Because of their mostly upbeat everyday presence in most people's lives globally, Internet memes have gained attention as tools in spreading information and enacting attitudinal change in the face of environmental troubles. The reappropriation of memes for classroom purposes is not straightforward, however. We focus our exploration of Internet…

The aim of our study is to identify elements of young children's shared humour by observing children's own expressions in the everyday life of early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres aged 1-6 in three Finnish ECEC centres. Our analysis shows that young children's humour plays an important role in routine transitions and play situations.…

It has been increasingly acknowledged that emotions are a significant dimension in teachers' work and professional development, and an inseparable part of reflection promoted in the research-based teacher education. However, at the same time the difficulty of prompting student-teachers to reflect on their emotions in teacher education has been…

The following article presents a series of investigations, reflections, and quotes about neuroscience, education, and psychology. Each area is specialized in some matters but at some point they share territory and mutually benefit one another, and help us to increasingly understand the complex world of learning, the brain, and human behavior. We…

Although Finnish politics relating to the Roma tend to be perceived internationally as fairly successful, several obstacles exist for the Roma in education and the labour market. Training of Roma mediators has been actively promoted in Finland to improve the school performance and equality of Roma pupils. This article, based on ethnographic…

The papers in this volume offer a sampling of contemporary efforts to update the portrayal of study abroad in the applied linguistics literature through attention to its social and cultural aspects. The volume illustrates diversification of theory and method, refinement of approaches to social interactive language use, and expansion in the range…

In line with recent Conversation Analytic work on language learning as situated practice, this article investigates how interactants can create language learning opportunities for themselves and others in and through social interaction. The study shows how the participants of "Big Brother Finland," a reality TV show, whose main…

Through a feminist approach this paper illustrates how humour is used as a resource and strategy for status among Finnish school boys and in constructing culturally accepted masculinity in the field of informal school. Based on interview and observation material collected in three schools, the results suggest that although humour is often…

Problem solving is a critical skill for engineering students and essential to development of creativity and innovativeness. Essential to such learning is an ease of communication and allowing students to address the issues at hand via the terminology, attitudes, humor and empathy, which is inherent to their frame of mind as novices, without the…

The following are among the papers included in these proceedings: "Challenging the Exclusionary Effects of the Inclusive Mask of Adult Education" (Rockhill); "Organic Intellectuals of the State and Political Struggle in the University" (Cunningham); "Adult Education's Prospects in a Post-University World" (Smith);…