Mediapolulla - Kasvatustieteellistä ja teknisen alan osaamista yhdistämässä : Opiskelijoiden yhteistyö ja oppiminen tieto- ja viestintätekniikkaprojektissa

The study concentrated on interdisciplinary teamwork of students in Helsinki University Department of Education and Helsinki University of Technology. Students worked in small interdisciplinary groups (n 12) to plan and teach in an information- and communication technology (ICT) club in elementary schools. The focus of the study was co-operation in the student groups and students learning experiences. Theoretical background of the study consists of theories of collaboration and socially shared cognition. Study was an qualitative case study and the data was collected with individual focus interviews and learning diaries. The data was categorised and the connections between categories were analysed with a table. Shared cognition appeared as a form of distribution of tasks and in the actual processes of shared expertise. The tasks were shared according to students expertise. Processes of shared expertise were joint knowledge building, integration of interests, awareness and exploitation of others expertise and allowing freedom for others to use their expertise. Additionally expression of ones own views and setting an example to others were one sided sharing of expertise. Students of technology were responsible of technical issues and the responsibility sphere of educational science students was more fragmented. For instance they concentrated in taking children s abilities into consideration. The sphere of shared cognition included also the need for tutoring and learning from others. Usually students did not directly learn from representative of other discipline, instead the learning for instance of social skills happened indirectly. Learning was fostered if learning was set as a goal and prevented if the differences in expertise were too minor. Sharing of cognition was prevented if co-operation was too problematic. Co-operation was usually successful. Good planning, good person chemistry and appreciation of expertise of others promoted success. Problems caused by different backgrounds were usually slight. Successful interaction was complementary and equal. Groups were usually able to circumvent problems in communication and use of justification in discussion promoted co-operation. When comparing the groups in the scope of the study, two were found to be notably opposed and the other groups located between these extreme cases, but the elements of success prevailed. Learning experiences concentrated on social skills, project management, school world and ICT. Essential was achieved field experience and observation of ones own capabilities. In organisation of student interdisciplinary co-operation is important to ensure sufficient differences in expertise and guide students to gain complementary interaction and appropriate setting of goals. Interdisciplinary field project prepared students to face the demands of

Yliopiston oppimis- ja opetuskäsitykset murroksessa : Teknillistieteellisen alan opettajien käsityksiä ja lähestymistapoja alan oppimiseen ja opetukseen

The starting point for this study was university teaching and teachers and specifically their changing role when confronting the Finnish University Reform and the student-focused theories of learning. Teachers’ pedagogical thinking and pedagogical content knowledge were also part of the theoretical framework. In the research of conceptions of and approaches to learning and teaching, the qualitative classifications of Säljö and Marton (1976; 1997), Ramsden (1992), Kember (1997) and Trigwell and Prosser (1999) were utilised. Two study questions were raised (1) What kind of conceptions of and approaches to learning do engineering science teachers have? and (2) What kind of conceptions of and approaches to teaching do engineering science teachers have? The relationship between teachers’ conceptions and teaching was also examined. The research material was collected in autumn 2008 by interviewing teachers and by observing teaching in the Department of Energy Technology at Helsinki University of Technology. Altogether two tutorials and ten lectures were observed. Each teacher of the observed lectures was interviewed once. The interviews were carried out as semi-structured theme interviews. In the analysis of the research material phenomenographical approach was adapted. The study revealed many kinds of conceptions of and approaches to learning and teaching in the teachers’ speech. On the basis of the research material, the conceptions and approaches that the teachers declare do not always reflect their actions in the teaching situation. The surface approaches to learning and teacher-focused approaches to teaching and conceptions of receiving and transmission of knowledge were parallel. Instead the teachers’ declarations of the deep approaches to learning and student-focused approaches to teaching were partly in conflict with how the teacher taught. When striving towards student-centered teaching culture attention should be paid to the development of teachers’ pedagogical thinking and pedagogical content knowledge. The culture and the structures of the educational institution should also be considered.

