Explaining the intention to play and behavior of playing sports betting games of young Finnish adults : an application of the theory of planned behavior

The aim of this Master’s Thesis was to examine the determinants of intention and behavior of playing sports betting games in order to explain the intention to play in a more precise way and to be able to understand the behavior of playing. The theory of planned behavior was applied in explaining the intention of young Finnish adults aged 18 to 34. A quantitative research method was applied and an online survey was sent to the students of Lappeenranta University of Technology and to the subscribers of Urheilulehti in order to reach a sample that present the young population of Finland. The theory of the study focused on the theory of planned behavior and its antecedents, attitude towards behavior, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control as well as motivation. By analyzing the data, causal relationships were found through which the explanation of intention was possible. The results showed that attitude towards playing, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and motivation impact the formation of intention significantly. The results also indicated that intention impacts significantly to the playing frequency.

Conceptions of mathematics teacher education : thoughts among teacher educators in Tanzania

This study addresses the question of teacher educators’ conceptions of mathematics teacher education (MTE) in teacher colleges in Tanzania, and their thoughts on how to further develop it. The tension between exponents of content as opposed to pedagogy has continued to cause challenging conceptual differences, which also influences what teacher educators conceive as desirable in the development of this domain. This tension is connected to the dissatisfaction of parents and teachers with the failure of school mathematics. From this point of view, the overall aim was to identify and describe teacher educators’ various conceptions of MTE. Inspired by the debate among teacher educators about what the balance should be between subject matter and pedagogical knowledge, it was important to look at the theoretical faces of MTE. The theoretical background involved the review of what is visible in MTE, what is yet to be known and the challenges within the practice. This task revealed meanings, perspectives in MTE, professional development and assessment. To do this, two questions were asked, to which no clear solutions satisfactorily existed. The questions to guide the investigation were, firstly, what are teacher educators’ conceptions of MTE, and secondly, what are teacher educators’ thoughts on the development of MTE? The two questions led to the choice of phenomenography as the methodological approach. Against the guiding questions, 27 mathematics teacher educators were interviewed in relation to the first question, while 32 responded to an open-ended questionnaire regarding question two. The interview statements as well as the questionnaire responses were coded and analysed (classified). The process of classification generated patterns of qualitatively different ways of seeing MTE. The results indicate that MTE is conceived as a process of learning through investigation, fostering inspiration, an approach to learning with an emphasis on problem solving, and a focus on pedagogical knowledge and skills in the process of teaching and learning. In addition, the teaching and learning of mathematics is seen as subject didactics with a focus on subject matter and as an organized integration of subject matter, pedagogical knowledge and some school practice; and also as academic content knowledge in which assessment is inherent. The respondents also saw the need to build learner-educator relationships. Finally, they emphasized taking advantage of teacher educators’ neighbourhood learning groups, networking and collaboration as sustainable knowledge and skills sharing strategies in professional development. Regarding desirable development, teacher educators’ thoughts emphasised enhancing pedagogical knowledge and subject matter, and to be determined by them as opposed to conventional top-down seminars and workshops. This study has revealed various conceptions and thoughts about MTE based on teacher educators´ diverse history of professional development in mathematics. It has been reasonably substantiated that some teacher educators teach school mathematics in the name of MTE, hardly distinguishing between the role and purpose of the two in developing a mathematics teacher. What teacher educators conceive as MTE and what they do regarding the education of teachers of mathematics revealed variations in terms of seeing the phenomenon of interest. Within limits, desirable thoughts shed light on solutions to phobias, and in the same way low self-esteem and stigmatization call for the building of teacher educator-student teacher relationships.

Analysis of Satellite Data for Forest Segmentation

In this work we study the classification of forest types using mathematics based image analysis on satellite data. We are interested in improving classification of forest segments when a combination of information from two or more different satellites is used. The experimental part is based on real satellite data originating from Canada. This thesis gives summary of the mathematics basics of the image analysis and supervised learning , methods that are used in the classification algorithm. Three data sets and four feature sets were investigated in this thesis. The considered feature sets were 1) histograms (quantiles) 2) variance 3) skewness and 4) kurtosis. Good overall performances were achieved when a combination of ASTERBAND and RADARSAT2 data sets was used.

