Marketing culture of Finnish research libraries : an analysis of marketing attitude, knowledge and behaviour

The aim of the present dissertation is to investigate the marketing culture of research libraries in Finland and to understand the awareness of the knowledge base of library management concerning modern marketing theories and practices. The study was based onthe notion that a leader in an organisation can have large impact on its culture. Therefore, it was considered important to learn about the market orientation that initiates at the top management and flows throughout the whole organisationthus resulting in a particular kind of library culture. The study attempts to examine the marketing culture of libraries by analysing the marketing attitudes, knowledge (underlying beliefs, values and assumptions), behaviour (market orientation), operational policies and activities, and their service performance (customer satisfaction). The research was based on the assumption that if the top management of libraries has market oriented behaviour, then their marketing attitudes, knowledge, operational policies and activities and service performance should also be in accordance. The dissertation attempts to connect all these theoretical threads of marketing culture. It investigates thirty three academic and special libraries in the south of Finland. The library director and three to ten customers from each library participated as respondents in this study. An integrated methodological approach of qualitative as well as quantitative methods was used to gain knowledge on the pertinent issues lying behind the marketing culture of research libraries. The analysis of the whole dissertation reveals that the concept of marketing has very varied status in the Finnish research libraries. Based on the entire findings, three kinds of marketing cultures were emerged: the strong- the high fliers; the medium- the brisk runners; and the weak- the slow walkers. The high fliers appeared to be modern marketing believers as their marketing approach was customer oriented and found to be closer to the emerging notions of contemporary relational marketing. The brisk runners were found to be traditional marketing advocates as their marketing approach is more `library centred¿than customer defined and thus is in line of `product orientation¿ i.e. traditional marketing. `Let the interested customers come to the library¿ was appeared to be the hallmark of the slow walkers. Application of conscious market orientation is not reflected in the library activities of the slow walkers. Instead their values, ideology and approach to serving the library customers is more in tuneof `usual service oriented Finnish way¿. The implication of the research is that it pays to be market oriented which results in higher customer satisfaction oflibraries. Moreover, it is emphasised that the traditional user based service philosophy of Finnish research libraries should not be abandoned but it needs to be further developed by building a relational based marketing system which will help the libraries to become more efficient and effective from the customers¿ viewpoint. The contribution of the dissertation lies in the framework showing the linkages between the critical components of the marketing culture of a library: antecedents, market orientation, facilitators and consequences. The dissertationdelineates the significant underlying dimensions of market-oriented behaviour of libraries which are namely customer philosophy, inter-functional coordination,strategic orientation, responsiveness, pricing orientation and competition orientation. The dissertation also showed the extent to which marketing attitudes, behaviour, knowledge were related and impact of market orientation on the serviceperformance of libraries. A strong positive association was found to exist between market orientation and marketing attitudes and knowledge. Moreover, it also shows that a higher market orientation is positively connected with the service performance of libraries, the ultimate result being higher customer satisfaction. The analysis shows that a genuine marketing culture represents a synthesis of certain marketing attitudes, knowledge and of selective practices. This finding is particularly significant in the sense that it manifests that marketing culture consists of a certain sets of beliefs and knowledge (which form a specific attitude towards marketing) and implementation of a certain set of activities that actually materialize the attitude of marketing into practice (market orientation) leading to superior service performance of libraries.

Generic and professional caring in a Chinese setting: an ethnopraphic study

The objective of the present study is to describe the cultural care practices, meanings, values and beliefs which form the basis of caring in a Chinese context. The research has its starting point in a caring science perspective and a qualitative research approach with interpretative ethnography as methodological guideline. The theoretical perspective is formed by elements of the theory of caritative caring, developed by Eriksson, and the theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality, developed by Leininger. Previous research of suffering, culture and caring is described and also a presentation of actual transcultural nursing research as well as a presentation of the social structure dimensions of Chinese culture is included in the theoretical background. The empirical part includes patients and relatives, nurses and Hu Gongs as informants. The data collected are analysed based on Geertz’s idea of forming “thick descriptions” through examining the “what, how and why” of people’s actions. The findings show that the family has a prominent position in Chinese caring practices. The patient plays an unobtrusive role and a mutual dependence between the patient and the family members is evident. The professional nursing care is an extended act which includes the family in the caring relationship. The care practices of the Chinese nurse are characterized by great professional nursing skills. Suffering is described by the informants as being caused by disease, pain and social circumstances. “Social suffering” is described as worse than physical or mental suffering. Culturally competent and congruent care is a prerequisite for avoiding cultural pain, imposition and blindness when caring for the suffering human being. The findings of the present study necessitate a broadening in caring theory to include the family in the caring relationship. A further conclusion is that a broadening in our perception and understanding of culture would promote the delivery of culturally competent and congruent care. Suffering need to be seen as enclosed in cultural patterns of how it is expressed, interpreted, understood and relieved. Care and caring need to be seen as embedded in culture and the care practices values and beliefs have to be congruent with the cultural patterns where the care is provided.

