Englantipainotteinen esiopetusryhmä Lappeenrannan varhaiskasvatuksessa

Tämän opinnäytetyön tarkoituksena oli selvittää, miten englantipainotteisuus näkyy lappeenrantalaisen Kesämäen päiväkodin esiopetusryhmän toiminnassa. Lisäksi tarkoituksena oli selvittää, mitkä asiat ovat ryhmän työntekijöiden mielestä olennaisia ryhmän toiminnassa. Opinnäytetyön tavoitteena oli koota monipuolinen tietopaketti ja näin lisätä vanhempien tietoutta ryhmän toiminnasta. Opinnäytetyön teoreettisessa viitekehyksessä käsitellään yleisesti varhaiskasvatusta, esiopetusta sekä vieraan kielen opetustapoja varhaiskasvatuksessa. Lisäksi opinnäytetyön teoriaosuudessa on kerättynä tietoa lapsen kielen oppimiseen vaikuttavista tekijöistä ja lapsen kielen kehittymisestä. Tämä opinnäytetyö toteutettiin toiminnallisena opinnäytetyönä, jossa käytettiin laadullisia tutkimusmenetelmiä. Aineisto kerättiin kolmen työntekijän ryhmähaastattelulla ja esiopetusryhmän toiminnan havainnoinnilla yhden esiopetuspäivän aikana. Tuloksena syntyi esite. Tutkimustuloksista ilmeni, että englannin kieltä käytetään ryhmässä päivittäin arjen eri tilanteissa. Aamupalalla ja lounaalla aikuinen kertoo englanniksi, mitä on ruoaksi ja pukeutumistilanteissa hän antaa ohjeet englanniksi. Erityisesti aamupiirissä englantia käytetään ahkerasti. Aamupiirin aikana keskustellaan, lauletaan ja leikitään englannin kielellä. Lisäksi ryhmässä pidetään noin kaksi kertaa kuukaudessa englannin kielen kerho, jossa opetellaan aikuisen johdolla muun muassa englanninkielistä sanastoa lapsille läheisistä aihepiireistä. Haastattelussa työntekijät kertoivat ryhmän toiminnan vaihtelevan viikoittain, ja he nostivat esiin muun muassa laulujen ja pelien tärkeyden vieraan kielen oppimisen tukemisessa. Jatkotutkimusaiheina tälle opinnäytetyölle voisi olla esimerkiksi tutkia, kuinka erilaiset kielen oppimista tukevat menetelmät vaikuttavat lasten kielen oppimiseen tai kuinka kasvatuskumppanuus tukee lapsen vieraan kielen kehittymistä.The purpose of this thesis was to find out how English orientation shows in the operation of English oriented preschool group and what the employees consider as essential for the group. To support the purpose of the thesis a brochure for parents was created to give information about the group’s English activities. The thesis was carried out by using qualitative research methods. The material for was collected during one preschool day by group interviews of three employees and by observation of the preschool group. The theoretical part of the thesis consist of early childhood and preschool education and foreign language teaching methods in early childhood education. Also theory of child’s language learning and language development was included. The results showed that English language is in everyday situation, such as lunch time conversation, while getting dressed and during play. Twice a month English club was held to learn English vocabulary. At the interview employees told that activities of the group vary weekly and they also brought up for example the importance of songs and games in supporting children to learn foreign language. Further research could cover topic such as how different kinds of methods support and influence children’s language learning and how parent-teacher co-operated learning and teaching supports child’s foreign language development

Recover from a service failure : The differential effects of brand betrayal and brand disappointment on an exclusive brand offering