Matkalla suomalaiseksi ja hoiva-alan ammattilaiseksi? : Venäläis- ja virolaistaustaisten naisten ja suomalaisuuden kohtaamiset kuulumista rakentamassa

The research examines the process by which a sense of belonging to Finnish society is constructed among women of Russian and Estonian background who are multiply marginalised in Finnish society. It does so by analysing the encounters between their nationality and 'being Finnis'. Attention is focused on the question of what kind of "journey" they take after moving to Finland, how a sense of belonging is constructed especially along the paths followed in education and at work, and what kind of agency is available to them. The thesis is connected with post-colonial research and also draws from studies on citizenship and nationality as well as the social structures of interaction, when analysing careers. As the educational system forms the most central context of the research, the work is also focused on educational sociology. The research methodology includes life history and a narrative approach. The raw data is from thematic interviews concerning the life experiences of women of immigrant backgrounds. They were studying in Finland to be practical nurses or to complete Bachelor of Social Service degree. According to the study, the women had been encountered as alien, strange, and carrying a shade of "otherness". The experience of inclusion in Finnish communities and society turned out to be conditional, an inclusion based on the notion of a citizen worker, which is defined by national needs. The person from abroad is placed in the position of someone who fills gaps in the services of the welfare state. The choice of education in the care sector and the overall necessity of obtaining Finnish education turned out to be socially directed. Gendered structures of education and working life were found to act as a frame in which the decisions of the immigrant women were made. Although national education policy emphasis as an orientation to global labour markets, the immigrant student is placed above all in the position of an object to be made suitable for the Finnish labour market. Citizenship, a goal of education, requires consent to being "socialised" into Finnish society as well as learning to be Finnish. One s only option to negotiate appearing suitable as a member is to construct oneself into someone who adopts Finnish and Western cultural values, values which favour individuality. However, Finnish education is a resource to Finnishness. Finnish education enables a sense of being Finnish, and empowers the job applicant for example, and in addition to providing cultural, human and social capital strengthen inclusion as well. The study confirms the view that the encounter of an immigrant is still characterised by its colonial nature. It shows that encounters with Finns and Finnish society place the person of immigrant background, even one receiving a Finnish education, in the position of "the other". The journey as an immigrant continues. The immigrant has access only to certain predefined subject positions, which limits agency. When categorised as an immigrant, one becomes a per-son who is different and "other", while the sense of belonging as a member of Finnish society without conditions appears to be somewhat unreachable. Yet, new arrivals are capable of acting change. An immigrant woman can challenge the positions offered to her and present herself as strong. Her life story has often included struggle, and she has the fortitude strength to change her circumstances. Key words: life story, post-colonial encounter, nationality, citizenship, the career of immi-grant, position, agency

Onko tutkijan sukupuolella väliä? : Kemian ja fysiikan alan tutkijoiden ja tohtoriopiskelijoiden tutkijanura IDECAT-verkostossa sukupuoliperspektiivistä.

