Assessment of learning outcomes in Finnish vocational education and training

This article provides an outline and critical review of assessment, an evaluation of learning outcomes, in vocational education and training (VET) in Finland. Assessment of VET is formative, development-orientated and criteria-based. There are no national tests and information from vocational skills demonstrations is used instead. Assessment targets are individual and communal learning focusing on processes instead of reports. Interactive, multifaceted assessments and qualitative methods promote learning and are based on trust – not control. The developmental assessment of learning outcomes started as an experiment in 2002 and as a permanent system in 2007. The whole process has been included and still includes also many challenges of methods, which this article tries to open.     

Making learning whole: an instructional approach for mediating the practices of authentic science inquiries

This design experiment aimed to answer the question of how to mediate the practices of authentic science inquiries in primary education. An instructional approach based on activity theory was designed and carried out with multi-age students in a small village school. An open-ended learning task was offered to the older students. Their task was to design and implement instruction about the Ice Age to their younger fellows. The objective was collaborative learning among students, the teacher, and outside domain experts. Mobile phones and GPS technologies were applied as the main technological mediators in the learning process. Technology provided an opportunity to expand the learning environment outside the classroom, including the natural environment. Empirically, the goal was to answer the following questions: What kind of learning project emerged? How did the students’ knowledge develop? What kinds of science learning processes, activities, and practices were represented? Multiple and parallel data were collected to achieve this aim. The data analysis revealed that the learning project both challenged the students to develop explanations for the phenomena and generated high quality conceptual and physical models in question. During the learning project, the roles of the community members were shaped, mixed, and integrated. The teacher also repeatedly evaluated and adjusted her behavior. The confidence of the learners in their abilities raised the quality of their learning outcomes. The findings showed that this instructional approach can not only mediate the kind of authentic practices that scientists apply but also make learning more holistic than it has been. Thus, it can be concluded that nature of the task, the tool-integrated collaborative inquiries in the natural environment, and the multiage setting can make learning whole.     

How do Higher Education Institutions Enhance their Financial Autonomy? Examples from Finnish Polytechnics

Numerous studies have addressed how state authorities and public funding bodies control, regulate, steer, supervise or oversee higher education institutions. There are fewer studies on how higher education institutions respond to the actions of the mentioned authorities. States have aimed at increasing the autonomy of higher education institutions. At the same time institutions are expected to generate social benefits and economic growth. There is an endless tension between a policy that will strengthen the autonomy and simultaneously retain a space for state steering. The Finnish polytechnic and university sectors have very different origins from which their financial autonomy takes its shape. This article sheds light on how six Finnish polytechnics aspire to enhance their financial autonomy. The polytechnics operate under two separate steering systems, the state and local owners, and both of these actors exercise their own steering. This article shows that polytechnics are willing and able to enhance their financial autonomy. They calculate their advantages and habitually engage with the Ministry of Education or their owners depending on the case in question. The financial autonomy of polytechnics does not culminate in a form of diversified funding sources, but as balancing between the two masters on whose resources they are heavily dependent.     

Triggering effects of mobile video marketing in nature tourism: Media richness perspective

The aim of this study was to investigate videos as potential triggers of behavior. Therefore, we applied the theories of triggers and media richness to learn about the triggering efficiency of mobile marketing videos on participants’ behavioral intentions. The experiment involved three distinct test groups, each comprising 41 student participants. From the perspective of media richness theory, we observed that the different kinds of videos had quite similar effects in terms of triggering behavioral changes. However, the mechanisms explaining why triggers were present differed for each video. Further, the results reveal that the consumer's position in the information search process was the most significant reason for the triggering of any kind of effect. In addition, the instructionally designed videos were able to exert an affective triggering effect: the more participants liked the video, the more it affected their participation intention and recall scores. This study extends the media richness research by demonstrating that the effects of media richness can vary within technically similar videos, as they form different logical connections among non-verbal visual cues related to a video's storyline.     

