Making mistakes, no big deal!:how Finnish primary school teachers understand coping with ambiguity, uncertainty and risk

Abstract. This study focuses on how Finnish primary school teachers understand coping with ambiguity, uncertainty and risk, and how they react to students’ mistakes and their own mistakes. In the last few decades, Entrepreneurship education has become a bigger trend in Finland and other European Union member countries. I believe this can also have promises for other contexts like Japan, where I am from. Therefore, this research tries to examine from Entrepreneurship education context. There is a lack of primary school level research about Entrepreneurship education in Finland, also less about Finnish primary school teachers’ perspective about Entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship competence. This research tries to fill the gap. In the theoretical framework, Finnish education system, teacher education, Entrepreneurship education and Entrepreneurship Competence Framework and making mistakes are introduced. I applied the well-known Entrepreneurship Competence Framework for the common concept of entrepreneurship in European Union countries, to examine the specific competence which is related to making mistakes. Qualitative research approach is adopted, where I used thematic analysis as a method to interpret the data represented by interview transcripts. I conducted 15 interviews with Finnish primary school teachers. The data is collected through semi-structured interviews in English. It is mainly to ask how they react to coping with ambiguity, uncertainty and risks and general mistake making. The interviewees are found by snowball sampling, they live in the north part of Finland, they are coming from several different schools. As findings, through the process of thematic analysis, three interconnected subthemes are formed which are Role, Behavior and Attitude. Then, the main theme, Teachers’ mindset consists of those subthemes. Through discussion of teachers’ own Role, Behavior and Attitude, teachers embrace and act to ambiguity, uncertainty and risk and they are trying to be open to them. Through discussion of teachers’ Behavior, it is easy to conclude that teachers’ overall reaction to making mistakes is accepting. They think mistakes are a part of life, learning from failure. Finally, this thesis contributes to the understanding of Finnish primary school teachers’ mindset in the context of Entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship competences. It can be a steppingstone for further research in teachers’ perspective to these specific areas

Significance and Problems of Community-based Music Activity in Occupational Therapy

The purpose of this study is to examine the activity of "Imu’s Music," a new community project started by the author, and discuss the significance of community-based music activities within occupational therapy. The purpose of Imu’s Music was to provide accessibility to society for both the handicapped and the non-handicapped, and create the society which will not eliminate the handicapped or socially vulnerable. Some participants with mental problems participated frequently and even one among them without absence. The music that was practiced in Imu’s Music was rather unorthodox and a minor genre from the standard values of our society. However, the author feels that it was meaningful for the participants, who had been slaves to the conventional idea of music, to escape from old values, get free and enjoy personal expression. The author believes this will lead them to change their fixed ideas and find a new identity. This is the most significant point of non-conventional music

Breast spindle cell carcinoma

Spindle cell carcinoma (SpCC) of the breast is quite a rare modality classified to the metaplastic carcinoma of the breast. Regarding its biological behavior and the prognosis of the patients with this rare tumor, it has been remaining controversial. We herein report an 88 year-old woman who had a huge bleeding tumor on the right breast. She was a high-aged woman with low activities of daily life, even with some suspicion of distant organ metastasis. While the tumor proved to drastically bleed due to the tumor disintegration, a right simple mastectomy was performed. According to the histopathologic examinations, sarcomatoid spindle cells with severe atypia were observed. By an immunohistochemical examination, the tumor had proved to express neither estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor nor HER2 receptor. Moreover an immunohistochemical expression of AE1/3 and CAM5.2, defining an epithelial neoplasm were observed in addition to an expression of vimentin. From these findings, this bleeding tumor was diagnosed as spindle cell carcinoma of the breast