their general approach to learning. High achievers excelled at studying alone. (23…

The goals of this study were to investigate problem-solving in a context that requires a rich interaction among social, motivational, and cognitive processes and to compare the effects of the mediated and discovery models of learning on students' problem-solving processes in the complex technology-based learning environment. Subjects were 88…

A survey of Finnish freshman and fifth-year students in psychology (n=59) and medicine (n=116) found that older psychology students tended toward a constructivist conception of learning, while medical students saw learning as intake of knowledge. More freshman students, especially medical students, were dualist in approach. Four components were…

The study styles employed by a sample of Finnish university students were investigated. In the first study phase, 238 students described general study styles/approaches, using a questionnaire developed by Entwistle, which included 30 Likert-type items from the following dimensions: achievement orientation, reproducing orientation, meaning…