Enabling constructive alignment in programming instruction

In this thesis, simple methods have been sought to lower the teacher’s threshold to start to apply constructive alignment in instruction. From the phases of the instructional process, aspects that can be improved with little effort by the teacher have been identified. Teachers have been interviewed in order to find out what students actually learn in computer science courses. A quantitative analysis of the structured interviews showed that in addition to subject specific skills and knowledge, students learn many other skills that should be mentioned in the learning outcomes of the course. The students’ background, such as their prior knowledge, learning style and culture, affects how they learn in a course. A survey was conducted to map the learning styles of computer science students and to see if their cultural background affected their learning style. A statistical analysis of the data indicated that computer science students are different learners than engineering students in general and that there is a connection between the student’s culture and learning style. In this thesis, a simple self-assessment scale that is based on Bloom’s revised taxonomy has been developed. A statistical analysis of the test results indicates that in general the scale is quite reliable, but single students still slightly overestimate or under-estimate their knowledge levels. For students, being able to follow their own progress is motivating, and for a teacher, self-assessment results give information about how the class is proceeding and what the level of the students’ knowledge is.

Varhaiskristillisen ajattelun ja suomalaisen huippututkimuksen kokonaisesitys

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

Venäläistä rulettia – Nuorten perhesuunnittelun esteet ja tarpeet Pietarissa ja Riiassa