Teaching mathematics and programming : new approaches with empirical evaluation

Programming and mathematics are core areas of computer science (CS) and consequently also important parts of CS education. Introductory instruction in these two topics is, however, not without problems. Studies show that CS students find programming difficult to learn and that teaching mathematical topics to CS novices is challenging. One reason for the latter is the disconnection between mathematics and programming found in many CS curricula, which results in students not seeing the relevance of the subject for their studies. In addition, reports indicate that students' mathematical capability and maturity levels are dropping. The challenges faced when teaching mathematics and programming at CS departments can also be traced back to gaps in students' prior education. In Finland the high school curriculum does not include CS as a subject; instead, focus is on learning to use the computer and its applications as tools. Similarly, many of the mathematics courses emphasize application of formulas, while logic, formalisms and proofs, which are important in CS, are avoided. Consequently, high school graduates are not well prepared for studies in CS. Motivated by these challenges, the goal of the present work is to describe new approaches to teaching mathematics and programming aimed at addressing these issues: Structured derivations is a logic-based approach to teaching mathematics, where formalisms and justifications are made explicit. The aim is to help students become better at communicating their reasoning using mathematical language and logical notation at the same time as they become more confident with formalisms. The Python programming language was originally designed with education in mind, and has a simple syntax compared to many other popular languages. The aim of using it in instruction is to address algorithms and their implementation in a way that allows focus to be put on learning algorithmic thinking and programming instead of on learning a complex syntax. Invariant based programming is a diagrammatic approach to developing programs that are correct by construction. The approach is based on elementary propositional and predicate logic, and makes explicit the underlying mathematical foundations of programming. The aim is also to show how mathematics in general, and logic in particular, can be used to create better programs.

Matemaattiset opetusympäristöt ja matemaattisen käyttöliittymän käytettävyys

Tämän diplomityön tarkoituksena on kuvata Lappeenrannan teknillisessä yliopistossa kehitetyn luentojen tueksi tarkoitetun Matematiikan virtuaalimateriaalin hallintaympäristön kehityskaari. Järjestelmä luotiin parantamaanopetuksen laatua siten, että sen avulla opiskelijat saavat helposti käyttöönsä suomenkielistä, laadukkaalla kirjoitusjäljellä olevaa opiskelumateriaalia 24 tuntia vuorokaudessa. Lisäksi järjestelmän tavoitteena oli helpottaa opettajien työtaakkaa siten, että he pystyvät luomaan viikoittaiset harjoitustehtäväpaketit sekä tentit suoraan tietokannasta. Järjestelmän kehitys alkoi vuonna 2001, jonka jälkeen sitä on jatkuvasti muokattu opettajien ja opiskelijoiden avustuksella yhäkäyttäjäystävällisempään suuntaan. Testausmenetelminä on käytetty asiantuntijatestausta, lomakkeita ja varsinaista loppukäyttäjätestausta. Kehityksen tuloksenaon saatu järjestelmä, joka voidaan ottaa käyttöön kaikessa matematiikan perusopetuksessa.

Matematiikan opetuksen virtuaaliympäristöjen pedagoginen käyttö

Tämän kandityön tarkoituksena on selvittää ja kehittää Lappeenrannan teknillisen yliopiston sovelletun matematiikan laitoksella luotua virtuaalimateriaalin käyttöä eri kohderyhmille sopivaksi sekä käyttäjäystävällisemmäksi. Matematiikan virtuaalimateriaali on luotu tukemaan lähiopetusta matematiikan perusopetuksessa. Matematiikan virtuaalimateriaalin hallintaympäristöä on kehitetty vuodesta 2001. Järjestelmää sekä sen opiskelumateriaalia on kehitetty opettajien ja opiskelijoiden avulla. Järjestelmä kattaa teknillisen yliopiston eri osastojen matematiikan peruskurssien materiaalit. Sen käytöllä opettajat voivat hankkia itselleen lisää aikaa opetuksen suunnitteluun materiaalin luomisen nopeutuessa, koska opetusmateriaali voidaan nopeasti kasata valmiista tehtävistä ja teoriaosioista. Opiskelijoiden kannalta hyvätasoinen oppimateriaali on jatkuvasti saatavilla ja sen avulla on myös helppo opiskella hyvien hakutoimintojen ansiosta.