Tracking of physical activity in pubertal boys with different BMI over two-year period

We examined the tracking of physical activity (PA) measured by accelerometers and subjective self- and parental reports in normal weight and overweight and obese pubertal boys over two-year period. In total, 156 boys with mean (±SD) age of 11.53 ± 0.76 at baseline and with mean age of 13.94 ± 0.74 at 2 year follow-up were studied. At baseline and approximately two years later, the boys completed self-report questionnaire and wore an accelerometer for seven consecutive days. On the basis of first year assessment’s body mass index (BMI), the children were grouped as normal weight and overweight and obese groups according to BMI cut-offs. Tracking correlations of objectively measured PA and subjectively measured PA were fairly similar across the 12–14 year-old-boys weight groups over two year period. Tracking correlations of objectively measured PA and subjectively measured PA were not significantly different over two-year period between both BMI groups. The results of the study show that pubertal boys objectively measured PA decreased over two-year period and so the boys started to be less active in their pubertal period.     

Pressures,rewards and teacher retention: a comparative study of primary teaching in England and Finland

The article presents some findings from the York‐Jyväskylä Teacher Professionalism project. The project was a follow‐up study to earlier case‐study research in six schools in Finland and six schools in England on the impact of educational reforms on teachers' work. Data were collected by re‐interviewing a sample of teachers from the original schools six years later. The views of English and Finnish teachers concerning the ways in which changes in practice, pay and working conditions affected their perception of teaching as a profession are contrasted. The crucial factors discouraging teachers from remaining in teaching were work intensification, low pay, deteriorating pupil behaviour and a decline in public respect. Positive influences on teacher retention were commitment to children, professional freedom and supportive colleagues. Suggestions are offered as to how policy makers should act to preserve the commitment of primary teachers and to promote their retention.     

A pilot scale trickling filter with pebble gravel as media and its performance to remove chemical oxygen demand from synthetic brewery wastewater

Evaluating the performance of a biotrickling filter for the treatment of wastewaters produced by a company manufacturing beer was the aim of this study. A pilot scale trickling filter filled with gravel was used as the experimental biofilter. Pilot scale plant experiments were made to evaluate the performance of the trickling filter aerobic and anaerobic biofilm systems for removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and nutrients from synthetic brewery wastewater. Performance evaluation data of the trickling filter were generated under different experimental conditions. The trickling filter had an average efficiency of (86.81±6.95)% as the hydraulic loading rate increased from 4.0 to 6.4 m³/(m²·d). Various COD concentrations were used to adjust organic loading rates from 1.5 to 4.5 kg COD/(m³·d). An average COD removal efficiency of (85.10±6.40)% was achieved in all wastewater concentrations at a hydraulic loading of 6.4 m³/(m²·d). The results lead to a design organic load of 1.5 kg COD/(m³·d) to reach an effluent COD in the range of 50–120 mg/L. As can be concluded from the results of this study, organic substances in brewery wastewater can be handled in a cost-effective and environmentally friendly manner using the gravel-filled trickling filter.     

Parental Identity and Its Relation to Parenting and Psychological Functioning in Middle Age

Objective. This article focuses on identity as a parent in relation to parenting and psychological functioning in middle age. Design. Drawn from the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development, 162 participants (53% females) with children (age 36), represented the Finnish age-cohort born in 1959. Parental identity was assessed at ages 36, 42, and 50. Results. In both women and men, parental identity achievement increased from age 36 to 42 and remained stable to 50. The level of parental identity achievement was higher in women than in men. Achievement was typical for women and foreclosure for men. Participants’ education, occupational status, and number of offspring were not related to parental identity status. As expected, parental identity achievement was associated with authoritative (indicated by higher nurturance and parental knowledge about the child’s activities) parenting style. No significant associations emerged between parental identity foreclosure and restrictiveness as an indicator of authoritarian parenting style. The diffused men outscored others in parental stress. Achieved parental identity was related to generativity in both genders and to higher psychological and social well-being in men. Conclusions. At present, many parenting programs are targeted to young parents. This study highlighted the importance of a later parenting phase at around age 40, when for many, the children are approaching puberty. Therefore, parenting programs and support should also be designed for middle-aged parents. Specifically men may need additional support for their active consideration and engagement in the fathering role.