Latviassa ja Venäjällä heikko demografinen tilanne on lisännyt keskustelua seksuaali- ja kansalaisoikeuksista sekä valtion merkityksestä niiden toteuttamisessa. Väestöpolitiikassa näkyy yhteiskunnallinen tilanne sekä sen kyky ja mahdollisuudet huomioida nuorten perhesuunnitteluun liittyviä tarpeita. Huomion kohteena on myös palvelujärjestelmä ja siinä toteutuva yksilöllinen taso. Tutkin perhesuunnittelua kokonaisvaltaisesti, mikä ilmenee erilaisten polkuriippuvuuksien tarkasteluina. Mielenkiintoiseksi kohteen tekee entisten sosialististen valtioiden erityislaatuisen murroksen läpikäyminen. Perhesuunnittelu on osa seksuaali- ja ihmisoikeuksia. Siihen kuuluu seksuaaliterveydestä tiedottaminen ja ohjaus sekä siihen liittyvät toimenpiteet. Perhesuunnittelu sisältää niin sosiaaliset, kasvatukselliset kuin lääketieteellisetkin näkökulmat. Siihen liitetään myös moraalisia ja taloudellisia näkemyksiä, sekä politiikkaa ja henkilökohtaisuutta. Tutkimustehtäväni on nuorten perhesuunnittelun esteet ja tarpeet Riiassa ja Pietarissa. Sovellan metodologisena lähestymistapana sosiaalihistoriallista ja etnografista tutkimusotetta, jolloin perinteen vaikutusten, kulttuuristen rakenteiden ja yksilöllisten toimintatapojen ymmärtäminen mahdollistuu. Aineisto koostuu viranomaishaastatteluista sosialismin kaudella toteutuneesta sekä nykyisestä perhesuunnittelusta ja nuorten haastatteluista Pietarissa ja Riiassa. Perehdyn myös lisääntymisterveyteen liittyviin sanomalehtiartikkeleihin sekä Latviassa että Venäjällä. Lisäksi havainnoin seksuaalineuvontatilanteita Pietarissa. Sekä sosialismin aikana että nykyään painottuvat väestönkasvun odotukset, joita tuetaan sukupuoli- ja moraalikasvatuksen avulla. Perhesuunnittelun esteiden analyysin tuloksissa on nähtävissä sosiaalisten olosuhteiden ja rakenteiden merkitys. Jälkisosialistisesta riskiyhteiskunnasta puuttuvat yhteiskuntaan integroitumisen mahdollistavat instituutiot. Tämä ilmenee yhteiskunnallisena vastuuttomuutena. Universaalit palvelut ovat suurelta osin peräisin sosialismin ajalta. Kaupalliset yritykset tekevät lähinnä teknisiä, yksittäisiä ehkäisyvälineisiin liittyviä interventioita nuorten elämään. Teini-ikäiset jätetään oman harkintansa varaan. Latviassa perhesuunnitteluun liittyvä ennalta ehkäisevä toiminta on huomioitu uudessa lisääntymisterveyslaissa, mutta sen heikko toteutus tuo sen lähelle neuvostoaikaista kulttuurikonventiota, jossa määrällisillä suoritteilla ja sekundaaripreventiolla on arvoa. Venäjällä voimavarat kohdentuvat jälkihuollon palveluihin. Foucaultin valta-analyysi kertoo strategiasta, jossa ihminen sisäistää vallankäytön osaksi omaa ajatteluaan ja toimintaansa. Tässä näkökulmassa yksilöllinen, yhteiskunnallinen ja historiallinen ulottuvuus limittyvät toisiinsa. Vallan muodot ovat yhteiskunnan rakenteissa. Väestöpolitiikan avulla tuotetaan tietoa ja muovataan hallitsemisen kohteita. Osa haastatelluista nuorista omaksui yhteiskunnan passiivisuuden osaksi omaa toimintaansa. He eivät tiedostaneet palvelujärjestelmän puutteita eivätkä kyseenalaistaneet sen oikeutusta. Myös lehtiartikkelit ja viranomaishaastattelut tukivat osittain seksuaalikasvatuksen sivuuttamista. Silloin hyväksyttävänä totuutena pidettiin väestöpolitiikkaa, jossa on annettu tilaa populistisille suuntauksille. Sekä Latviassa että Venäjällä ilmaistiin tavoitteita väestön kasvusta. Kansainvälisten seksuaalioikeuksien maihinnousu ei ole poistanut ääri uskonnollisten ja osittain kansalaisjärjestöjen puitteissa tapahtuvaa perhesuunnittelun vastustusta. Näissä suuntauksissa vaikutetaan ihmisten moraaliin ja vastustetaan yhteiskunnan interventioita kieltämällä seksuaalikasvatus. Sosialismin aikana sosiaali- ja terveydenhuoltoa toteutettiin totalitaristisessa, suljetussa yhteiskunnassa tiukasti rajatuilla voimavaroilla. Tuolta ajalta peräisin oleva viranomaisten yleinen medikalisoitunut ja tekninen lähestymistapa estää osittain nuoren valtaistumista. Vieläkin heikko tiedottaminen ja puutteellinen koulutus vaikuttavat ammattilaisten keskuudessa. Yksi haitallisista perhesuunnitteluun kuuluvista uskomuksista oli hormonaalisen ehkäisyn aiheuttamat ongelmat. Lisäksi pelättiin heikkotasoisesti tehtyjen aborttien aiheuttavan hedelmättömyyttä. Uskomukset ovat eläneet vieläkin, kun osa asiantuntijoista kannusti ensimmäisen raskauden päättymistä synnytykseen. Näillä käsityksillä on ollut taipumus siirtyä sukupolvelta toiselle myös kansalaisten keskuudessa. Sukuyhteisöjen ja verkostojen oleellinen merkitys teini-ikäisen arjessa ja selviytymisessä painotti perinteistä sosialisaatiota. Uskomusten lisäksi nuorten heikko taloudellinen tilanne on ohjannut heitä ehkäisyssä luonnonmenetelmien käyttöön. Neuvostoaikainen seksuaalikielteisyyden perinne on vaikuttanut myös sukupolvien kyvyttömyyteen keskustella aiheesta. Yleisen ennaltaehkäisevän neuvonnan puuttuminen on suunnannut suurta osaa nuoria mallioppimiseen, jossa esimerkit ovat nousseet satunnaisista löydöistä. Toisaalta työntekijöiden neuvokkuus ja aloitteellisuus erilaisissa ohjaamistilanteissa, toimintatavoissa ja instituutioiden perustamisissa kuvaavat eettistä vastuunottoa ja paneutumista nuorten perhesuunnittelun toteutumiseen sekä sen mahdollisuuksiin. Perhesuunnitteluun liittyvän tiedonsaannin parantamiseksi viranomaiset ovat aloittaneet nuorten vertaisryhmiä. Lisäksi yhtenä uutena virallisena lähestymistapana oli neuvostoaikana kielletty psykoterapeuttisen suuntauksen avoin käyttöönotto. Myös nuorille suunnattuja palveluja niin lainsäädännön kuin instituutioiden tasolla on saatu aikaan. Nämä myönteiset tapaukset jäivät kuitenkin yksittäisiksi, osittain joidenkin työntekijöiden omakohtaisen sitoutumisen varaan toimiviksi. Tutkimuksessa nousee esiin yhteiskunnan vastuu erityisesti haavoittuvien ryhmien kohdalla. Nuoret ovat tiedoiltaan ja kokemuksiltaan heikossa asemassa. Sosiaalipoliittisesta näkökulmasta julkisilla ja ennaltaehkäisevillä palveluilla on keskeinen merkitys etenkin niiden kohdalla, jotka tarvitsevat runsaasti palveluja. Usein tähän ryhmään kuuluvat ovat passiivisia tiedon hakijoita. Tutkimus tuo esille perhesuunnittelun palvelujärjestelmään ja sen kohderyhmään kuuluvan moniulotteisuuden, jossa toisiinsa nivoutuvat kulttuuriset myytit, uskomukset, tabut, toimintatavat ja tietämys. Näiden polkujen avaaminen tässä tutkimuksessa edistää perhesuunnittelun esteiden tunnistamista ja niihin soveltuvien ratkaisukeinojen löytymistä.

