Searching for an English self through writing

Most Finnish university students, just like the other new global elites (Kramsch,2013), use English without problems. Some students, however, struggle withEnglish to the extent that their studies suffer. One could say that they have adeeply “wounded” English self (Karlsson, 2013). My context of research andpractice is the Autonomous Learning Modules (ALMS) at Helsinki UniversityLanguage Centre. In my work as a language counsellor and practitioner-researcher,pedagogical concerns are always primary, and there is a need to appreciatediversity yet notice every student’s unique experiences. The broadbackground of my recent work is English as part of the identity of young academicFinns. In particular, I have been interested in how students with a“wounded” English self can develop new identity positions, and in how a languagecounsellor can help them in this process. In this paper, my focus is on thesubtle practical interconnections between learner autonomy, learner diversity,and learner identity as they emerge in a diary written by a student of Englishwith dyslexia and language (classroom) anxiety. A narrative case study of Mariiaillustrates how the counsellor’s appreciation and her own recognition of thecomplex ecological realities (Casanave, 2012) surrounding and interacting withher learning encourage and empower her. Mariia uses her freedom to controlher own learning (Huang & Benson, 2013) and makes choices from the manylifewide experiential learning opportunities in her life (Karlsson & Kjisik, 2011).Reflective writing in the learning diary helps her to construct a realistic vision ofherself as a learner and user of English, and she leaves the identity position ofa failure in the classroom and claims a new, more successful one (Norton, 2014)

Permission to write

Peer reviewe

Sähköinen lääkemääräys : Koulutus Laurean hoitotyön opiskelijoille

Opinnäytetyönä suunniteltiin ja toteutettiin Laurean terveydenhoitajaopiskelijoille 90 minuutin mittainen luentomuotoinen koulutustapahtuma. Tavoitteena oli, että opiskelijat saavat perustiedot sähköiseen lääkemääräykseen liittyvistä periaatteista ja käytännöistä ja vahvistavat valmiuksiaan soveltaa näitä periaatteita käytännön hoitotyössä. Työtä lähdettiin toteuttamaan tutustumalla oppimista, koulutusta ja opetusta käsitteleviin perusteoksiin sekä sähköiseen reseptiin liittyvään aineistoon, joiden pohjalta suunniteltiin koulutuksen sisältö. Opetusmenetelmäksi valittiin konstruktivismiin perustuva aktivoiva luento-opetus. Arvioinnin ja suunnittelun apuna käytettiin myös SWOT -analyysiä. Opinnäytetyön onnistumista arvioitiin palautteen ja havainnoinnin perusteella sekä reflektoimalla omaa tapahtumanaikaista toimintaa. Koulutustapahtuman osalta opinnäytetyön tavoitteet saavutettiin. Havainnoinnin ja palautteen perusteella kohderyhmällä oli jo entuudestaan perustiedot sähköisestä lääkemääräyksestä. Koulutuksesta olisi ollut enemmän hyötyä opintojen aikaisemmassa vaiheessa oleville. Palautteen mukaan luennon tärkeimpänä antina pidettiin perustietojen saamista sähköisestä lääkemääräyksestä ja siihen liittyvien asioiden kertaamista sekä asian pohtimista käytännön esimerkkien avulla.Electronic prescription – an education event at Laurea University of Applied Sciences An education event concerning electronic prescription was designed and carried out as part of this thesis. The duration of the education event was 90 minutes. The aim of the education event was to provide the students with the basics about the principles and practices related to electronic prescription and that they would strengthen their readiness to apply these principles in practical nursing. The education event was designed based on the theoretical framework of the thesis related to the basics of learning, education and teaching as well as the data on electronic prescription. As regards the education event the aims of the thesis were achieved. According to the feed-back and observation the audience had the basic knowledge of the electronic prescription already. The educational event would have been more useful for the students at an earlier stage of their studies. According to the feedback the most important benefit of the lecture was that it provided basic information about the electronic prescription, revision of the basics as well as opportunity to ponder the issue with concrete examples

Turning the Kaleidoscope : (E)FL Educational Experience and Inquiry as Auto/biography

