Marita Mäkinen

Rethinking Academic Literacies: Designing Multifaceted Academic Literacy Experiences for Preservice Teachers.

This manuscript introduces a multidimensional framework for academic literacies to help instructors become more aware of different aspects of literacies and how they might be used to plan and orchestrate meaningful, multifaceted literacy experiences in their classes. More specifically, this broad framework for literacy and learning explicitly considers the overlapping role of argumentation, digital inquiry, collaboration, and innovation as they are applied to continuously evolving disciplinary literacy practices. The framework is applied to a course designed for pre-service teachers that integrated several aspects of academic literacies and offered some pedagogical guidelines to support their literacy development. A summary of the different domains of academic literacies and research-based pedagogical guidelines is provided to assist teachers in various disciplines and educational levels in applying the framework in their own instructional contexts.

Online community environment promoting engagement in higher education

Online community environment promoting engagement in higher education This paper illustrates how university students describe the benefits and challenges of online community environment (OCE) in promoting engagement in university studies. The sociocultural framework allows gaining understanding of the engagement in learning processes as well as the collaborative dimensions of OCE in developing higher education in the 21th century. The study was conducted by using the method of empathy-based stories. The data were collected from two student groups representing samples of presumed forerunners of online and offline environments. The results revealed the importance of multidimensionality of engagement, with interaction among and between students and staff. OCE was seen beneficial in strengthening the sense of belonging to the university, in networking and in enhancing active citizenship. The students saw the academic and social world overlapping. OCE was not seen as an alternative but supplementary to offline community, being beneficial for learning and extracurricular activities. The results represent four overlapping spheres that reflect the potentials of OCE in enhancing engagement in studies: supportive reciprocity, collegial contribution, growth of expertise and shared direction. In order to enhance engagement in university studies via OCE, the results suggest that the focus should be on the sociocultural practices and pedagogical processes.

Communities of Practice in Higher Education: Contradictory Narratives of a University-Wide Curriculum Reform.

This article presents an analysis of the experiences of scholars in a university-wide curriculum reform in one public research university. The focus is on the intentions and dynamics that shape the curriculum process in the local communities of practice (CoPs). The data, comprising interviews with 25 scholars, are examined as experience-centred narratives of curriculum change. Two distinct types of narrative – dialogical and reproductive – are found to reflect how the curriculum change was negotiated. In further analysis, Wengers dimensions of CoPs, namely, mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire, are used as a conceptual framework to identify the intentions and dynamics behind the narratives. The following dimensions emerged: (1) intending to cross borders versus maintaining prevailing traditions and positions; (2) attempting to find shared goals versus delaying or discontinuing the process and (3) having enough curiosity to familiarise oneself with the unfamiliar versus deprecating and rejecting it.

Towards community oriented curriculum in Finnish literacy education

Finland’s successful PISA literacy results reflect the foundation of the Finnish education system, which could be characterised by the words equality, equity and individual support. However, international interest in this PISA success has not focused on curricular aspects, and yet the core curriculum specifies teaching and learning practices in Finland. This article presents a study on the development of the Finnish National Core Curricula for Basic Education (NCC), published in 1985, 1994 and 2004. Based on inductive document analysis, the article discusses the changing conceptualisations of the curriculum designers and contributes to an understanding of the roles that the literacy core curriculum has in defining the purposes of literacy education, as well as the cross-curricular intentions of literacy education from the 1980s to the present day.

Millennial generation preservice teachers inspiring the design of teacher education

Abstract The article presents an interpretive phenomenological approach (IPA) to preservice teachers’ experiences of their current secondary teacher education programme (STEP) in Finland. The focus of the study is the millennial generation cohort in which new teachers comprise a key group to be studied because they will contribute to the future of education. Thirteen preservice teachers participated in the study. Their experiences are interpreted through the lenses of generation theory and contemporary teacher education research. The findings include three phenomenological themes that are core elements of STEP: time balance, reciprocal participation and meaningfulness. These themes are discussed and suggestions made for ways to transform teacher education to make it more relevant.

Multilayered word structure model for assessing spelling of Finnish children in shallow orthography

This study explores Finnish childrens word-level spelling by applying a linguistically based multilayered word structure model for assessing spelling performance. The model contributes to the analytical qualitative assessment approach in order to identify childrens spelling performance for enhancing writing skills. The children (N = 105) participated in two dictation assessments at the end of their first and second grades. The results indicate that long consonants and consonant sequences are the most problematic structures in both the first and second grades. The less-advanced spellers were significantly weaker than others also in coding the overall syllable number, heavy unstressed syllables and long vowels in the first grade. In the second grade, they still had more difficulties in spelling heavy unstressed syllables and long quantities of vowels and consonants. The multilayered word structure model seems to give more information about the quality of spelling than error-based holistic analyses. The model is applicable for other shallow orthographies as well.

What is Special in Special Education from the Inclusive Perspective

The article offers insights into the discussion of the terms ‘special’ and ‘inclusive’ applied as concepts to define educational inclusion. By analyzing three cases where a school’s routine was followed, it was possible to interpose discourse and practice to highlight how contradictions in educational practices are constituted in the micro level of classroom reality. Data were collected through interviews, video-recordings and school documents in two Early Childhood Education Schools in Brazil. Through a qualitative epistemology analysis, the key findings pointed to contradictions regarding the role of teachers towards the implementation of pedagogical practices and the special education support actions. We discuss the need of reconsideration of what is understood by special education system and argue that human development is the key to develop inclusive practices.