Thinking Outside the Box: Enhancing Science Teaching by Combining (Instead of Contrasting) Laboratory and Simulation Activities

The focus of the present work was on 10- to 12-year-old elementary school students’ conceptual learning outcomes in science in two specific inquiry-learning environments, laboratory and simulation. The main aim was to examine if it would be more beneficial to combine than contrast simulation and laboratory activities in science teaching. It was argued that the status quo where laboratories and simulations are seen as alternative or competing methods in science teaching is hardly an optimal solution to promote students’ learning and understanding in various science domains. It was hypothesized that it would make more sense and be more productive to combine laboratories and simulations. Several explanations and examples were provided to back up the hypothesis. In order to test whether learning with the combination of laboratory and simulation activities can result in better conceptual understanding in science than learning with laboratory or simulation activities alone, two experiments were conducted in the domain of electricity. In these experiments students constructed and studied electrical circuits in three different learning environments: laboratory (real circuits), simulation (virtual circuits), and simulation-laboratory combination (real and virtual circuits were used simultaneously). In order to measure and compare how these environments affected students’ conceptual understanding of circuits, a subject knowledge assessment questionnaire was administered before and after the experimentation. The results of the experiments were presented in four empirical studies. Three of the studies focused on learning outcomes between the conditions and one on learning processes. Study I analyzed learning outcomes from experiment I. The aim of the study was to investigate if it would be more beneficial to combine simulation and laboratory activities than to use them separately in teaching the concepts of simple electricity. Matched-trios were created based on the pre-test results of 66 elementary school students and divided randomly into a laboratory (real circuits), simulation (virtual circuits) and simulation-laboratory combination (real and virtual circuits simultaneously) conditions. In each condition students had 90 minutes to construct and study various circuits. The results showed that studying electrical circuits in the simulation–laboratory combination environment improved students’ conceptual understanding more than studying circuits in simulation and laboratory environments alone. Although there were no statistical differences between simulation and laboratory environments, the learning effect was more pronounced in the simulation condition where the students made clear progress during the intervention, whereas in the laboratory condition students’ conceptual understanding remained at an elementary level after the intervention. Study II analyzed learning outcomes from experiment II. The aim of the study was to investigate if and how learning outcomes in simulation and simulation-laboratory combination environments are mediated by implicit (only procedural guidance) and explicit (more structure and guidance for the discovery process) instruction in the context of simple DC circuits. Matched-quartets were created based on the pre-test results of 50 elementary school students and divided randomly into a simulation implicit (SI), simulation explicit (SE), combination implicit (CI) and combination explicit (CE) conditions. The results showed that when the students were working with the simulation alone, they were able to gain significantly greater amount of subject knowledge when they received metacognitive support (explicit instruction; SE) for the discovery process than when they received only procedural guidance (implicit instruction: SI). However, this additional scaffolding was not enough to reach the level of the students in the combination environment (CI and CE). A surprising finding in Study II was that instructional support had a different effect in the combination environment than in the simulation environment. In the combination environment explicit instruction (CE) did not seem to elicit much additional gain for students’ understanding of electric circuits compared to implicit instruction (CI). Instead, explicit instruction slowed down the inquiry process substantially in the combination environment. Study III analyzed from video data learning processes of those 50 students that participated in experiment II (cf. Study II above). The focus was on three specific learning processes: cognitive conflicts, self-explanations, and analogical encodings. The aim of the study was to find out possible explanations for the success of the combination condition in Experiments I and II. The video data provided clear evidence about the benefits of studying with the real and virtual circuits simultaneously (the combination conditions). Mostly the representations complemented each other, that is, one representation helped students to interpret and understand the outcomes they received from the other representation. However, there were also instances in which analogical encoding took place, that is, situations in which the slightly discrepant results between the representations ‘forced’ students to focus on those features that could be generalised across the two representations. No statistical differences were found in the amount of experienced cognitive conflicts and self-explanations between simulation and combination conditions, though in self-explanations there was a nascent trend in favour of the combination. There was also a clear tendency suggesting that explicit guidance increased the amount of self-explanations. Overall, the amount of cognitive conflicts and self-explanations was very low. The aim of the Study IV was twofold: the main aim was to provide an aggregated overview of the learning outcomes of experiments I and II; the secondary aim was to explore the relationship between the learning environments and students’ prior domain knowledge (low and high) in the experiments. Aggregated results of experiments I & II showed that on average, 91% of the students in the combination environment scored above the average of the laboratory environment, and 76% of them scored also above the average of the simulation environment. Seventy percent of the students in the simulation environment scored above the average of the laboratory environment. The results further showed that overall students seemed to benefit from combining simulations and laboratories regardless of their level of prior knowledge, that is, students with either low or high prior knowledge who studied circuits in the combination environment outperformed their counterparts who studied in the laboratory or simulation environment alone. The effect seemed to be slightly bigger among the students with low prior knowledge. However, more detailed inspection of the results showed that there were considerable differences between the experiments regarding how students with low and high prior knowledge benefitted from the combination: in Experiment I, especially students with low prior knowledge benefitted from the combination as compared to those students that used only the simulation, whereas in Experiment II, only students with high prior knowledge seemed to benefit from the combination relative to the simulation group. Regarding the differences between simulation and laboratory groups, the benefits of using a simulation seemed to be slightly higher among students with high prior knowledge. The results of the four empirical studies support the hypothesis concerning the benefits of using simulation along with laboratory activities to promote students’ conceptual understanding of electricity. It can be concluded that when teaching students about electricity, the students can gain better understanding when they have an opportunity to use the simulation and the real circuits in parallel than if they have only the real circuits or only a computer simulation available, even when the use of the simulation is supported with the explicit instruction. The outcomes of the empirical studies can be considered as the first unambiguous evidence on the (additional) benefits of combining laboratory and simulation activities in science education as compared to learning with laboratories and simulations alone.