Matematiikan perusopetuksen internet-aineiston tuottaminen

Tämän diplomityön tarkoituksena on kuvata Lappeenrannan teknillisessä yliopistossa matematiikan perusopetuksen virtuaaliympäristöä pedagogisesti toimivana oppimisympäristönä. Matematiikan virtuaalimateriaali on luotu tukemaan lähiopetusta matematiikan perusopetuksessa. Virtuaalimateriaalin kehittämisessä tähdätään pedagogiseen osaamiseen ja järjestelmän toimintalogiikan kehittämiseen sisällönhallintatyökalujen avulla. Opiskelun ja opetuksen kansainvälistymisen myötä on kehitetty perusmatematiikan virtuaaliympäristöä niin, että järjestelmä tarjoaa yliopiston opettajille ja suomalaisille sekä ulkomaalasille opiskelijoille yhteisen perusmatematiikan virtuaaliympäristön. Kehityksen tuloksena on saatu järjestelmä, joka hyödyntää tietoverkkoja kuten Wikipediaa verkko-opetuksen aputyökaluna.

Muovituotteen markkinakartoitus ja markkinoinninsuunnittelu

Oy Finnpak Ab haluaa parantaa valumuovituoteryhmänsä markkina-tuntemusta ja kartoittaa potentiaaliset asiakkaansa Suomen ja Ruotsin markkinoilla. Diplomityön tavoitteena on selvittää edellä olevat asiat, sekä tarkastella yrityksen nykytilaa ja miettiä, mitä kehittämistä yrityksen nykyisessä markkinoinnissa on. Saatujen tietojen perusteella muodos-tetaan toimintorunko, markkinointisuunnitelma, jota käytetään hyväksi lähivuosien liiketoimintastrategioiden suunnittelussa.Potentiaalisista asiakkaista saadut tiedot perustuvat kyselytutkimukseen. Tutkimus suoritettiin soittamalla ensin valitun teollisuussektorin yrityksiin ja kohdeyrityksille lähetettiin tutkimuslomake.Työssä saatujen tulosten mukaan sekä sisäisessä että ulkoisessa markkinoinnissa on huomattavasti parantamisen varaa. Tärkein työssä esiin tullut uudistus valumuovipuolella oli tuotekehityksen maksullistaminen. Ylivoimaisesti suurin työssä esiin tullut projekti on kuitenkin yritysnimen yhtäläistäminen nykyisen tuotenimen kanssa. Yrityksen nimi on tarkoitus uudistaa vuoteen 2003 mennessä, joka on yrityksen neljäskymmenes toimintavuosi.

Métamorphoses identitaires en situation de mobilité

Identity metamorphoses in a context of mobility This study has its roots in the current upsurge in student mobility and in the scientific debates about the concepts of identity and intercultural communication. Based on a corpus of interviews with French Erasmus students in Finland, the study blends in theories of postmodern identity, intercultural hermeneutics and discourse analysis to examine how the students construct themselves and diverse ‘othernesses’ (included theirs) when they talk about their experiences. The use of the French pronoun on, pronoun switches, and virtual voices (ex: I said to myself...) allowed to pinpoint the students’ unstable identity metamorphoses in their discourses: integration of liquid and solid selves, infidelity in identification with the French but also with Erasmus ‘tribes’, and games of identity. Though the exchange experience appears as interesting for the students, the results show that many and varied misconceptions about identity, culture, intercultural communication, language use, and strangeness lead the students to evaluate their experiences negatively. The implication of the study is that students should be prepared for their time abroad, not so much in terms of ‘grammars of culture’ (e.g. ‘Finns behave in such and such ways’, ‘the French are...’), but through the development of competences to analyse the identity metamorphoses that take place in intercultural encounters and prevent people from meeting each other as diverse individuals. This could make study abroad one of the best training periods for postmodernity and globalization.