This book is a study on learning, teaching/counselling, and research on the two. My quest has been to find a pedagogically-motivated way of researching learning and teaching interaction, and in particular counselling, in an autonomous language-learning environment. I have tried to develop a method that would make room for lived experience, meaning-making and narrating, because in my view these all characterise learning encounters between language learners and counsellors, and learners and their peers. Lived experience as a source of meaning, telling and co-telling becomes especially significant when we try to listen to the diverse personal and academic voices of the past as expressed in autobiographical narratives. I have aimed at researching various ALMS dialogues (Autonomous Learning Modules, University of Helsinki Language Centre English course and programme), and autobiographical narratives within them, in a way that shows respect for the participants, and that is relevant, reflective and, most importantly, self-reflexive. My interest has been in autobiographical telling in (E)FL [(English as a) foreign language], both in students first-person written texts on their language- learning histories and in the sharing of stories between learners and a counsellor. I have turned to narrative inquiry in my quest and have written the thesis as an experiential narrative. In particular, I have studied learners and counsellors in one and the same story, as characters in one narrative, in an attempt to avoid the impression that I am telling yet another separate, anecdotal story, retrospectively. Through narrative, I have shed light on the subjective dimensions of language learning and experience, and have come closer to understanding the emotional aspects of learning encounters. I have questioned and rejected a distanced and objective approach to describing learning and teaching/counselling. I have argued for a holistic and experiential approach to (E)FL encounters in which there is a need to see emotion and cognition as intertwined, and thus to appreciate learners and counsellors emotionally-charged experiences as integral to their identities. I have also argued for a way of describing such encounters as they are situated in history, time, autobiography, and the learning context. I have turned my gaze on various constellations of lived experience: the data was collected on various occasions and in various settings during one course and consists of videotaped group sessions, individual counselling sessions between students and their group counsellor, biographic narrative interviews with myself, open-ended personally-inspired reflection texts written by the students about their language-learning histories, and student logs and diaries. I do not consider data collection an unproblematic occasion, or innocent practice, and I defend the integrity of the research process. Research writing cannot be separated from narrative field work and analysing and interpreting the data. The foci in my work have turned to be the following: 1) describing ALMS encounters and specifying their narrative aspects; 2) reconceptualising learner and teacher autonomy in ALMS and in (E)FL; 2) developing (E)FL methodologically through a teacher-researcher s identity work; 4) research writing as a dialogical narrative process, and the thesis as an experiential narrative. Identity and writing as inquiry, and the deeply narrative and autobiographical nature of the (E)FL teaching/counselling/researching have come to the fore in this research. Research writing as a relational activity and its implications for situated ways of knowing and knowledge turned out to be important foci. I have also focussed on the context-bound and local teacher knowledge and ways of knowing about being a teacher, and I have argued for personal ways of knowing about, and learning and studying foreign languages. I discuss research as auto/biography: as a practising counsellor I use my own life and (E)FL experience to understand and interpret the stories of the research participants even though I was not involved in their course work. The supposedly static binaries of learner/teacher, and also learner autonomy/teacher autonomy, are thus brought into the discussion. I have highlighted the infinite variability and ever-changing nature of learning and teaching English, but the book is also of relevance to foreign language education in general.Väitöskirjani on sekä tutkimus- että opetusteksti. Kirjoitan englannin (ja vieraiden kielten yleisemminkin) opetuksesta, oppimisesta, ohjauksesta (counselling) ja näiden tutkimisesta. Haen pedagogisesti perusteltavissa olevaa tapaa tutkia yhtäältä opettajan/ohjaajan ja oppijan ja toisaalta oppijoiden keskinäisiä kohtaamisia autonomisessa kielenoppimisympäristössä. Kehittelen tutkimusmetodia, jossa kokemus, merkityksenanto ja kertominen ovat läsnä. Tarkastelen aiempia oppimiskokemuksia ja niistä kertomista ja pohdin menneen merkityksiä ohjauskeskusteluissa ja muissa oppimistilanteissa ALMS-kurssilla (autonomous learning modules, Helsingin yliopiston kielikeskuksen englannin kurssi). Haen reflektiivistä ja itserefleksiivistä tapaa lähestyä autobiografista kerrontaa kielenoppimisen ja -opiskelun kontekstissa. Pohdin myös vieraiden kielten tutkimiseen liittyviä metodologisia ja eettisiä kysymyksiä. Väitöskirja on kirjoitettu kokemuksellisen narratiivin muotoon. Tarkastelen oppijoita ja opettajaa/ohjaajaa (counsellor) saman kertomuksen henkilöinä. Narratiivisuus mahdollistaa oppimistilanteisiin liittyvien subjektiivisten ja emotionaalisten kokemusten kuvaamisen. Olen kyseenalaistanut ja päätynyt hylkäämään etäännyttävän ja objektiivisen tavan kuvata oppimista, opettamista ja ohjausta. Haluan tuoda esiin holistisen ja kokemuksellisen lähestymistavan kielenopetuksessa ja tutkimuksessa. Tässä lähestymistavassa emootio ja kognitio kietoutuvat toisiinsa ja opettajien ja oppijoitten kokemukset kuvataan olennaisena osana heidän identiteettiään. Esitän opetuksen, oppimisen, ohjauksen ja tutkimisen aina aikaan ja paikkaan sidottuina sekä (oppimis)elämänkertamme ja kulloisenkin oppimis- ja opetustilanteen vaikuttamina. Käytän aineistonani videoituja ryhmä- ja yksilötapaamisia, narratiivis-elämänkerrallisia haastatteluja, minämuotoisia oppimishistorioita, sekä oppimislokeja ja -päiväkirjoja. Tarkastelen aineiston keruuta eettisesti kompleksisena prosessina, joka kietoutuu yhteen narratiivisen analysoinnin ja tulkinnan kanssa. Teoreettiset ja metodologiset sekä eettiset pohdinnat kulkevat läpi koko tutkimuksen ja kirjoittuvat työn eri osiin. Kokemukset kuvioituvat työssä aina uusiksi ja erilaisiksi yhdistelmiksi. Päädyn kuvaamaan ALMS-kohtaamisia ja määrittelemään kuvaukseni narratiivisia aspekteja. Kehittelen opettajan autonomian käsitettä suhteessa oppijan autonomiaan sekä ALMS-ympäristössä että yleisemmin. Lähestyn tutkimusta auto/biografisena ja dialogisena toimintana ja pohdin sen metodologista kehittämistä opettaja-tutkijan identiteettityön kautta. Tutkimuskirjoittaminen ja kokemusten kirjoittuminen kertomuksen muotoon nousevat keskiöön: kirjoittaminen näyttäytyy relationaalisena prosessina. Pohdin teoreettisia, metodologisia ja eettisiä kysymyksiä opettaja-tutkijan näkökulmasta ja päädyn opettajuuden ja tutkijuuden suhteen uudelleenarviointiin