Making Sense of Software Product Requirements

One of the most crucial tasks for a company offering a software product is to decide what new features should be implemented in the product’s forthcoming versions. Yet, existing studies show that this is also a task with which many companies are struggling. This problem has been claimed to be ambiguous and changing. There are better or worse solutions to the problem, but no optimal one. Furthermore, the criteria determining the success of the solution keeps changing due to continuously changing competition, technologies and market needs. This thesis seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges that companies have reportedly faced in determining the requirements for their forthcoming product versions. To this end, product management related activities are explored in seven companies. Following grounded theory approach, the thesis conducts four iterations of data analysis, where each of the iterations goes beyond the previous one. The thesis results in a theory proposal intended to 1) describe the essential characteristics of organizations’ product management challenges, 2) explain the origins of the perceived challenges and 3) suggest strategies to alleviate the perceived challenges. The thesis concludes that current product management approaches are becoming inadequate to deal with challenges that have multiple and conflicting interpretations, different value orientations, unclear goals, contradictions and paradoxes. This inadequacy continues to increase until current beliefs and assumptions about the product management challenges are questioned and a new paradigm for dealing with the challenges is adopted.

I volontari italiani nelle Waffen-SS. Il pensiero politico, la formazione culturale e le motivazioni al volontariato. Una storia orale

My doctoral dissertation examines the experiences of the Italian volunteers in the Waffen-SS troops using in-depth interviews with former volunteers as the main primary source. This phenomenon, even if significant in size (depending on the source, some 15 000-20 000 Italian men volunteered in the Waffen-SS), has been hitherto largely unknown to historical research. The available literature on the Italian volunteers, mainly written by military history enthusiast journalists and methodologically weak, concentrates mainly on the combat operations and military organization, and offers a rather stereotypical profile of the volunteers. My dissertation does not aim to reconstruct the military history of the different divisions of the Waffen-SS in which Italian volunteers operated but instead to examine the subjective, private and intimate experience of the volunteers in order to understand the motivations, attitudes, beliefs and cultural and family background, as well as their political ideas. The main objective of my doctoral dissertation is to discover the ideological precepts of the volunteers’ political credo. As the last phase of fascism and its ideology, often defined as the “Germanisation” or “Nazification” of fascism, is still the object of wide academic debate, a better understanding of the volunteers’ ideology also contributes to deepening overall knowledge of the nature of this last phase. The theoretical frame of my dissertation lies in oral history, in particular in the postmodernist approach to oral history, through which I reconstruct the volunteers’ ideology. In-depth interviews with former volunteers are the main primary source, but multiple data collection methods have been adopted. Phone interviews and correspondence with the volunteers have also been considered as primary sources. In addition to interviews and correspondence, family archives consisting of diaries, correspondence with the volunteers’ relatives and photographic material have also been collected and examined. An ethnographic observation of the volunteers’ domestic spaces has been conducted during the in-depth interviews, and photo self-elicitation techniques have been used in cases where the volunteers were willing to share their photographs. An exhaustive portrait of the ideological structure of the volunteers has been obtained, as well as of the cultural and social origins of the values that contributed to the rise and adoption of this ideology. Further, the volunteers’ motivations to enlist have been clearly reconstructed, together with their cultural, political, social and military backgrounds. The results of the research are particularly relevant both for comprehension of the Italian phenomenon of volunteering in the Waffen-SS and for the reconstruction of the ideological dynamics of the last phase of fascism. The volunteers’ political and ideological system, which can be defined as the Italian SS-fascist ideology, disagrees strongly with the vaguely described ideological profile offered by previous studies that describe volunteers as generically “super-fascist”. The research also offers the opportunity for a deeper understanding of the final fascist ideological trajectory, currently defined, not without a certain level of approximation, as the “Germanisation” or “Nazification” of fascist ideology.

