- I work works as a professor in the special education scientific discipline at UEF. My research interests lie in the d... moreI work works as a professor in the special education scientific discipline at UEF. My research interests lie in the development of teaching methods and support for learning in various educational levels (e.g., in higher education), support for behavioral and emotional functioning (e.g., strengths), learning analytics and dispositional learning analytics in teaching and research, and technology in education. I have title of docent of quantitative research methods in educational sciences to University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finlandedit
This research continues the tradition of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) studies aimed at better understanding the development of pre-service teachers’ TPACK. The aim of the study is to show what are the areas of TPACK... more
This research continues the tradition of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) studies aimed at better understanding the development of pre-service teachers’ TPACK. The aim of the study is to show what are the areas of TPACK that pre-service teachers perceived as important and relevant for them, from a teacher training course. This course can be seen as a one of the many teacher training courses within teacher training. The course is not specially designed for mere educational technology, instead the course focuses on biology, using inquiry-based learning activities supported with various technologies. This study was conducted using qualitative methods. The research data consists of pre-service teachers’ (n = 165) answers to two short questions focusing on the elements that pre-service teachers gained from a teacher training science course for building their TPACK. The aim of this method was to highlight only the area that pre-service teachers felt important and releva...
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In previous research, the Finnish version of the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale-2 has demonstrated adequate internal consistency, factor structure and convergent validity. The purpose of the present study was to examine the... more
In previous research, the Finnish version of the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale-2 has demonstrated adequate internal consistency, factor structure and convergent validity. The purpose of the present study was to examine the long-term test-retest reliability of the Finnish BERS-2. Youth, parent and teacher BERS-2 ratings were collected once a year for three years in order to assess the stability of scores. All of the correlations were significant and moderate to very large in magnitude. Study limitations, future research and implications were discussed.
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Research methods, including those of a quantitative nature, are an important part of preservice teacher training in Finland. However, quantitative research methods are considered challenging, often feared, and even hated among preservice... more
Research methods, including those of a quantitative nature, are an important part of preservice teacher training in Finland. However, quantitative research methods are considered challenging, often feared, and even hated among preservice teachers. This may be due to previous negative experiences and emotions associated with their use, which also influence other aspects of learning such as self-regulation, self-efficacy, and orientations. Given such circumstances, new ways to teach and support the learning of quantitative methods are needed. Here, we investigate the self-regulation, self-efficacy, orientations, and emotions of preservice teachers (N = 38) enrolled in a quantitative methods online course incorporating learning analytics and a flipped learning approach. Dispositional learning analytics data from five measurement points were used, and data were analyzed via descriptive statistics, internal consistency (Cronbach alpha), bootstrapped paired sample t-test (between first an...
Research studies are an important part of educational sciences curricula in Finland. However, these studies are challenging to conduct, given the teacher-led activities, lack of social presence, engagement, collaborative working with and... more
Research studies are an important part of educational sciences curricula in Finland. However, these studies are challenging to conduct, given the teacher-led activities, lack of social presence, engagement, collaborative working with and time management of students, and large-entity writing process management comprising this environment. Here, our aim was to develop a program of master’s thesis seminar higher education pedagogy that employed a flipped classroom (FC) approach. While the FC approach has been investigated in several contexts of higher education, it has only been minimally explored in the master’s thesis seminar. Participating students’ views and mixed-methods were used. Based on the quantitative results, students considered guidance and satisfaction high, and difficulty low. Moreover, the FC approach was seen as well-suited to, and preferred by, the students, while not being significantly straining. Based on the qualitative and mixed-methods results, FC was seen as fun...
The importance of self-regulated learning (SRL) has become increasingly apparent. Further, technology-enhanced learning provides novel ways to support this while different technologies have changed the learning environments. The aim of... more
The importance of self-regulated learning (SRL) has become increasingly apparent. Further, technology-enhanced learning provides novel ways to support this while different technologies have changed the learning environments. The aim of this study was to investigate the perspectives of 5th–6th grade pupils on learning analytics and self-regulated learning during a phenomenon-based learning module in a blended learning environment. A total of 89 pupils participated in the learning module and were observed. Furthermore, ten pupils were interviewed after completing a learning module. A qualitative content analysis was conducted. The results revealed that, overall, pupils experience of self-regulated learning and learning analytics was positive. The pupils perceived the digital learning and learning analytics as functional and motivating, and some pupils stated that it helped their learning. Also, the pupils became increasingly self-directed during the study module. However, setting goal...
