The influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on PhD Candidates’ study progress and study wellbeing.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had its impact on research and researchers, and hence potentially on the future of academia. Yet, empirical evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on PhD candidates is limited. This study explores the influences of the pandemic on PhD candidates' progress and wellbeing. In addition, the aim is to identify potentially particularly vulnerable candidate groups. In total, 768 PhD candidates from a Finnish research-intensive multidisciplinary university participated in the mixed method study in spring 2021. The data were collected with the doctoral experience survey. In general, the PhD candidates estimated that the COVID-19 pandemic had hindered their progress and decreased their study wellbeing. The negative impact boiled down to the reduced access to data or participants, erosion of scholarly support networks, reduced access to the institutional resources, poor work-life balance and mental health problems. Results further implied that the international candidates, those studying at the university full-time, engaging in research teams, candidates from natural sciences and those at the mid-phase of their studies employed increased risk of suffering from negative COVID-19 pandemic influences. Results can be used in building well-fitted re-creative actions in supporting the PhD candidates to overcome challenges set by the pandemic.Peer reviewe

Socially embedded academic emotions in school

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From anxiety to enthusiasm : emotional patterns among student teachers

Studying to become a teacher is a highly emotional experience. Nevertheless, little is known about emotional patterns and emotional change. The aim of this study is to enhance the understanding of student teachers' academic emotions by exploring patterns of emotions experienced in emotionally loaded episodes. A total of 19 primary school student teachers were interviewed. The qualitative content analysis revealed five different emotional patterns: positive, negative, ascending, descending and changing. Most of the emotional patterns were positive or changing in nature. Yet all the emotional patterns were highly focused on studying and learning. Moreover, the patterns were experienced equally in short, medium-length and long episodes. Our study showed that emotional patterns were triggered by various task-related elements of teacher education: most commonly, fulfilled or unfilled expectations, sufficient or insufficient abilities, and experiences of social support received or not received.Peer reviewe

The Added Value of a PhD in Medicine - PhD Students’ Perceptions of Acquired Competences

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Primary and lower secondary students’ learning agency and social support

Making initiatives and having ownership over one’s learning is a key for applying and creating knowledge, acquiring new abilities, actively steering one’s life and the engaging in change in society. Understanding the preconditions for such learning should be in the core of designing learning environments and the primary interest of frontline learning research. This study focuses on exploring students’ sense of their learning agency in studying and the role of teacher and peer support in cultivating it. We examined how primary (grades 1-6) and lower secondary school students (grades 7-9) perceive their learning agency (LA), its relationship with the experienced teacher and peer support in studying. Also, differences between the girls and boys, and schools located in low and high SES neighborhoods was examined. We assessed the structure and level of learning agency by using a new measurement and explorative structural equation modeling (ESEM). Results show that learning agency consists of interdependent elements of motivation to learn, self-efficacy beliefs about learning and strategies for learning in meaning making, problem solving and scaffolding in studying. The experienced learning agency was related to social support experienced in several ways. Also differences in learning agency and social support in terms of grade level, gender and SES were detected. Results indicate that meaning making especially calls for intentional support from teachers in lower secondary grades and that girls and boys have partly different support needs in terms of cultivating strong sense of learning agency

Summary Report on Doctoral and Supervisory Experience at the University of Helsinki

This report is part of the research-based development of doctoral education in the four doctoral schools at the University of Helsinki. Its aim is to contribute research-based evidence pertaining to the development of doctoral education at the University of Helsinki by exploring the doctoral and the supervisory experience in the doctoral schools. Doctoral candidates’ experiences of doctoral education were analysed in terms of four complementary aspects of the training: the doctoral dissertation process, supervision and the research community, well-being, and course work. The supervisory experience involved three complementary themes: doctoral supervision, support for supervisory development, and well-being. The report consists of a summary of the results based on data collected from doctoral candidates and doctoral supervisors at the University of Helsinki in late spring and early autumn 2021

Student teachers' emotional landscapes in self- and co-regulated learning

Self- and co-regulation are central elements in skillful student-teacher learning. Studies have confirmed the interrelation between positive academic emotions and student engagement in self-regulated learning. There are also indicators of student-teachers experiencing co-regulative learning activities as highly significant. Yet, we know surprisingly little about the emotional landscape of the self- and co-regulation of learning among student-teachers. Hence, in this study, we explore the kinds of academic emotions that primary school student-teachers experience during self- and co-regulated learning. Altogether 19 Finnish primary school student-teachers were interviewed. The data were qualitatively content analyzed. The results showed that both self- and co-regulated learning experiences were emotionally activating. Student-teachers reported primarily positive emotions (80%) in self- and co-regulated learning. The results also showed that positive activating emotions, such as enthusiasm, were emphasized in all regulatory phases: goal setting and task analysis, strategy use and monitoring, and reflection. Our findings on the high frequency of various positive emotions embedded in self- and co-regulated learning confirmed that positive activating emotions are essential elements in student-teachers self- and co-regulated learning. The findings imply that self- and co-regulated learning can trigger a positive cycle in student-teacher learning in terms of both emotions and productive learning.Peer reviewe

The emotional landscape of curriculum making

Abstract Our aim with this study was to gain a better understanding of the emotional landscape of curriculum making by exploring the variety of emotions embedded in shared sense-making about the national curriculum reform implementation at the district level. Focus group interview data were collected from 12 curriculum reform steering groups around Finland, that were responsible for orchestrating curriculum reform work at the district level. The data were qualitatively content analysed. The results showed that the local steering group members experienced a wide range of emotions in shared sense-making. Positive emotions were described slightly more often than negative emotions. The emotional landscape of the sense-making strategies applied in curriculum reform work varied depending on the strategy applied.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

The role of empathy between peers in upper secondary students’ study engagement and burnout

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COVID-19 Accelerating Academic Teachers' Digital Competence in Distance Teaching

This study examines, using a cross-sectional approach, the digital competence of academic teachers at a time when teaching shifted to digital distance learning at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers from different academic fields at a large multidisciplinary Finnish university (N = 265) responded to a questionnaire about the purposes for which they use digital tools in teaching, how they evaluated their competence at distance teaching during the lockdown of March-May 2020 and their beliefs about distance teaching. The respondents used digital tools in teaching mostly for delivering information. According to their evaluations, their competence in distance teaching increased during the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but their beliefs about distance teaching did not relate to the feelings of competence. Respondents with no experience in distance teaching before the lockdown evaluated their competence as having increased more than did respondents with previous experience. The implications of the findings for understanding competence development are then discussed.Peer reviewe