Tutkimukseni kohteena ovat mies- ja naispuoliset tutkijat ja tohtoriopiskelijat, jotka ovat osallistuneet katalyysitutkimukseen keskittyvän tutkimusverkosto IDECAT:in toimintaan. Tutkielmassani pyrin selvittämään, onko naisten ja miesten tutkijanuran välillä eroa ja jos on, niin minkälainen tämä ero on. Pyrin myös saamaan selville, onko naisten tutkijanuralla esteitä ja esiintyykö tiedeyhteisössä sukupuolesta johtuvaa syrjintää. IDECAT (Integrated Design of Catalytic Nanomaterials for a Sustainable Production) on EU-rahoitteinen, kemian tekniikkaan liittyvään katalyysitutkimukseen keskittyvä tutkimusverkosto, johon kuuluu alan tutkimusyksiköitä ja yliopistoja 12 Euroopan maasta. IDECAT:iin kuuluu noin 500-600 henkilöä. Tutkimukseni pohjautuu kahteen kyselytutkimukseen, jotka toteutettiin Internetissä 2009-2010. Ensimmäinen kyselytutkimus oli vastaajien saatavilla loka-marraskuussa 2009 ja siinä selvitettiin IDECAT:in tutkijoiden ja tohtoriopiskelijoiden tasa-arvotilannetta yleisesti. Kyselyyn vastasi 83 henkilöä, joista 51% oli naisia ja 49 % miehiä. Kyselyssä käytettiin strukturoitua kyselylomaketta ja tulokset analysoitiin kvantitatiivisesti SPSS tilasto-ohjelmalla. Tilastollisena menetelmänä käytän ristiintaulukointia. Toinen kyselytutkimus (jatkokysely) keskittyy tiedeyhteisössä tapahtuvaan sukupuolesta johtuvaan syrjintään ja se oli vastaajien saatavilla huhti-toukokuussa 2010. Jatkokyselyn kysymykset ovat avokysymyksiä ja ne analysoitiin laadullisesti. Jatkokyselyyn vastasi 24 henkilöä, joista 6 kuvasi yksityiskohtaisesti syrjintäkokemuksiaan tiedeyhteisössä. Teoreettisena viitekehyksenä käytän tutkimuksessani Joan Ackerin sukupuolittuneen organisaation teoriaa ja siihen liittyviä, organisaation toiminnassa ilmeneviä sukupuolittuneita prosesseja. Sukupuolittuneet prosessit ovat ajattelutapoja , käytäntöjä ja asenteita, joilla sukupuolet erotetaan toisistaan ja joilla tuotetaan sukupuolten välisiä valtasuhteita. Naisten ja miesten tutkijanuran välillä on aineistossani joitakin merkittäviä eroja. Sukupuolesta johtuva syrjintä on yleistä vastaajien keskuudessa ja naiset ovat kokeneet sitä useammin kuin miehet. 67% naisvastaajista ja 37% miesvastaajista on kokenut sukupuolesta johtuvaa syrjintää. Naisvastaajat myös kokevat miehiä useammin, että he eivät saa riittävästi tukea ja kannustusta esimiehiltään. Lisäksi naisia on pyydetty mukaan tieteelliseen yhteistyöhön miehiä harvemmin. Useimmat muuttujat eivät kuitenkaan tuo eroa sukupuolten välille. Tutkijanaiset kokevat ylenemismahdollisuutensa lähes yhtä hyviksi kuin miehet, naiset ja miehet työskentelevät yhtä usein määräaikaisissa tehtävissä ja naiset työskentelevät kokopäiväisesti lähes yhtä usein kuin miehet. Naiset pitävät perheen ja työn yhdistämistä helppona. Sukupuolittuneita prosesseja ilmenee erityisesti sukupuolten väliseen työnjakoon ja sosiaalisen tuen ja vallan jakoon tiedeyhteisössä liittyvissä tilanteissa. Sukupuolittuneisuus ei kuitenkaan ole totaalista, monien kyselyn muuttujien kohdalla sukupuolittumista tai eroa sukupuolten välille ei tullut. Monet kyselyn muuttujat osoittavatkin, että naiset ja miehet kokevat, että heitä kohdellaan melko tasa-arvoisesti. Tietyillä osa-alueilla epätasa-arvoisen kohtelun kokemukset ovat kuitenkin yleisiä, mikä tuottaa ristiriitaisen kuvan tiedeyhteisön tasa-arvotilanteesta. Tämä voi viitata siihen, että tutkijanaisten ja miesten asemat ja roolit tiedeyhteisössä eivät ole pysyviä ja staattisia, vaan aktiivisessa muutoksen tilassa. Tutkijanaisten asemaa tiedeyhteisössä voidaan lisäksi parantaa reagoimalla ja puuttumalla sukupuolesta johtuvaan syrjintään, pitämällä tasa-arvoasioita esillä sekä kiinnittämällä huomiota johtamiskäytäntöihin, esimerkiksi palkkaamalla lisää naisjohtajia. Avainsanat Keywords: Sukupuolittunut organisaatio, sukupuolittuneet prosessit, kyselytutkimus, kvantitatiivinen tutkimus, tiedeyhteisö, sukupuolisyrjintä, tutkijanaiset, naistutkijat, sukupuolten tasa-arvo, gendered organization, academia, female scientists, gender equality

Die Eigenschaften der Benennungen und ihr Einfluss auf deren Verwendung am Beispiel der Euro-Währung : Eine quantitative und kontrastive Analyse der Terminologie im Finnischen und im Deutschen

This dissertation deals with the terminology of the Euro currency. Its aims are to determine the characteristics of the designations in a certain LSP and to discover whether the recommendations and rules that have been given to the formation of designations and 'ideal' designations have any influence on the usage of the designations. The characteristics analysed include length of the designation, part of speech, form, formation method, constancy, monosemy, suitability to a concept system and degree of specialty. The study analyses the actual usage of the designations in texts and the implementation of the designations. The study is an adaptation of a terminometric survey and uses concept analysis and quantitative analysis as its basic methods. The frequency of each characteristic is measured in terms of statistics. It is assumed that the 'ideality' of a designation influences its usage, for example that if a designation is short, it is used more than its longer rivals (synonyms). The results are analysed in a corpus consisting of a compilation of different texts concerning the Euro. The corpus is divided according to three features: year (1998-2003), genre (judicial texts, annual reports and brochures) and language (Finnish and German). Each analysis is performed according to each of these features and compared with the others. The results indicate that some of the characteristics of the designations indeed seem to have an influence on the usage of the designations. For example, monosemy and suitability to the concept system often lead to the implementation of the designation having the ideal or certain value in these characteristics in the analysed Finnish material. In German material, an 'ideal' value in the characteristics leads to the implementation of the designations more often than in Finnish. The contrastive study indicates that, for example, suitability to a concept system leads to implementation of a designation in judicial texts more often than in other genres. The recommendations given to an 'ideal' designation are thus often acceptable, but they cannot be generalized for all languages in the same extent.