Pokeritulojen verotus

Tutkielman tavoitteena oli analysoida pokeritulojen verotusta Suomessa. Analyysi jakautui nykylainsäädännön mukaisen tilanteen käsittelyyn ja toisaalta nykytilanteelle vaihtoehtoisen mallin luomiseen. Tarkastelu keskittyi pääasiassa ammattilaispelaajan tilanteeseen, mutta myös harrastelijoiden näkökulma otettiin huomioon. Tutkimusmenetelmä oli kvalitatiivinen ja tutkielmaa varten haastateltiin sekä ammattilaispelaajia että Verohallinnon edustajaa. Tutkielman mukaan nykytilanne, jossa pokerivoitot katsotaan arpajaisvoitoiksi, sopii hyvin harrastelijoiden tilanteeseen. Ammattilaisille tutkielma kuitenkin päätyy esittämään vaihtoehtoista mallia, jossa pokerivoitot katsottaisiin ainoastaan pelaajan pääomatuloksi, sillä ammattilaisen kohdalla peli ei enää ole arvontaan perustuvaa. Pokeri on heille taitopeli, jossa sattumalla on osuutensa lyhyellä ajanjaksolla ja josta saadut voitot ovat pääomatulon luonteisia.

Menestyksekkäät yliopistopelin pelaajat? Tutkimus nopeasti ja nuorena valmistumisesta

Succestul players of the university game? A study about the short duration of master’s degree studies and graduating at a young age The duration of studies has long been a topic of conversation. It was first mentioned in 1883, but the discussion has been quite active and topical for the last fifty years. During that time, there have been numerous committees, working groups for the Ministry of Education, and revisions to the structure of the master’s degree program. All of these have focused on lowering the duration of studies as well as the age at which students graduate. These two factors have been regarded as indicators of efficiency. Achieving these goals is seen to promote the successful transition from studies to work. In addition, the greater time that people spend working is thought to help with the fiscal burden of an aging population. The reasons for prolonged study seem to be: students working during the course of their studies; the actual workload of the studies, which sometimes does not correlate with the calculated workload; problems with the students’ course selections and with their financial support from the government; issues in teaching; and problems with university funding. This study focuses on students’ study experiences, their progress, and the university itself. Of particular interest was the students’ use of different resources—cultural, social, and economical capital. Participants in the study had graduated from the University of Turku between the years of 1999 and 2001 and were divided into two groups: prompt graduates, those who graduated among the fastest 18th percent in their faculty; and those who graduated at a slower pace. A survey (N=499) and interviews (N=69) were among the methods used, along with a compilation of statistics on the students’ duration of studies, the number of modules studied, and marks obtained. Bourdieu’s theory about fields and the games people play in those fields formed the theoretical background of this study. The university was seen to form a playing field with historically and politically changeable rules. The students playing in this field were considered to possess different economical, social, and cultural resources, which they use more or less successfully. Some of the strategies used by students result in gra¬duating at a young age and/or a short duration of study; some do not. This study divided the age of graduation and the duration of study into separate games. This allowed the study to determine the relationship between these two factors and to examine their similarities and differences. The study also focused on the idea of success. Short duration of studies and a young graduation age can be considered, be some, an indication of success in navigating the university field. This study aimed to see if this concept held true or whether these seeming indicators of success have negative side effects. The main result of this study is that, even though the games of duration and age have similarities, they are sufficiently diverse to be considered separate games, which need different resources. To graduate with a short duration of studies, it is important for a student to successfully view and navigate the university field, tailoring one’s studies and extracurricular activities to suit the individual. In the game of youth, the background of the student seemed to be of greater importance. The youngest graduates had spent more time with their parents, who also had higher educational qualifications. They also had higher achievement in their previous studies. This seems to indicate that their background allowed them to assimilate a better understanding of the school and university fields and that playing the university game was natural for them. As for the aspect of success, it seems that there are many ways to define the term. Youth on graduation and short duration of studies can be seen as two indicators of success. Both revealed negative and positive outcomes, even though short duration of studies seemed more often to be connected with positive outcomes. However, it seems that the best indicator for success is the way in which students organize study into their lives to support and suit their needs and abilities to realize a meaningful life and a successful entry into the field of work.