Understanding and improving quality of secondary school education : conceptions among teachers in Tanzania

Temat för studien handlar om gymnasielärares uppfattningar om kvalitet och om hur kvalitet kan utvecklas i gymnasieutbildningen in Tanzania. Studien är till sin karaktär kvalitativ och består av utprövade semistrukturerade intervjuer med sammanlagt trettio lärare som arbetar i fyra gymnasieskolor både i urbana och rurala miljöer. Lärarna har varierande arbetserfarenhet och undervisar i olika ämnen. Huvudfokus har gällt identifieringen av variationer i lärares uppfattningar om kvalitet. På basen av två forskningsfrågor avslöjar analysen uppfattningar av hur lärare förstår och önskar utveckla kvaliteten på gymnasieutbildningen. Resultaten visar att lärare förstår kvaliteten på utbildningen i sina skolor som försök att möta skolans och samhällets mål, som individuella prestationer och förmågor som att inneha kompetenser och som att möta utmaningar inom utbildning, Identifierade uppfattningar var baserade på lärarnas personliga kunskap, arbetsmiljön och varierande omständigheter som rådde i deras skolor. Uppfattningar om en förbättring av kvaliteten i gymnasieutbildningen innefattade utveckling av lärares motivation, skolmiljön, arbetet i klassrum, kvaliteten på lärares kunskaper och färdigheter och undervisningsmaterial. Ambitionen bakom studien ar att erbjuda en plattform för strategier för att förbättra kvaliteten på gymnasieutbildningen. Resultaten strävar till att ge en fördjupad insikt i uppfattningar hos en utvald grupp av lärare som arbetar under samma villkor inom gymnasieskolor I Tanzania. Av den här anledningen är den genererade kunskapen därför relevant för att belysa lärares uppfattningar även utanför den studerade gruppen av respondenter.

Simulerade skoldilemman : redskap för utveckling av reflektionsförmåga?

Syftet med avhandlingen är att studera lärarstuderandes samtal om simulerad skolverksamhet för att söka förstå möjligheter och begränsningar med simulerade dilemman som medierande redskap för reflektion över lärares arbete. Undersökningen är genomförd under seminarier i svensk och finländsk lärarutbildning. Forskningsprocessen består av tre faser; en konstruktionsfas, en prövningsfas och en undersökningsfas. Under konstruktionsfasen producerades simuleringar på basen av en narrativ analys av semistrukturerade intervjuer med nyutbildade lärare. Simuleringarna testades med lärare och lärarstuderande i prövningsfasen. I undersökningsfasen utarbetades reflektionsfrågor och studiens empiriska data samlades in genom videoobservation. Totalt femton samtal filmades vid fem seminarier och tre olika lärosäten, två i Sverige och ett i Svenskfinland. De studerande som förekommer i datamaterialet befann sig i början, mitten och i slutet av sin lärarutbildning. Analysen bygger på Schöns olika reflektionsbegrepp och ett sociokulturellt perspektiv som bygger på den ryska kulturhistoriska skolan. Resultaten visar att de studerande engagerade sig starkt i samtalen i de flesta fall och att engagemanget var relaterat till deras uppfattningar om simuleringens autenticitet. Simuleringarna och reflektionsfrågorna användes både som sekundära och tertiära artefakter. Bland simuleringarnas modaliteter framstod ljudet som den viktigaste för nyanser av förståelse och engagemang och reflektionsfrågorna fungerade som kommunikativt stöd och strukturell scaffolding. När de studerande använde simuleringen för dekontextualisering i en öppen dialog förekom en tertiär dialog, i vilken förhandling av ny mening ägde rum. Kreativ reflektion – att se dilemmat ur olika perspektiv och reciprok reflektion – öppen utmanande dialog förekom flitigt i vilka en didaktiskanalytisk praktikgemenskap skapades. Slutsatserna är att simulerade skoldilemman kan utgöra en potential för lärarstuderandes utveckling av reflektionsförmåga när de används i mindre samtalsgrupper och den didaktiska inramningen relateras till aktuellt kursinnehåll. Om simuleringens innehåll inte upplevs som autentiskt finns dock risk för att förutfattade meningar om lärares arbete förstärks om de inte utmanas av medstuderande eller lärarutbildare.