Flipped classrooms have become widely adopted in educational settings (e.g., in higher education) worldwide. However, there is a need for more precise understanding of the ingredients for student satisfaction in a flipped setting. The aim... more
Flipped classrooms have become widely adopted in educational settings (e.g., in higher education) worldwide. However, there is a need for more precise understanding of the ingredients for student satisfaction in a flipped setting. The aim of this paper was to investigate university students’ experiences of the factors that create a successful flipped course. Ten measures were used to investigate the hypothesized factors affecting satisfaction, which were chosen based on the results from previous flipped classroom studies and higher educational research. These measures were grouped into three dimensions: (1) pedagogical (five measures), (2) social (three measures), and (3) technological (two measures). Exploratory factor analysis was run to analyze the adequacy of the instruments. Results revealed that the factor structure was as expected and that the instruments measuring all ten factors of teaching and learning in a flipped classroom were adequate. Furthermore, confirmatory factor ...
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Research Interests: Sociology, Computer Science, Technology, Educational Technology, Creativity studies, and 8 moreModels of Creativity & of Creative Processes, Creativity, Creative thinking, Curriculum, Innovation and Creativity in Education, Creativity and Technology, Consciousness and Creativity, and Play and Creativity in the Curriculum
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This study investigated the cross-informant agreement among student self-report, teacher report, and parent report on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire translated into Finnish (SDQ-Fin) and estimated mean convergent and... more
This study investigated the cross-informant agreement among student self-report, teacher report, and parent report on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire translated into Finnish (SDQ-Fin) and estimated mean convergent and divergent correlations with a sample of fifth-grade Finnish students (N = 588) and the cross-informant agreement among student-teacher-parent informants separately for those with and without special education support. In addition, the study estimated the within-rater stabilities of SDQ subscales for students with and without special education support between two measurements at a one year interval. The cross-informant agreement on SDQ-Fin subscales was moderate with cross-informant correlations ranging from .12 to .42. The cross-informant agreement between teachers and students was in general higher for students with special education (SE) support than students without special education (NSE) support. The mean convergent correlations were higher than the mean divergent correlations across raters. The rater stabilities of SDQ subscales for NSE students and SE students between fifth and sixth grade as indicated by stability correlations were all statistically significant. Our findings provide additional evidence of the usefulness of the SDQ in school environments, and underline the importance of a multi-informant approach to the evaluation of emotional and behavioral problems.
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... Gail Ryser, PhD, is Assistant Director of Research, PRO-ED, Austin, TX. ... Studies have suggested that multiple informant agreement is higher for externalizing versus internalizing behaviors (Costello & Edelbrock, 1985;... more
... Gail Ryser, PhD, is Assistant Director of Research, PRO-ED, Austin, TX. ... Studies have suggested that multiple informant agreement is higher for externalizing versus internalizing behaviors (Costello & Edelbrock, 1985; Silverman & Eisen, 1992). ...
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Future skills, so-called 21st century skills, emphasise collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving and especially ICT skills (Voogt & Roblin, 2012). Teachers have to be able to use various pedagogical approaches and ICT... more
Future skills, so-called 21st century skills, emphasise collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving and especially ICT skills (Voogt & Roblin, 2012). Teachers have to be able to use various pedagogical approaches and ICT in order to support the development of their students' 21st century skills (Voogt & Roblin, 2012). These skills, particularly ICT skills, pose challenges for teachers and teacher education. This paper focuses on developing an instrument for measuring pre-service teachers' knowledge related to ICT in the context of 21st century skills. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK; Mishra & Kohler, 2006) was used as a theoretical framework for designing the instrument. While the TPACK framework is actively used, the instruments used to measure it have proven challenging. This paper outlines the results of the development process of the TPACK-21 instrument. A new assessment instrument was compiled and tested on pre-service teachers in St...
