The construction of infant and primary school teachers’ identity during their initial professional development and first years of work (Identidoc). Summary, main results and contributions

Educators who are currently beginning their professional career at any level of the educationalsystem and who will likely have to work during the next thirty to forty years will be takingpart in the education of individuals who, with the permission of prophets and doomsayers,will live part of their lives in the 22nd century. That long but simple statement causes a bit ofvertigo as well as a good amount of reflection on the part of we educators who were trainedin the 20th century, are working in the 21st century, and are responsible for preparing peopleto build a tomorrow that is already today (Millán and Sancho, 1995). This is the starting pointof our research groups’ interest in exploring how men and women who have graduated fromteacher education programs with specializations in infant and primary education learn to beteachers, and how they establish and position themselves as teachers during their university studies and the first years of their professional life...

From "being to the self" to "become to be": on development of autonomy construction in nursing students

Objective: To understand nursing student's self-consciousness and his/her autonomy in the discipline of fundamentals of professional care in the context of a liberating pedagogical proposal. Methodology. This qualitative, case-based research in the model of Ludke and André involved 14 students participating in the discipline. Data were collected by non-participatory observation and analysis of documents. Field observation was conducted from March to July 2010 and data were collected according to the proposal of Minayo: pre-analysis, exploration of material and treatment of results. Results. We constructed two thematic units of analysis: from "being to the self" and exercise of "become to be". Conclusion. When nursing students feel more liberty, they have the opportunity to substitute the scary prospect of learning something new material to something that motivates their curiosity and leads them to become more autonomous.

Construction and application of a portable microcontrolled turbidimeter for the in situ determination of sulfate

This study reports on the construction of a turbidimeter employing light emitting diodes as radiation source at a wavelength of 405 nm, a photodiode as detector, a temperature sensor and a microcontroller used for data acquisition and processing. The turbidimeter was applied to determine sulfate concentrations in natural water employing barium chloride as reagent. Potential interferences and recovery studies were performed and an interference of 3.5 % and a recovery between 97.8 and 108 % were estimated. The analytical performance of in situ turbidimeter for the determination of sulfate was evaluated and compared with two commercial spectrophotometers and a good agreement was obtained.

Project owner’s and outside engineering consultant’s role in power plant implementation projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of co-operation between a project owner and an outside engineering consultant in combined heat and power plant implementation projects. Moreover, as another focal subject of the study was to familiarize the purchasing behavior of the energy producer and how an outside engineering consultant participated into different stages of the purchasing process. The study was carried out as a multiple case study including altogether six Finnish power plant implementation projects that had been taken into commercial use during 1995 – 2015. By adjusting the findings of empirical interview data and comparing those to the theoretical framework concerning, among others, Finnish energy production, engineering consulting businesses, delivery methods of construction project and finally the purchasing process, it can be concluded that especially in the power plant implementation projects in the past have a great influence to decisions made during the project. The role of the main engineering consultant is to act as an assistant, who helps to achieve the project goals successfully rather than an advisor who only knows how the project should be conducted. At least in these five project cases this was the case, meaning that the final decision power always remaining with project owner.

Finnair’s “New Silk Road” in the New Millennium: An Analysis of the Construction of Asia and of the Company

During the past century, an increasingly diverse world provided us with opportunities for intercultural communication; especially the growth of commerce at all levels from domestic to international has made the combination of the theories of intercultural communication and international business necessary. As one of the main beneficiaries in international business in recent years, companies in airline industries have developed their international market. For instance, Finnair has developed its Asian strategy which responds to the increasing market demand for flights from Europe to Asia in the new millennium. Therefore, the company manages marketing communication in a global environment and becomes a suitable case for studying the theories of intercultural communication in the context of international marketing. Finnair implemented a large number of international advertisements to promote its Asian routes, where Asia has been constructed as a number of exotic destinations. Meanwhile, the company itself as a provider of these destinations has also been constructed contrastively. Thus, this thesis aims at research how Finnair constructs Asia and the company itself in the new millennium, and how these constructions compare with the theories of intercultural communication. This research applied the theories of international marketing, intercultural communication and culture. In order to analyze the collected corpora as Finnair’s international advertisements and its annual reports in the new millennium, the methods of content analysis and discourse analysis have been used in this research. As a result, Finnair has purposefully applied the essentialist approach to intercultural communication and constructed Asia as an exotic “Other” due to the company’s market orientation. Meanwhile, Finnair has also constructed the company itself two identities based on the same approach: as an international airline provider between Europe and Asia, as well as a part of Finnish society. The combination of intercultural communication and international marketing theories, together with the combination of the methods of content analysis and discourse analysis ensure the originality of this paper.