Untersuchungen zur Fachsprache der Ökologie und des Umweltschutzes im Deutschen und Finnischen : Bezeichnungsvarianten unter einem geschichtlichen, lexikographischen, morphologischen und linguistisch-pragmatischen Aspekt

The work integrates research in the language and terminology of various fields with lexicography, etymology, semantics, word formation, and pragmatics. Additionally, examination of German and Finnish provides the work with perspective of contrastive linguistics and the translation of texts in specialized fields. The work is an attempt to chart the language, vocabulary, different textual types, and essential communication-connected features of this special field. The study is primary concerned with internal communication within the field of ecology, but it also provides a comparison of the public discussion of environmental issues in Germany and Finland. The work attempts to use textual signs to provide a picture of the literary communication used on the different vertical levels in the central text types within the field. The dictionaries in the fields of environmental issues and ecology for the individual text types are examined primarily from the perspective of their quantity and diversity. One central point of the work is to clarify and collect all of the dictionaries in the field that have been compiled thus far in which German and/or Finnish ware included. Ecology and environmental protection are closely linked not only to each other but also to many other scientific fields. Consequently, the language of the environmental field has acquired an abundance of influences and vocabulary from the language of the special fields close to it as well as from that of politics and various areas of public administration. The work also demonstrates how the popularization of environmental terminology often leads to semantic distortion. Traditionally, scientific texts have used the smallest number of expressions, the purpose of which is to appeal to or influence the behavior of the text recipient. Particularly in Germany, those who support or oppose measures to protect the environment have long been making concerted efforts to represent their own views in the language that they use. When discussing controversial issues competing designations for the same referent or concept are used in accordance with the interest group to which the speaker belongs. One of the objectives of the study is to sensitize recipients of texts to notice the euphemistic expressions that occur in German and Finnish texts dealing with issues that are sensitive from the standpoint of environmental policy. One particular feature of the field is the wealth and large number of variants designating the same entry or concept. The terminological doublets formed by words of foreign origin and their German or Finnish language equivalents are quite typical of the field. Methods of corpus linguistics are used to determine the reasons for the large number of variant designations as well as their functionality.

Abductive translation studies : The art of marshalling signs

This dissertation contributes to the fields of theoretical translation studies, semiotic translation theory, and the semiotics of translation. The aim of this work is to explore the alternative and potential which the semiotic approaches to translation entail from the viewpoint of contemporary translation studies. The overall objective is thus to show that a general semiotic translation theory, and in particular, a Peircean translation theory, are possible and indispensable. Furthermore, this study contributes to the semiotranslational approach and to its theory-building by developing the concept of abductive translation (studies). The specific theoretical frame of reference adopted in this study is provided by the semiotranslation introduced by Dinda L. Gorlée. This approach is primarily based on the semeiotic of Charles Sanders Peirce (1839 1914), and aims at a fusion of semiotics and translation studies. A more general framework is provided by the threefold background and material: the published and unpublished writings of Peirce, Peirce scholarship and Peircean-semiotic publications, as well as the translation-theoretical literature. Part One of this study concentrates on the justification, existence, and nature of the semiotic approaches to translation. This part provides a historical survey, a status report, and a discussion of this area of research, by employing the findings in a boundary-clearing that is multilayered both conceptually and terminologically. Part Two deals with Peircean semiotranslation. Here Gorlée s semiotranslational research is examined by focusing on the starting points, features, and development of semiotranslation. Attention is also paid to the state-of-the-art of semiotranslation theory and to the possibilities for future elaborations. Part Three focuses on the semiotranslational claim that translation is an abductive activity. The concept of abductive translation is based on abduction, one of Peirce s three modes of reasoning; at the same time Firstness, the category of abduction, becomes foregrounded. So abductive translation as a form of possibilistic translation receives here an extensive theoretical discussion by citing examples in which abduction manifests itself as (scientific) reasoning and as everyday contemplation. During this treatise, translation is first equated with sign action, then with interpretation and finally with reasoning. All these approaches appear to embody different facets of the same phenomenon Peirce s ubiquitous semiosis, and they all suggest that translation is inherently an intersemiotic activity in which a sign is inferred from another sign. Translation is therefore semiosis, semiosis is translation and interpretation, interpretation is reasoning, and so on ad infinitum all being manifestations of the art of marshalling signs. The three parts of this study are linked by the overall goal of abductive translation studies: investigation into abductive translation develops the theory of semiotranslation, and this enrichment of semiotranslation in turn constructs a semiotic paradigm within translation studies.