Moodle Chat in the Language Centre Context - three pedagogical applications

Peer reviewe

Enhancing a Culture of Participation in Early Childhood Education and Care through Narrative Activities and Project-based Practices

In early childhood education and care (ECEC), there is a need for research to develop practices planned, implemented and evaluated in shared activities between educators and children. The objective of this qualitative study is to explore how narrative activities and project-based practices in an ECEC centre promote the development of a culture of participation, which supports reciprocal and listening practices emerging from children’s initiatives and interests. This will be done through studying what phases are experienced based on the projects planned, implemented and evaluated together by the children and educators becoming part of the pedagogical activities. The theoretical framework for this study lies in the sociocultural paradigm. The research data consist of four pedagogical projects. Narrative activities and methods were used in projects when collecting and analysing research data. The results of this study show that there are five phases of shared activities between children and educators: (1) Initial idea, (2) Storycrafting, (3) Narrative play, (4) Closing ceremony, and (5) Recalling sessions. This study contributes to the development of ECEC pedagogy which promotes children’s initiatives and interests, as well as strengthens children’s sense of participation.Peer reviewe

From Novice to Expert : Information Seeking Processes of University Students and Researchers

Peer reviewe

"Changing Roles and Changing Minds": The Implementation and Implications of Autonomous Learning Programmes

A great deal has been written in recent years on the theoretical aspects of autonomous language learning. There have also been various research studies and text books written on closely related topics such as language awareness and language learning strategies. However, relatively few accounts have appeared describing the implementation of larger scale autonomous language learning projects or the implications such projects have had for teachers and learners. This paper describes an experiment which is now in its fifth year at the Language Centre of the University of Helsinki, Finland. Well over one thousand university students have completed autonomous language learning modules (ALMS) as part of their normal degree programme, and a large body of data has been collected on the process. We will here describe the context and organisation of the ALMS modules and, in particular, the nature and function of counselling, which we see as an essential part of the support system provided for learners on their road to autonomy. We will then go on to analyse some of the attitudinal changes experienced and freely expressed by learners as a direct result of their participation in the programme

Creating the culture of participation through the Storycrafting method]

Peer reviewe