Intercultural bridges in teenagers' theatrical events : performing self and constructing cultural identity through a creative drama process

The overriding aim of this drama educational case study is to deepen the understanding of meaning making in a creative intercultural youth theatre process and to examine it in the context of the 10th European Children's TheatreEncounter. The research task is to give a theoretical description of some key features of a creative drama process as the basis for theory about meaning makingin physical theatre. The first task is to illuminate the culture-historical connections of the multilayered practice of the EDERED-association. The second taskis to analyse and interpret theatrical meaning making. The ethnographical research site is regarded as a theatrical event. The analysis of the theatrical eventis divided into four segments: cultural contexts, contextual theatricality, theatrical playing and playing culture. These segments are connected with four research questions: What are the cultural contexts of a creative drama process? How can the organisation of the Encounter, genres, aesthetic codes and perception ofcodes be seen to influence the lived experiences of the participants? What are some of the key phases and characteristics in a creative practice? What kind of cultural learning can be interpreted from the performance texts? The interpretative question concerns identity and community (re)construction. How are the categories, `community´ and `child´ constructed in the Encounter culture? In this drama educational case study the research material (transcribed interviews, coded questionnaire answers, participant drawings, videotaped process text and performance texts) are examined in a multi-method analysis in the meta-theoretical framework of Dewey's naturalistic pragmatism. A three-dimensional research interest through a combination of lived experiences, social contexts and cultural-aesthetical practices compared with drama-educational practices required the methodological project of cultural studies. Furthermore, the critical interpretation of cultural texts is divided into three levels of analyses which are called description, structural analysis and theoretical interpretation. Dialogic validity (truthfulness, self-reflexivity and polyvocality) is combined with contextual validity (sensitivity to social context and awareness of historicity) and with deconstructive validity (awareness of the social discourses). My research suggests that itis possible, by means of physical theatre, to construct symbolic worlds where questions about intercultural identity and multilingual community are examined and where provisional answers are constructed in social interaction.

Lärande som text : en dramapedagogiskt förankrad läsning av det kroppsliga, rumsliga och retoriska i kunskapsbildande processer

My presupposition, that learning at some level deals with life praxis, is expressed in four metaphors: space, time, fable and figure. Relations between learning,knowledge building and meaning making are linked to the concept of personal knowledge. I present a two part study of learning as text in a drama pedagogical rooted reading where learning is framed as the ongoing event, and knowledge, as the product of previous processes, is framed as culturally formed utterances. A frame analysis model is constructed as a topological guide for relations between the two concepts learning and knowledge. It visualises an aesthetic understanding, rooted in drama pedagogical comprehension. Insight and perception are linked in an inner relationship that is neither external nor identical. This understanding expresses the movement "in between" connecting asymmetrical and nonlinear features of human endeavour and societal issues. The performability of bodily and oral participation in the learning event in a socio-cultural setting is analysed as a dialogised text. In an ethnographical case study I have gathered material with an interest for the particular. The empirical material is based on three problem based learning situations in a Polytechnic setting. The act of transformation in the polyphony of the event is considered as a turning point in the narrative employment. Negotiation and figuration in the situation form patterns of the space for improvisation (flow) and tensions at the boundaries (thresholds) which imply the logical structure of transformation. Learning as a dialogised text of "yes" and "no", of structure and play for the improvised, interrelate in that movement. It is related to both the syntagmic and the paradigmatic forms of thinking. In the philosophical study, forms of understanding are linked to the logical structure of transformation as a cultural issue. The classical rhetorical concepts of Logos, Pathos, Ethos and Mythos are connected to the multidimensional rationality of the human being. In the Aristotelian form of knowledge, phronesis,a logic structure of inquiry is recognised. The shifting of perspectives between approaches, the construction of knowledge as context and the human project of meaning making as a subtext, illuminates multiple layers of the learning text. In an argumentation that post-modern apprehension of knowledge, emphasising contextual and situational values, has an empowering impact on learning, I find pedagogical benefits. The dialogical perspective has opened lenses that manage to hold in aesthetic doubling the individual action of inquiry and the stage with its cultural tools in a three dimensional reading.