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Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any... more
Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. Teachers as users of ICT from the student perspective in higher education flipped classroom classes
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Positive student–teacher relationships are related to students’ academic achievement and behavioral and emotional adjustment. How a student’s behavioral and emotional strengths are associated with these relationships and how the... more
Positive student–teacher relationships are related to students’ academic achievement and behavioral and emotional adjustment. How a student’s behavioral and emotional strengths are associated with these relationships and how the relationships influence students’ academic performance remains unknown. We examined this framework using a cross-lagged panel model with a group of Finnish students and their parents from Grade 5 to Grade 7. The results revealed that the parents rated behavioral and emotional strengths are stable over a one-year (r=.78) and two-year (r=.71) period and that students’ perceptions of student–teacher relationships demonstrated greater change over time (r’s=.54, .35). Behavioral and emotional strengths demonstrated a positive relationship with student–teacher relationships as well as academic achievement (β = .39, p < .01). Strengths were also indirectly associated with academic achievement via student–teacher relationships. Study limitations, implications and...
Future skills, so-called 21st century skills, emphasise collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving and especially ICT skills (Voogt & Roblin, 2012). Teachers have to be able to use various pedagogical approaches and ICT... more
Future skills, so-called 21st century skills, emphasise collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving and especially ICT skills (Voogt & Roblin, 2012). Teachers have to be able to use various pedagogical approaches and ICT in order to support the development of their students’ 21st century skills (Voogt & Roblin, 2012). These skills, particularly ICT skills, pose challenges for teachers and teacher education. This paper focuses on developing an instrument for measuring pre-service teachers’ knowledge related to ICT in the context of 21st century skills. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK; Mishra & Kohler, 2006) was used as a theoretical framework for designing the instrument. While the TPACK framework is actively used, the instruments used to measure it have proven challenging. This paper outlines the results of the development process of the TPACK-21 instrument. A new assessment instrument was compiled and tested on pre-service teachers in Study1 (N=...
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Education for the 21st century society requires the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education. This presents challenges for preservice teacher education. Thus, more cognate understanding about preservice teachers’... more
Education for the 21st century society requires the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education. This presents challenges for preservice teacher education. Thus, more cognate understanding about preservice teachers’ readiness to use ICT in education, coupled with knowledge related to ICT in education, is needed. Furthermore, it is important to understand that preservice teachers have various levels of readiness to use ICT in education, thereby creating a demand to investigate sub-groups within preservice teachers. This study focuses on differences of readiness and development of knowledge between preservice teachers’ based on two theoretical constructs: Theory of Planned Behavior and TPACK. Results indicate differences in readiness of preservice teachers’ sub-groups. Still, positive development trends in terms of knowledge of ICT in education can be found during the first two years of preservice teacher education. Limitations and future research are discussed.
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Research-based discussions about 21st-century skills are currently needed; 21st-century skills refer to skills that today's students are expected to possess for successful future careers. The ways students perceive these skills or... more
Research-based discussions about 21st-century skills are currently needed; 21st-century skills refer to skills that today's students are expected to possess for successful future careers. The ways students perceive these skills or what kind of dispositions they have in this regard are significant. This paper provides an overview of the development of pre-service teachers' perceived 21st-century skills and dispositions. The quantitative data was collected in three phases during 2014, 2015, and 2016 at three Finnish universities. The number of respondents at each measurement point varied from 209 to 267. Data were analysed using latent growth curve modeling. The study focuses on students' perceptions of three areas related to 21st-century skills: learning skills, collaboration dispositions, and skills to use ICT. The results show that the three areas evolved in different ways. Learning skills and collaboration dispositions show up as yearly assessments that remain at the s...
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ABSTRACT Child assessment practices have undergone, and are continuing to undergo, significant changes. Among the most prominent changes is the movement toward measuring child well-being, in general, and emotional and behavioral... more
ABSTRACT Child assessment practices have undergone, and are continuing to undergo, significant changes. Among the most prominent changes is the movement toward measuring child well-being, in general, and emotional and behavioral strengths, in particular. The Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (BERS) is a strength-based instrument which is widely used in the United States and is beginning to be used internationally. The purpose of this review was to assess the translation adaptation process and to determine the psychometric properties of the BERS scores when used in countries other than the United States. Results from 15 international studies indicated that the researchers followed acceptable standards for test adaptation and the BERS scores generally met acceptable professional standards for reliability and validity. The limitations with the review process and the published studies were identified, as well as the directions for future research and implications for professional practice.