Observations sur les termes culinaires dans deux San-Antonio de Frédéric Dard

Pro gradu-työni aihe on ruokaterminologiaa käsittelevät ranskan puhekielen ja Pariisin slangin lainasanat sekä kirjailija Frédéric Dardin alias San-Antonion (1921-2000) luomat, ruokatermistöön kuuluvat uudissanat ja -sanonnat kahdessa San-Antonio-romaanissa C'est mort et ça ne sait pas sekä Le fil à couper le beurre. Näissä ns. kioskikirjallisuutta edustavissa rikosromaaneissa seikkailee puheenparttaan ruoka-alan termeillä höystävä, "erikoistehtäviä" hoitava komisario ja naistenmies, San-Antonio. Ranskankielisessä arjen kielenkäytössä vilisee ruokaan liittyviä sanoja ja sanontoja muissakin kuin varsinaisissa ruuanvalmistus- ja ateriointiyhteyksissä. Halusin tarkastella, millaisena tämä yleisesti havaitsemani ilmiö todentuu Frédéric Dardin kahdessa romaanissa, jotka olen valinnut aineistokseni. Frédéric Dard käyttää romaaneissaan varsin omaperäistä kieltä: sekä puhekieltä että Pariisin slangia. Korpukseni koostuu romaaneista poimimistani ruoka-alan termistöä sisältävistä esimerkeistä, joita valmiiseen työhön tuli 228 kappaletta. Jaoin kaikki korpuksesta löytämäni ruokatermit kahteen luokkaan sen mukaan, oliko kirjailija lainannut käyttämänsä sanan tai ilmauksen puhekielestä tai Pariisin slangista (lainatermit), vai oliko hän luonut termin tai ilmauksen itse (neologismit). Määrittelin termin tai ilmauksen neologismiksi, jos se ei esiintynyt joko laisinkaan tai ainakaan kirjailijan tarkoittamassa merkityksessä seuraavissa sanakirjoissa: Le Dictionnaire du français argotique, populaire et familier; Le Dictionnaire de l'argot moderne; Le Dictionnaire du français non conventionnel; Le Dictionnaire de l'argot; Le Dictionnaire du français argotique et populaire; L'argot chez les vrais de vrai ja Trésor de la langue française. Varsinainen tutkimus perustuu sanojen ja ilmausten merkitysten selvittämiseen ja analysointiin. Lainatermien analyysillä tarkoitan lainatermien merkitysten selvitystä em. sanakirjojen avulla. Neologismit analysoin tarkemmin käyttäen em. sanakirjoja sekä tukeutuen gastronomisten ja erityisesti kielitieteellisten lähdeteosteni tarjoamiin rakenteellisiin ja semanttisiin muodostustapoihin ja tekemällä niistä tarvittavat yhteenvedot oikean merkityksen selvittämiseksi. Käsittelin aineiston kaikki ruokatermit. Niiden valtavan lukumäärän vuoksi analysoitavien esimerkkien määrää piti rajoittaa niin, että valmiiseen työhön jäi jokaisesta termistä enintään kaksi esimerkkiä kummastakin korpuksen kirjasta eli yhteensä 228 esimerkkiä. Muut esimerkit luetteloin työn lopusta löytyvään liitteeseen. Neologismianalyysissä selvisi, että Frédéric Dard suosi erityisesti semanttisia muodostustapoja eli olemassa olevan merkityksen muuttamista metaforien ja kielikuvien avulla. Dardin rikas terminologia ja hänen humoristiset oivalluksensa ovat osaltaan rikastuttaneet ranskan puhekieltä.Työssäni totean, että Pariisin slangia ja puhekieltä on totuttu pitämään sosiaalisesti sopimattomana, marginaalisten ryhmien kielenä, vaikka sen ilmauksia saattaa nykyisin kuulla jopa akateemikkojen käyttävän, ja ilmauksia on siirtynyt slangi- ja puhekielestä yleiskieleen. Toivon työni edistävän kiinnostusta kielitaidon parantamiseen San-Antonion tyyliin tutustumisen avulla sekä herättävän mielenkiintoa ranskan kielen vivahteikkuuteen ja monimuotoisuuteen muullakin kuin yleiskielen tasolla. Kielessä ei mielestäni voi olla sellaisia osa-alueita, joiden opiskelu ja osaaminen olisi tarpeetonta.