Det pedagogiska övervägandet : en uppmärksamhetsriktande studie i och genom humanvetenskaplig handlingsteori

Det övergripande syftet med avhandlingen är att bidra till en handlingsinriktad diskurs. Ambitionen är att rikta uppmärksamheten mot den pedagogiska övervägande handlingen genom att pröva konkreta exempel från en pedagogisk praktik mot en begreppsapparat inspirerad av den humanvetenskapliga handlingsteorin. Forskningsfrågorna lyder: Vad är en övervägande handling? Hur byggs den upp och vad förutsätter den? Bakgrunden till intresset att belysa den övervägande handlingen är en önskan att överbrygga klyftan mellan teori och praktik och att hitta ett sätt att samtala om ”tyst kunskap” och den konkreta pedagogiska verkligheten så att denna kan utvecklas på ett meningsfullt sätt. Förhållandet mellan intentionalitet och instrumentella handlingar är av särskilt intresse. Den aristoteliska begreppsapparaten som avser att belysa den mänskliga handlingen används i studien som både utgångspunkt och analysredskap. Retoriken ses som den vetenskap som kan beskriva och förklara hur vi skapar mening med hjälp av språket. Fyra fokussamtal med sammanlagt fem studerande på musikanimatörutbildningen genomfördes under vårterminen 2006. Referaten från samtalen bearbetades till en berättelse. I konstruktionen av berättelsen användes dels en fenomenologisk analys, dels narrativ bearbetning. De aristoteliska begreppen poíesis, praxis och theoria tillämpades och prövades på berättelsen varefter en retorisk analys genomfördes. Berättelsen visar två konkurrerande praxis. Utbildningen framstår i berättelsen dels som en horisontell ”alla kan”-utbildning, dels som en vertikal och lärarstyrd verksamhet. Berättelsen ger inte så många exempel på pedagogiska överväganden men tydliggör ändå den övervägande handlingen. Det pedagogiska övervägandet innebär ett väljande utifrån teoretiskt tänkbara och med praxis förenliga handlingsalternativ. Reflektion ingår i övervägandet men är inte detsamma som övervägande. Övervägandet är inte enbart en rationellt kalkylerande aktivitet. Holistiska och intuitiva procedurer är en viktig del i processen. Övervägande förutsätter dessutom ansvar.

Hiilijalanjäljen laskeminen purku- ja korjausrakentamiskohteille

Tämä opinnäytetyö on tehty yhteistyössä Lappeenrannan teknillisen yliopiston ja Enviroc Oy:n kanssa. Työn tarkoituksena on ollut kehittää suomalaisiin olosuhteisiin soveltuva laskentamalli purku- ja korjausrakentamiskohteiden hiilijalanjäljelle. Kehitettyä mallia voi käyttää yrityksessä lainsäädännön vaatimusten noudattamisen todentamiseen sekä purku- ja korjausrakentamiskohteiden toimintatapojen vertailuun. Työssä käsitellään purku- ja korjausrakentamiskohteiden hiilijalanjälkeen vaikuttavia asioita, joita ovat työmaan energiankulutus sekä syntyvien jätteiden lajittelu, kuljetukset, käsittely ja hyödyntäminen tai loppusijoitus. Laskentamalli on kehitetty laskemalla esimerkkikohteille hiilijalanjäljet elinkaarimallintamisen avulla. Työssä on tarkasteltu myös vaihtoehtoisia jäteskenaarioita sekä laskentamallin luotettavuutta. Työn lopputuloksena on saatu kolmen eri kokoluokan esimerkkikohteen hiilijalanjäljet ja laskentamallin periaatekaaviot. Jätteiden toimituspisteiden ja jätejakeiden kulkureittien vaihtelevuuden sekä eri kohteista muodostuvien erityyppisten jätejakeiden johdosta yhden kokonaisvaltaisen laskentamallin kehittäminen on haasteellista. Myös tietojen hankinta kohteista ja jatkokäsittelyistä ja etenkin primääritietojen saaminen on ongelmallista. Tämänhetkinen laskentamalli perustuu enimmäkseen sekundääritietoihin ja arvioihin, joten mallin luotettavuuden lisäämiseksi olisi panostettava primääritiedon määrän lisäämiseen. Laskennan perusteella jäteskenaariovaihtoehdoista lajitteleva toimintamalli osoittautui hiilijalanjäljen kannalta suotuisimmaksi pienemmissä kohteissa ja käsittelylaitospainotteinen malli suuressa kohteessa. Merkittäviä tekijöitä kohteiden hiilijalanjälkien muodostumiselle olivat metallien käsittely, jätteiden poltto sekä neitsytraaka-aineista valmistetun teräksen ja fossiilisten polttoaineiden vältetyt päästöt. Merkittävimmiksi kasvihuonekaasuiksi purku- ja korjausrakentamiskohteiden laskennassa osoittautuivat hiilidioksidin lisäksi halogenoidut hiilivedyt ja metaani.