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Finnish permanent residents are covered by social security insurance administered by the Social Insurance Institution of Finland. The procedure of insurance is initiated with medical certificate written by the treating doctor. Thus, the... more
Finnish permanent residents are covered by social security insurance administered by the Social Insurance Institution of Finland. The procedure of insurance is initiated with medical certificate written by the treating doctor. Thus, the doctor must have certificate writing skills accompanied with the knowledge of the content and goals for insurance. Quality certificates are important part of doctors' professional skills worldwide and most effective teaching methods for learning these should be investigated. Medical certificate data were collected from two independent courses of fourth-year student taught in autumn 2015 (N = 141) and 2016 (N = 142) in the medical faculty of the University of Eastern Finland. A random sample of 40 students per course was drawn for the analysis. All certificates were analyzed as one sample. This was done to obtain reliable results with internal control group on the differences between two teaching methods, the traditional approach and the flipped c...
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In this article, we consider the benefits and challenges of enacting creativity in the K-12 context and examine educational policy with regard to twenty-first century learning and technology. Creativity is widely considered to be a key... more
In this article, we consider the benefits and challenges of enacting creativity in the K-12 context and examine educational policy with regard to twenty-first century learning and technology. Creativity is widely considered to be a key construct for twenty-first cen-tury education. In this article, we review the literature on creativity relevant to education and technology to reveal some of the complex considerations that need to be addressed within educational policy. We then review how creativity emerges, or fails to emerge, in six national education policy contexts: Australia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Slovakia, and the U.S. We also locate the connections, or lack of, between creativity and technology within those contexts. While the discussion is limited to these nations, the implications strongly point to the need for a coherent and coordinated approach to creating greater clarity with regards to the rhetoric and reality of how creativity and technology are currently ...
Research Interests: Sociology, Computer Science, Technology, Educational Technology, Creativity studies, and 8 moreModels of Creativity & of Creative Processes, Creativity, Creative thinking, Curriculum, Innovation and Creativity in Education, Creativity and Technology, Consciousness and Creativity, and Play and Creativity in the Curriculum
ABSTRACT Educational professionals need assessments that yield psychometrically sound scores to assess students’ behavioral and emotional functioning in order to guide data-driven decision-making processes. Rating scales have been found... more
ABSTRACT Educational professionals need assessments that yield psychometrically sound scores to assess students’ behavioral and emotional functioning in order to guide data-driven decision-making processes. Rating scales have been found to be effective and economical, and often multiple informant perspectives can be obtained. The agreement between multiple informants is often studied with deficit-based behavioral assessment tools; however, agreement is less well studied with strength-based behavioral assessments. In addition, when assessment instruments are translated for a new culture, the psychometric properties of assessment scores needs to be reexamined. The purpose of this study was to investigate the internal consistency and the cross-informant agreement of the Lithuanian-translated Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale to determine the initial basic psychometrics of the scores using a sample of 334 Lithuanian students. The results indicate that teacher ratings are acceptably reliable for use in research and practical settings such as schools; however, student ratings are less reliable and we caution against the use of their ratings in school-related decision-making processes. Agreement between teachers and students was moderate and higher than agreement found for deficit-based behavioral measures. Both internal consistency and cross-informant agreement was found to be similar across students both at risk and not at risk of behavioral or learning difficulties.
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ABSTRACT Information from multiple sources is recommended when assessing students’ emotions and behaviors. Relatively few studies about cross informant agreement of behavioral and emotional strengths exist, especially for students with... more
ABSTRACT Information from multiple sources is recommended when assessing students’ emotions and behaviors. Relatively few studies about cross informant agreement of behavioral and emotional strengths exist, especially for students with special education needs. The purpose of this study was to extend the cross informant agreement research of the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (BERS-2) with a sample of Finnish parents, teachers and students. First, we studied the cross informant agreement of students’ behavioral and emotional strengths between informants. Second, we explored the agreement separately for students with and without special education needs. Finally, we studied the convergent and divergent (discriminant) correlations of the Finnish BERS-2. The results show that the cross informant agreement of students’ behavioral and emotional strengths were small to large with correlation coefficients ranging from .11 to .58 between different informants. The cross informant correlations, however, were higher in magnitude for students who receive special education support (r = .29 to .78) than for those students who do not receive support (r = −.02 to .45). Mean convergent correlations were higher than mean divergent correlations. The results suggest that the Finnish BERS-2 is a reliable measure in assessing student strengths across informants. The limitations, future research directions, and implications are discussed.