Language change as an evolutionary process

In the thesis it is discussed in what ways concepts and methodology developed in evolutionary biology can be applied to the explanation and research of language change. The parallel nature of the mechanisms of biological evolution and language change is explored along with the history of the exchange of ideas between these two disciplines. Against this background computational methods developed in evolutionary biology are taken into consideration in terms of their applicability to the study of historical relationships between languages. Different phylogenetic methods are explained in common terminology, avoiding the technical language of statistics. The thesis is on one hand a synthesis of earlier scientific discussion, and on the other an attempt to map out the problems of earlier approaches in addition to finding new guidelines in the study of language change on their basis. Primarily literature about the connections between evolutionary biology and language change, along with research articles describing applications of phylogenetic methods into language change have been used as source material. The thesis starts out by describing the initial development of the disciplines of evolutionary biology and historical linguistics, a process which right from the beginning can be seen to have involved an exchange of ideas concerning the mechanisms of language change and biological evolution. The historical discussion lays the foundation for the handling of the generalised account of selection developed during the recent few decades. This account is aimed for creating a theoretical framework capable of explaining both biological evolution and cultural change as selection processes acting on self-replicating entities. This thesis focusses on the capacity of the generalised account of selection to describe language change as a process of this kind. In biology, the mechanisms of evolution are seen to form populations of genetically related organisms through time. One of the central questions explored in this thesis is whether selection theory makes it possible to picture languages are forming populations of a similar kind, and what a perspective like this can offer to the understanding of language in general. In historical linguistics, the comparative method and other, complementing methods have been traditionally used to study the development of languages from a common ancestral language. Computational, quantitative methods have not become widely used as part of the central methodology of historical linguistics. After the fading of a limited popularity enjoyed by the lexicostatistical method since the 1950s, only in the recent years have also the computational methods of phylogenetic inference used in evolutionary biology been applied to the study of early language history. In this thesis the possibilities offered by the traditional methodology of historical linguistics and the new phylogenetic methods are compared. The methods are approached through the ways in which they have been applied to the Indo-European languages, which is the most thoroughly investigated language family using both the traditional and the phylogenetic methods. The problems of these applications along with the optimal form of the linguistic data used in these methods are explored in the thesis. The mechanisms of biological evolution are seen in the thesis as parallel in a limited sense to the mechanisms of language change, however sufficiently so that the development of a generalised account of selection is deemed as possibly fruiful for understanding language change. These similarities are also seen to support the validity of using phylogenetic methods in the study of language history, although the use of linguistic data and the models of language change employed by these models are seen to await further development.

Virtual versus classroom language teaching : A comparative study of the learning outcomes and student responses between two English reading comprehension groups

A 26-hour English reading comprehension course was taught to two groups of second year Finnish Pharmacy students: a virtual group (33 students) and a teacher-taught group (25 students). The aims of the teaching experiment were to find out: 1.What has to be taken into account when teaching English reading comprehension to students of pharmacy via the Internet and using TopClass? 2. How will the learning outcomes of the virtual group and the control group differ? 3. How will the students and the Department of Pharmacy respond to the different and new method, i.e. the virtual teaching method? 4. Will it be possible to test English reading comprehension learning material using the groupware tool TopClass? The virtual exercises were written within the Internet authoring environment, TopClass. The virtual group was given the reading material and grammar booklet on paper, but they did the reading comprehension tasks (written by the teacher), autonomously via the Internet. The control group was taught by the same teacher in 12 2-hour sessions, while the virtual group could work independently within the given six weeks. Both groups studied the same material: ten pharmaceutical articles with reading comprehension tasks as well as grammar and vocabulary exercises. Both groups took the same final test. Students in both groups were asked to evaluate the course using a 1 to 5 rating scale and they were also asked to assess their respective courses verbally. A detailed analysis of the different aspects of the student evaluation is given. Conclusions: 1.The virtual students learned pharmaceutical English relatively well but not significantly better than the classroom students 2. The overall student satisfaction in the virtual pharmacy English reading comprehension group was found to be higher than that in the teacher-taught control group. 3. Virtual learning is easier for linguistically more able students; less able students need more time with the teacher. 4. The sample in this study is rather small, but it is a pioneering study. 5. The Department of Pharmacy in the University of Helsinki wishes to incorporate virtual English reading comprehension teaching in its curriculum. 6. The sophisticated and versatile TopClass system is relatively easy for a traditional teacher and quite easy for the students to learn. It can be used e.g. for automatic checking of routine answers and document transfer, which both lighten the workloads of both parties. It is especially convenient for teaching reading comprehension. Key words: English reading comprehension, teacher-taught class, virtual class, attitudes of students, learning outcomes