Karneval i klassrum – kunskap på hjul : en studie av elevers möten med clown analyserade med narrativ metod och poetisk etnografi

The aim of this study is to contribute to the knowledge about learning in and through art related to pupils’ study processes developing clown characters in secondary school. The pre understanding of this qualitative piece of micro ethnographic research is that the elaboration of clown has openness to play, creative activity and imagination. The art form clown inspires and motivates. The clown character creates a kind and friendly atmosphere, calls upon smile, which promotes learning. It is an art form promoting deep and personal reflection and evoking questions regarding identity formation. The pre understanding finally is that existential themes are brought to articulation in the art form clown. The problem formulation for the hermeneutic phenomenological study is an exploration of the meaning potential of an arts educational work with clown from the pupils’ as well as the teacher’s perspective. The study elaborates the following research questions: 1.) How are the pupils staging themselves in the work with clown? a) How are they constructing the clown character? b) How do they reflect upon their construction? c) What are the characteristics of the working process in the elaboration of clown? 2.) What is characteristic of the teacher’s contribution to the arts educational work? 3.) What is characteristic of the meaning making in the elaboration of clown? One group of 21 pupils and their drama teacher in a Swedish secondary school in six workshops (each one 90 minutes) elaborating the clown theme is the group under study through video observation, interviews, students’ logs and drawings, teacher log and researcher’s field notes. The theoretical framework comprises three perspectives on clown: a perspective on the culture of carnival, a drama education perspective and a performance perspective. Through a content analysis of texts about clown a set of characteristics for the clown is used as analytical concepts in the subsequent analysis of the pupils’ working process when they create three clown characters: August, the white clown and the bag lady. The results are presented as fictive narratives built on the video observations and the interviews. The presentation is brought to even more condensation through poetic ethnographic writing of haiku poems by the researcher. This ethnographic writing is idiomatic to the art form under study, and can be seen as a metaphorical meta commentary to the narratives. As a main result the researcher has developed a model describing the different aspects of the clown characters and the meaning potential of the clown as learning regarding exploration of identity and elaboration of existential questions regarding life, loneliness, love, religion and death.

Methods for construction and analysis of computational models in systems biology : applications to the modelling of the heat shock response and the self-assembly of intermediate filaments

Systems biology is a new, emerging and rapidly developing, multidisciplinary research field that aims to study biochemical and biological systems from a holistic perspective, with the goal of providing a comprehensive, system- level understanding of cellular behaviour. In this way, it addresses one of the greatest challenges faced by contemporary biology, which is to compre- hend the function of complex biological systems. Systems biology combines various methods that originate from scientific disciplines such as molecu- lar biology, chemistry, engineering sciences, mathematics, computer science and systems theory. Systems biology, unlike “traditional” biology, focuses on high-level concepts such as: network, component, robustness, efficiency, control, regulation, hierarchical design, synchronization, concurrency, and many others. The very terminology of systems biology is “foreign” to “tra- ditional” biology, marks its drastic shift in the research paradigm and it indicates close linkage of systems biology to computer science. One of the basic tools utilized in systems biology is the mathematical modelling of life processes tightly linked to experimental practice. The stud- ies contained in this thesis revolve around a number of challenges commonly encountered in the computational modelling in systems biology. The re- search comprises of the development and application of a broad range of methods originating in the fields of computer science and mathematics for construction and analysis of computational models in systems biology. In particular, the performed research is setup in the context of two biolog- ical phenomena chosen as modelling case studies: 1) the eukaryotic heat shock response and 2) the in vitro self-assembly of intermediate filaments, one of the main constituents of the cytoskeleton. The range of presented approaches spans from heuristic, through numerical and statistical to ana- lytical methods applied in the effort to formally describe and analyse the two biological processes. We notice however, that although applied to cer- tain case studies, the presented methods are not limited to them and can be utilized in the analysis of other biological mechanisms as well as com- plex systems in general. The full range of developed and applied modelling techniques as well as model analysis methodologies constitutes a rich mod- elling framework. Moreover, the presentation of the developed methods, their application to the two case studies and the discussions concerning their potentials and limitations point to the difficulties and challenges one encounters in computational modelling of biological systems. The problems of model identifiability, model comparison, model refinement, model inte- gration and extension, choice of the proper modelling framework and level of abstraction, or the choice of the proper scope of the model run through this thesis.