Brand managers inevitably have to face service failures and respond to them. Undertaking brand recovery is essential as customers might desire to take revenge or spread negative word-of-mouth if they feel betrayed or disappointed by the brand following the service failure. Thus, it is necessary to understand customer responses to brand recovery, which depend on whether they feel betrayed or disappointed (while related, this paper distinguishes these feelings). This research challenges the conventional wisdom by demonstrating that, after presenting customers with an exclusive brand offering during the brand recovery, brand betrayal predicts a positive brand attitude and brand disappointment predicts a negative brand attitude with the service failure. Further, the brand attitude mediates the positive relationship between brand betrayal, positive word-of-mouth, and the likelihood of recommending the brand to others. Thus, the quick recovery that follows an exclusive brand offering positively impacts on the brand relationship among betrayed customers.Peer reviewe

Yrittäjyyskasvatus – Tulevaisuuden siltojen rakentaja ja raja-aitojen murtaja? 11. Yrittäjyyskasvatuspäivät 2017 Oulussa, Artikkelikirja

The aim of this project was to create a preliminary theoretical framework of howto utilize humour strategically in organizations with the aim of creating newbusiness opportunities. The present multidisciplinary discussion paper will identifyresearch gaps and combine viewpoints of international business management,international business communication, marketing and education in a novel way. Itappears that in previous literature on humour in a business context, discussionshave taken place in different ‘silos’ and as a result, the connections betweendifferent research fields have been scarce. Consequently, a more comprehensiveunderstanding of the significance of humour in business innovations is necessary.Firstly, we are proposing a framework and a research agenda for exploring differentstrategic ways of using humour in companies. Secondly, in the Hurmos-project wehave already collected empirical evidence based on this framework, and somepreliminary results are also presented. Hence, the potential, as well as the limitsand risks of humour in business have been examined in terms of both internal andexternal corporate communication. We have focused on such research aspects ascorporate storytelling, corporate and employer branding, and work engagement.Peer group mentoring has been used as one tool for collecting relevant narrativesfrom companies. Additionally, we have explored innovation communication, inparticular how humour can be applied as a strategic tool in new businessdevelopment both in facilitating creative Research, Development and Innovation(R&D&I) work environments, and in incorporating humour into product andservice innovation in practice. Our empirical results will provide a much neededmore comprehensive view of the role of humour as a strategic tool in corporatecommunication and business innovation. The results also provide a point of departure for further research. Besides academia, results and generated know-how will be of interest to managers of large corporations as well as start-up companies.</p

Dust and Metal Column Densities in Gamma-Ray Burst Host Galaxies

In this paper we present the results from the analysis of a sample of 28 gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow spectral energy distributions, spanning the X-ray through to near-infrared wavelengths. This is the largest sample of GRB afterglow spectral energy distributions thus far studied, providing a strong handle on the optical depth distribution of soft X-ray absorption and dust-extinction systems in GRB host galaxies. We detect an absorption system within the GRB host galaxy in 79% of the sample, and an extinction system in 71% of the sample, and find the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) extinction law to provide an acceptable fit to the host galaxy extinction profile for the majority of cases, consistent with previous findings. The range in the soft X-ray absorption to dust-extinction ratio, N_{H,X}/Av, in GRB host galaxies spans almost two orders of magnitude, and the typical ratios are significantly larger than those of the Magellanic Clouds or Milky Way. Although dust destruction could be a cause, at least in part, for the large N_{H,X}/Av ratios, the good fit provided by the SMC extinction law for the majority of our sample suggests that there is an abundance of small dust grains in the GRB environment, which we would expect to have been destroyed if dust destruction were responsible for the large N_{H,X}/Av ratios. Instead, our analysis suggests that the distribution of N_{H,X}/Av in GRB host galaxies may be mostly intrinsic to these galaxies, and this is further substantiated by evidence for a strong negative correlation between N_{H,X}/Av and metallicity for a subsample of GRB hosts with known metallicity. Furthermore, we find the N_{H,X}/Av ratio and metallicity for this subsample of GRBs to be comparable to the relation found in other more metal-rich galaxies.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Luomukuluttajan muotokuva : Tavoitteena vastuullinen elämäntapa