Kansallista vai modernia : Taidegrafiikka osana 1930-luvun taidejärjestelmää

The theme of this doctoral thesis is the Finnish printmaking in the years 1930-1939. During this decade, there were approximately 100 artists making prints in Finland. Indeed, the period was an especially important one for printmaking. Associations for printmakers were founded in Helsinki and Turku, training in the field was launched, and the number of printmaking exhibitions increased considerably. Through their national organisations, Finnish printmakers participated in many exhibitions abroad, interaction with Nordic printmakers being especially intense. Thus, a firm basis for post-war developments was created. However, printmakers' activity- which had continued throughout the 1930s - declined notably after the Winter War broke out in the autumn of 1939. As a result, the period 1930-1939 forms a coherent and distinct unity in Finnish printmaking history. The study consists of two parts: the main text and an appendix in which the production of each printmaking artist active in the 1930s is examined separately. The study also includes a comprehensive list of the prints made in the course of the decade. One of the central themes is the printmakers' relationship to "Finnish nationalist" art and concepts of art in the 1930s. I analyse the various manifestations of this way of thinking in the visual arts of the period. Finnish fine art in the period between the world wars has usually been characterised as conservative, introverted and spiritually isolated from the modern European trends of the time. On the basis of this study, such a view is too simple. Many artists and printmakers adopted a modernistic notion of art that approached the newest in European modernism, including such trends as avant-garde classicism and general European new Objective Realism (Die neue Sachlichkeit). On the other hand, choosing Finnish nationalist motifs did not necessarily mean that the artist was opposed to modernism: modernist artists could still be interested in national themes. The relationship of 1930s printmaking to the world of nationalist ideas is examined in this doctoral thesis from several perspectives. Towards the end of the main text, I examine the issue from the point of view of selected artists. Another feature that emerged during the study and turned out to be surprisingly widespread was the close relationship of many artists to religious, theosophical and pantheistic views. I deal with this issue in greater detail through a few representative printmakers.

Other Side of This Life : Death, Value, and Social Being in Thomas Pynchon's Fiction

This dissertation analyzes the interrelationship between death, the conditions of (wo)man s social being, and the notion of value as it emerges in the fiction of the American novelist Thomas Pynchon (1937 ). Pynchon s present work includes six novels V. (1963), The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), Gravity s Rainbow (1973), Vineland (1990), Mason & Dixon (1997), Against the Day (2006) and several short stories. Death constitues a central thematic in Pynchon s work, and it emerges through recurrent questions of mortality, suicide, mass destruction, sacrifice, afterlife, entropy, the relationship between the animate and the inanimate, and the limits of representation. In Pynchon, death is never a mere biological given (or event); it is always determined within a certain historical, cultural, and ideological context. Throughout his work, Pynchon questions the strict ontological separation of life and death by showing the relationship between this separation and social power. Conceptual divisions also reflect the relationship between society and its others, and death becomes that through which lines of social demarcation are articulated. Determined as a conceptual and social "other side", death in Pynchon forms a challenge to modern culture, and makes an unexpected return: the dead return to haunt the living, the inanimate and the animate fuse, and technoscientific attempts at overcoming and controlling death result in its re-emergence in mass destruction and ecological damage. The questioning of the ontological line also affects the structuration of Pynchon's prose, where the recurrent narrated and narrative desire to reach the limits of representation is openly associated with death. Textualized, death appears in Pynchon's writing as a sudden rupture within the textual functioning, when the "other side", that is, the bare materiality of the signifier is foregrounded. In this study, Pynchon s cultural criticism and his poetics come together, and I analyze the subversive role of death in his fiction through Jean Baudrillard s genealogy of the modern notion of death from L échange symbolique et la mort (1976). Baudrillard sees an intrinsic bond between the social repression of death in modernity and the emergence of modern political economy, and in his analysis economy and language appear as parallel systems for generating value (exchange value/ sign-value). For Baudrillard, the modern notion of death as negativity in relation to the positivity of life, and the fact that death cannot be given a proper meaning, betray an antagonistic relation between death and the notion of value. As a mode of negativity (that is, non-value), death becomes a moment of rupture in relation to value-based thinking in short, rationalism. Through this rupture emerges a form of thinking Baudrillard labels the symbolic, characterized by ambivalence and the subversion of conceptual opposites.