Construction Plan Image Service for Mobile Devices

The forthcoming media revolution of exchanging paper documents to digital media in construction engineering requires new tools to be developed. The basis of this bachelor’s thesis was to explore the preliminary possibilities of exporting imagery from a Building Information Modelling –software to a mobile phone on a construction yard. This was done by producing a Web Service which uses the design software’s Application Programming Interface to interact with a structures model in order to produce the requested imagery. While mobile phones were found lacking as client devices, because of limited processing power and small displays, the implementation showed that the Tekla Structures API can be used to automatically produce various types of imagery. Web Services can be used to transfer this data to the client. Before further development the needs of the contractor, benefits for the building master and inspector and the full potential of the BIM-software need to be mapped out with surveys.

Making Sense of Shared Leadership. A case study of leadership processes and practices without formal leadership structure in the team context

Leadership is essential for the effectiveness of the teams and organizations they are part of. The challenges facing organizations today require an exhaustive review of the strategic role of leadership. In this context, it is necessary to explore new types of leadership capable of providing an effective response to new needs. The presentday situations, characterized by complexity and ambiguity, make it difficult for an external leader to perform all leadership functions successfully. Likewise, knowledge-based work requires providing professional groups with sufficient autonomy to perform leadership functions. This study focuses on shared leadership in the team context. Shared leadership is seen as an emergent team property resulting from the distribution of leadership influence across multiple team members. Shared leadership entails sharing power and influence broadly among the team members rather than centralizing it in the hands of a single individual who acts in the clear role of a leader. By identifying the team itself as a key source of influence, this study points to the relational nature of leadership as a social construct where leadership is seen as social process of relating processes that are co-constructed by several team members. Based on recent theoretical developments concerned with relational, practice-based and constructionist approaches to the study of leadership processes, this thesis proposes the study of leadership interactions, working processes and practices to focus on the construction of direction, alignment and commitment. During the research process, critical events, activities, working processes and practices of a case team have been examined and analyzed with the grounded theory –approach in the terms of shared leadership. There are a variety of components to this complex process and a multitude of factors that may influence the development of shared leadership. The study suggests that the development process of shared leadership is a common sense -making process and consists of four overlapping dimensions (individual, social, structural, and developmental) to work with as a team. For shared leadership to emerge, the members of the team must offer leadership services, and the team as a whole must be willing to rely on leadership by multiple team members. For these individual and collective behaviors to occur, the team members must believe that offering influence to and accepting it from fellow team members are welcome and constructive actions. Leadership emerges when people with differing world views use dialogue and collaborative learning to create spaces where a shared common purpose can be achieved while a diversity of perspectives is preserved and valued. This study also suggests that this process can be supported by different kinds of meaning-making and process tools. Leadership, then, does not reside in a person or in a role, but in the social system. The built framework integrates the different dimensions of shared leadership and describes their relationships. This way, the findings of this study can be seen as a contribution to the understanding of what constitutes essential aspects of shared leadership in the team context that can be of theoretical value in terms of advancing the adoption and development process of shared leadership. In the real world, teams and organizations can create conditions to foster and facilitate the process. We should encourage leaders and team members to approach leadership as a collective effort that the team can be prepared for, so that the response is rapid and efficient.