Perceptions of health club exercise among middle-aged women

The goal of this Master’s Thesis is to investigate the typical perceptions of health club exercise among middle-aged women. This study is conducted for a Finnish health club Viva Wellness Club due to their interest to examine the perceived barriers of middle-aged women to exercise at their health club. In addition, the behavioral beliefs, normative beliefs, motivation and facilitating factors concerning health club exercise are studied. The social aspect of health clubs as social environments is taken into account. The study is conducted qualitatively with semi-structured interviews Eight customers from Viva Wellness Club are interviewed. The findings revealed that the consumers perceived health club exercise as important, effective, diverse and convenient. Despite the fact that some differences were found, the perceptions about exercise in general concurred with the contestants’ perceptions about health club exercise. The perceived barriers to health club exercise encompassed lack of time, tiredness, health restrictions, weather, family commitments and feelings of embarrassment about one’s appearance and condition.

Understanding Online Game Players' Post-adoption Behavior: an Investigation of Social Network Games in China

Retaining players and re-attracting switching players has long been a central topic for SNG providers with regard to the post-adoption stage of playing an online game. However, there has not been much research which has explored players’ post-adoption behavior by incorporating the continuance intention and the switching intention. In addition, traditional IS continuance theories were mainly developed to investigate users’ continued use of utilitarian IS, and thus they may fall short when trying to explain the continued use of hedonic IS. Furthermore, compared to the richer literature on IS continuance, far too little attention has been paid to IS switching, leading to a dearth of knowledge on the subject, despite the increased incidence of the switching phenomenon in the IS field. By addressing the limitations of prior literature, this study seeks to examine the determinants of SNG players’ two different post-adoption behaviors, including the continuance intention and the switching intention. This study takes a positivist approach and uses survey research method to test five proposed research models based on Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2; Use and Gratification Theory; Push-Pull-Mooring model; Cognitive Dissonance Theory; and a self-developed model respectively with empirical data collected from the SNG players of one of the biggest SNG providers in China. A total of 3919 valid responses and 541 valid responses were used to examine the continuance intention and the switching intention, respectively. SEM is utilized as the data analysis method. The proposed research models are supported by the empirical data. The continuance intention is determined by enjoyment, fantasy, escapism, social interaction, social presence, social influence, achievement and habit. The switching intention is determined by enjoyment, satisfaction, subjective norms, descriptive norms, alternative attractiveness, the need for variety, change experience, and adaptation cost. This study contributes to IS theories in three important ways. Firstly, it shows IS switching should be included in IS post-adoption research together with IS continuance. Secondly, a modern IS is usually multi-functional and SNG players have multiple reasons for using a SNG, thus a player’s beliefs about the hedonic, social and utilitarian perceptions of their continued use of the SNG exert significant effects on the continuance intention. Thirdly, the determinants of the switch ing intention mainly exert push, pull, and mooring effects. Players’ beliefs about their current SNG and the available alternatives, as well as their individual characteristics are all significant determinants of the switching intention. SNG players combine these effects in order to formulate the switching intention. Finally, this study presents limitations and suggestions for future research.

Future at risk: A study on the Club of Rome

Sustainability, in its modern meaning, has been discussed for more than forty years. However, many experts believe that humanity is still far from being sustainable. Some experts have argued that humanity should seek survivable development because it is too late for sustainable one, since 1990s. Obviously, some problems prevented humanity from becoming sustainable. This thesis focuses on the agenda of sustainability discussions and seeks for the essential topics missing from it. For this purpose, the research is conducted on 21 out of 33 books endorsed by the Club of Rome. All of these books are titled ‘a report to the Club of Rome’. The Club of Rome is an organization that has been constantly working on the problems of humankind for the past 40 years. This thesis has three main components: first, the messages of the reports to the Club of Rome, second, academics perceptions of the Club, and third, the Club member perceptions of its evolution, messages and missing topics. This thesis investigates the evolution of four aspects in the reports. The first one is the agenda of the reports. The second one is the basic approaches of the Club (i.e., global, long-term and holistic). The third one is the ways that the reports treat free market and growth ideology. The fourth one is the approach of the reports toward components of the global complex system (i.e., society, economy and politics). The outline of the thesis is as follows. First, the original reports are briefly summarized. After this, the academic perceptions are discussed and structured around three concepts (i.e., futures studies, sustainability and degrowth). In the final step, the perceptions of the experts are collected and analysed, using a variation of Delphi method, called ‘in-depth interviews’, and ‘quality content analysis’ method. This thesis is useful for those interested in sustainability, global problems, and the Club of Rome. This thesis concludes that the reports from 1972 up to 1980 were cohesive in discussing topics related to the problems of humankind. The topics of the reports are fragmented after this period. The basic approaches of CoR are visible in all the reports. However, after 1980, those approaches and especially holistic thinking are only visible in the background. Regarding the free market and growth ideology, although all the reports are against them, the early reports were more explicitly expressing their disagreement. A milestone is noticeable around 1980 when such objections went completely to the background. However, recent reports are more similar to those of 1970s both in adopting a holistic approach and in explicitly criticizing free market and growth ideology. Finally, concerning the components of global complex system, the society is excluded and the focus of the reports is on politics, economy and their relation. Concerning the topics missing from the debate, this thesis concludes that no major research has been conducted on the fundamental and underlying reasons of the problems (e.g. beliefs, values and culture). Studying the problems without considering their underlying reasons, obviously, leads to superficial and ineffective solutions. This might be one of the reasons that sustainability discussions have as yet led to no concrete result.