Sisustaminen on kuin käsialaa : Carin Bryggman ja Lasse Ollinkari sisustusarkkitehdin ammatissa 1940- ja 1950-luvulla

"Interior Design is Like Handwriting." Carin Bryggman and Lasse Ollinkari as Interior Designers in the 1940s and 1950s My dissertation deals with the emergence of the interior designer's profession in Finland with focus on the 1940s and 1950s, the postwar years of reconstruction and modernism, as the historical context. The topic is addressed at both the collective and individual levels. Specific subjects of study are the training of interior designers (also known as interior architects), the association of Finnish interior architects (Sisustusarkkitehdit SIO), the professional field and its public image and two leading designers, Carin Bryggman (1920 1993) and Lasse Ollinkari (1921 1993). Though respected figures within the field, Bryggman and Ollinkari have otherwise remained little known and studied. My study presents a great deal of new empiria. The main materials consist of the documents of related institutions and the archives of Bryggman and Ollinkari, in which drawings and photographs figure prominently. The drawings illustrate in a new way the variety of professional tasks in the field. My results are also based on a large body of interviewed material. The materials are approached from two theoretical perspectives, with gender and margins as core concepts from the perspective of women's studies. The even gender division of Finnish interior designers revealed a difference with regard to neighbouring occupations and other countries. I claim that the division of tasks was not defined by gender. The second theoretical basis is the sociological study of professions. The high professional status achieved by interior designers is shown by the fact that of the many related titles in Finnish and Swedish, such as "furniture draughtsman" or "interior artist", interior architect became the established one, despite opposition from architects. My hypothesis that the professionalization of interior designers took place during the two postwar decades proved to be correct. The profession emerged through specialized education and became established with the founding of its own professional organization. From the outset, the goal was to mark a distinction between professionals of interior and furniture design and other designers and architects. Interior designers became a strong and successful modern professional group, involved in a wide range of projects from objects to interiors. Keywords: interior designers, interior architects, interior art, occupations, gender, professions, interior design, furniture, home, public space, Carin Bryggman, Lasse Ollinkari, the Sisustusarkkitehdit SIO association, 1940s and 1950s, reconstruction, modernism.

Focus on Form : J. J. Tikkanen, Giotto and Art Research in the 19th Century

My doctoral dissertation is on Johan Jakob Tikkanen (1857 1930), the first professor of art history in Finland, and his significance and methods in the context of late 19th and early 20th-century European art history. Tikkanen was one of the pioneering scholars in the field of medieval art research, and, along with Anton Springer, Heinrich Wölfflin, Aloïs Riegl, Adolfo Venturi, Franz Wickhoff, Julius von Schlosser, Aby Warburg, Emile Mâle and others, one of the scholars who defined art history as an independent academic discipline. Tikkanen s scholarly interests and his methods resemble those of many formalistically oriented German and Austrian art historians of his time. He became well known throughout Europe, mainly for his studies on illustrated medieval manuscripts. Tikkanen s dissertation, Der Malerische Styl Giotto s Versuch zu einer Characteristik Desselben, from 1884 was regarded in its day as the best form-analytical study on the painter. It has a central position in the present thesis, as it already included nearly all the methods that Tikkanen used and elaborated upon throughout his career. Giotto also gives a good perspective for comparing Tikkanen s ideas with a long art-historical tradition. Tikkanen was profoundly interested in artistic creativity. In his own words, he wanted to study das künstlerische Können , artistic ability, instead of das künstlerische Wollen or artistic will, which was an important theoretical issue in art history in the late 19th century. This starting point led him to the history of style and iconographical research. Along with the Danish art historian, Julius Lange, he was one of the first scholars who began to study the meaning of gestures and postures in art. In my dissertation I have emphasized the importance of Tikkanen s personal art education. I regard it as having influenced both his scholarly argumentation and his working methods. I have also written a short overview of the situation of art history in Finland and in Northern Countries before Tikkanen s time in order to give an idea of his scientific background. My thesis is a critical and historiographical study on J. J. Tikkanen s role in the development of art history and its methodology.