Eettisyys on nouseva arvo, mutta käytännössä kuluttaja kuitenkin usein valitsee tavanomaisen tuotteen luomutuotteen sijaan. Luomutuotteen valinta kuvastaa kuluttajan elämäntyyliä, johon vaikuttavat henkilöön itseensä ja ulkoiseen ympäristöön liittyvät tekijät. Tutkimuksessani kartoitin näitä tekijöitä haastattelemalla seitsemää henkilöä, jotka ovat kiinnostuneita luomutuotteista. Muutoin nämä henkilöt muodostavat melko heterogeenisen ryhmän. Tutkimuksessa esille tulleiden tekijöiden perusteella tarkoituksena oli etsiä keinoja edistää eettistä kuluttamista. Tutkimukseni mukaan kuluttajan luomuvalintaan vaikuttavat erityisesti ulkoiset tekijät, kuten kuluttajan viiteryhmät, taloudellinen tilanne ja tuotteiden saatavuus ostohetkellä. Yksilöllisistä tekijöistä esimerkiksi ympäristön suojeleminen, terveyden edistäminen, maku ja ostamisen vaivattomuus tukevat luomuvalintaa. Näiden perusteella suosittelen, että luomuvälittäjä pyrkisi lisäämään luomumenekkiä muun muassa maistattamalla, tuoteluetteloiden tiedotuksilla ja omilla kotisivuilla. Luomumenekkiä pystyisi lisäämään myös perustamalla luomuruokamyymälän

Newbie in e-Teaching. Focus on English for Special Purposes

E-teaching as an option for teaching and learning has become increasingly common recently. Oulu University of Applied Sciences has also adopted the idea of providing students with courses and even study programmes to be studied virtually at a distance. The virtual aspect of language teaching might pose some challenges especially since over the years, the focus in teaching EFL has shifted from teaching grammar onto communicative competence. There is yet another aspect to this teaching, though, as ESP aims to cater the needs of some specific field. To incorporate all these aspects into e-teaching requires careful planning, and the actual teaching does not necessary follow the plan. There are numerous tools available for e-teaching, and in this case, two tools were selected, i.e. Adobe Connect and Moodle. Based on the experiences, the aim is to further develop e-teaching to better correspond to the communicative goal of ELF teaching

Critical Thinking: From Theory to Teaching

Thinking, including critical thinking, is indispensable to a person so that a person can base his or her decisions on solid reasoning and facts. Even so, to think critically requires more than just being critical; it requires skills and aptitude for applying the skills in practice. In addition, to become an advanced thinker, the skills need to be practiced, and for that classroom offers a natural venue. Among numerous alternatives, Bloom’s taxonomy and Paul’s model provide two applicable frameworks for thinking. They can be consciously employed to practice critical thinking. The first one is a method for classifying the outcome of a thinking process. In turn, the second framework refers to a model of the elements of a thinking process. The frameworks for thinking are examples of teachers’ tools to formulate instructional objectives involving critical thinking. With the help of these frameworks, well-designed questions and the ABCD model, a teacher can strive to ensure students engage themselves in critical thinking during lessons