Evaluation of Location Intelligence exploitation in capital-intensive business

As technology has developed it has increased the number of data produced and collected from business environment. Over 80% of that data includes some sort of reference to geographical location. Individuals have used that information by utilizing Google Maps or different GPS devices, however such information has remained unexploited in business. This thesis will study the use and utilization of geographically referenced data in capital-intensive business by first providing theoretical insight into how data and data-driven management enables and enhances the business and how especially geographically referenced data adds value to the company and then examining empirical case evidence how geographical information can truly be exploited in capital-intensive business and what are the value adding elements of geographical information to the business. The study contains semi-structured interviews that are used to scan attitudes and beliefs of an organization towards the geographic information and to discover fields of applications for the use of geographic information system within the case company. Additionally geographical data is tested in order to illustrate how the data could be used in practice. Finally the outcome of the thesis provides understanding from which elements the added value of geographical information in business is consisted of and how such data can be utilized in the case company and in capital-intensive business.

Social Solidarity and Fear of Crime - Community and Individual Approaches in Responses to Mass Violence after School Shootings

The aim of this study was to examine community and individual approaches in responses to mass violence after the school shooting incidents in Jokela (November 2007) and Kauhajoki (September 2008), Finland. In considering the community approach, responses to any shocking criminal event may have integrative, as well as disintegrative effects, within the neighborhood. The integration perspective argues that a heinous criminal event within one’s community is a matter of offence to collectively held feelings and beliefs, and increases perceived solidarity; whereas the disintegration perspective suggests that a criminal event weakens the social fabric of community life by increasing fear of crime and mistrust among locals. In considering the individual approach, socio-demographic factors, such as one’s gender, are typically significant indicators, which explain variation in fear of crime. Beyond this, people are not equally exposed to violent crime and therefore prior victimization and event related experiences may further explain why people differ in their sensitivity to risk from mass violence. Finally, factors related to subjective mental health, such as depressed mood, are also likely to moderate individual differences in responses to mass violence. This study is based on the correlational design of four independent cross-sectional postal surveys. The sampling frames (N=700) for the surveys were the Finnish speaking adult population aged 18–74-years. The first mail survey in Jokela (n=330) was conducted between May and June 2008, approximately six months from the shooting incident at the local high-school. The second Jokela survey (n=278) was conducted in May–June of 2009, 18 months removed from the incident. The first survey in Kauhajoki (n=319) was collected six months after the incident at the local University of Applied Sciences, March– April 2009, and the second (n=339) in March–April 2010, approximately 18 months after the event. Linear and ordinal regression and path analysis are used as methods of analyses. The school shootings in Jokela and Kauhajoki were extremely disturbing events, which deeply affected the communities involved. However, based on the results collected, community responses to mass violence between the two localities were different. An increase in social solidarity appears to apply in the case of the Jokela community, but not in the case of the Kauhajoki community. Thus a criminal event does not necessarily impact the wider community. Every empirical finding is most likely related to different contextual and event-specific factors. Beyond this, community responses to mass violence in Jokela also indicated that the incident was related to a more general sense of insecurity and was also associating with perceived community deterioration and further suggests that responses to mass violence may have both integrating and disintegrating effects. Moreover, community responses to mass violence should also be examined in relation to broader social anxieties and as a proxy for generalized insecurity. Community response is an emotive process and incident related feelings are perhaps projected onto other identifiable concerns. However, this may open the door for social errors and, despite integrative effects, this may also have negative consequences within the neighborhood. The individual approach suggests that women are more fearful than men when a threat refers to violent crime. Young women (aged 18–34) were the most worried age and gender group as concerns perception of threat from mass violence at schools compared to young men (aged 18–34), who were also the least worried age and gender group when compared to older men. It was also found that concerns about mass violence were stronger among respondents with the lowest level of monthly household income compared to financially better-off respondents. Perhaps more importantly, responses to mass violence were affected by the emotional proximity to the event; and worry about the recurrence of school shootings was stronger among respondents who either were a parent of a school-aged child, or knew a victim. Finally, results indicate that psychological wellbeing is an important individual level factor. Respondents who expressed depressed mood consistently expressed their concerns about mass violence and community deterioration. Systematic assessments of the impact of school shooting events on communities are therefore needed. This requires the consolidation of community and individual approaches. Comparative study designs would further benefit from international collaboration across disciplines. Extreme school violence has also become a national concern and deeper understanding of crime related anxieties in contemporary Finland also requires community-based surveys.