PALVELUTARPEEN KARTOITUS 75 VUOTTA TÄYTTÄNEILLE KOTONA ASUVILLE IKÄÄNTYNEILLE MUONION KUNNASSA

Väestön ikääntymisen myötä vanhuspalveluiden tarve kasvaa ja vanhuspalveluiden kehittäminen on yksi kuntien suurimmista haasteista tulevaisuudessa. Suositusten mukaan vanhustenhuollossa tulisi entistä enemmän keskittyä ennaltaehkäisyyn, vähentää laitospaikkoja ja panostaa kotihoitoon ja palveluasumiseen. Opinnäytetyön tarkoituksena on kartoittaa 75 vuotta täyttäneiden kotona asuvien ikääntyneiden palvelutarpeita Muonion kunnan alueella. Lisäksi tarkoituksena on kartoittaa ikääntyneiden tämänhetkistä elämäntilannetta. Teoriapohjana tutkimuksessa on käytetty toimijuus-käsitettä. Opinnäytetyössä käytettiin kvantitatiivista tutkimusmenetelmää. Tutkimus toteutettiin postikyselynä. Tutkimuksen vastausprosentiksi muodostui 57 %. Tutkimuksen perusteella ikääntyneet ovat pääosin tyytyväisiä elämäänsä niin kauan kun terveys pysyy kohtalaisena ja kotona asuminen on mahdollista. Ikääntyneillä on tällä hetkellä eniten tarvetta siivouspalvelulle ja kotihoidolle. Lähitulevaisuudessa palveluasuntojen tarve tulee myös lisääntymään. Ikääntyneet ovat tutkimuksen perusteella huolissaan siitä, miten palvelut saadaan turvattua myös syrjäkylille kuntakeskuksen ulkopuolelle. Tutkimuksen mukaan ikääntyneillä ei ole tarpeeksi tietoa kunnan tarjoamista palveluista, tai he kokevat palveluiden hakemisen liian monimutkaisenaThe purpose of the thesis was to research the service needs of home-living elderly people over 75 years in Muonio. In addition, the purpose was to study the present life situation of elderly people. The theory used in this thesis is based on the concept of agency. The research method was quantitative. The survey was made by posted questionnaires. The questionnaire was sent to every home-living elderly over 75 years in Muonio, except couples who live in the same household who only received one questionnaire. 147 questionnaires were sent, and the reply percentage was 57%. In the light of the study, elderly people are mainly satisfied with their lives as long as they stay healthy, and it is possible to live at home. Most needed services are cleaning and home care. In the near future, the need for sheltered accommodation will also increase. Elderly people were worried about ensuring services also in the little villages outside of the municipal centre. On the basis of this study, elderly people lack the information of the services provided by the municipality or saw it too complex to apply for services. Elderly people wished that the municipality could be more in touch with the elderly people and ask about their wishes and situation

Tartrate-Resistant Acid Phosphatase 5b: a Serum Marker of Bone Resorption

Bone is a physiologically dynamic tissue being constantly regenerated throughout life as a consequence of bone turnover by bone-resorbing osteoclasts and bone-forming osteoblasts. In certain bone diseases, such as osteoporosis, the imbalance in bone turnover leads to bone loss and increased fracture risk. Measurement of bone mineral density (BMD) predicts the risk of fracture, but also biochemical markers of bone metabolism have been suggested to be suitable for prediction of fractures and monitoring the efficacy of antiresorptive treatment. Tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase 5b (TRACP 5b) is an enzyme released from osteoclasts into the circulation, from where it can be detected kinetically or immunologically. Conventional assays for serum total TRACP were spectrophotometric and suffered from interference by other acid phosphatases and non-osteoclastic TRACP 5a isoform. Our aim was to develop novel immunoassays for osteoclastic TRACP 5b. Serum TRACP 5b levels were elevated in individuals with high bone turnover, such as children, postmenopausal women, patients with osteoporosis, Paget’s disease and breast cancer patients with bone metastases. As expected, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in postmenopausal women decreased the levels of serum TRACP 5b. Surprisingly, the highest TRACP 5b levels were observed in individuals with rare autosomal dominant osteopetrosis type II (ADO2), which is characterized by high BMD and fracture risk with simultaneously elevated levels of deficient osteoclasts. In ADO2 patients, elevated levels of serum TRACP 5b were associated with high fracture frequency. It is likely that serum TRACP 5b reflects the number of inactive osteoclasts in ADO2. Similar results supporting the hypothesis that TRACP 5b would reflect the number of osteoclasts instead of their activity were observed with cultured osteoclasts and in animal models. Novel TRACP 5b immunoassays may prove to be of value either as independent or combinatory tools with other bone metabolic markers and BMD measurements in clinical practice and bone research.Siirretty Doriast