In 2009 the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture assigned the National Board of Education with the task of carrying out a nationwide evaluation of all seven cross-curricular themes. The evaluation is one of the largest education evaluation projects the National Board of Finland has ever organised. The present authors were invited to evaluate…

The aim of this study is to examine Finnish ninth graders' attitudes towards the consequences of climate change, their views on climate change mitigation and the impact of a set of selected predictors on their willingness to act in climate change mitigation. Students (N = 549) from 11 secondary schools participated in the questionnaire-based…

The aim of this research was to clarify the characteristics of Finnish upper secondary school students as vocational decision-makers. The focus was especially on what skills and competences were related to decision-making at different phases of the decision-making process. Altogether, 216 upper secondary school students filled in the…

Mathematics related affect turn from positive to negative during comprehensive school years worldwide. There is a clear need to find solutions to the problem. However, some gaps and problems appear in the methodologies and the common approaches used in the field. This article discusses five studies addressing affective development, challenges some…

In this case study, theoretically rooted in peer-assisted learning (PAL), ten female high school students, acting as peer teachers, taught hip hop dance in a voluntary physical education course. The data, derived from questionnaires and interviews with the peer teachers, were analysed using content analysis. The results showed that the peer…

This study examined the development of adolescents' self-concept of ability in mathematics and literacy during secondary school, and the role that mothers' and fathers' beliefs concerning their child's abilities play in this development. Also examined was whether the role of mothers' and fathers' beliefs about their adolescent child's ability in…

Against the background of differing admission selectivity, structure, and status of teacher education in Denmark and Finland, we analyze the extent to which beginning teacher education students differ with respect to previous educational pathways, socio-demographic characteristics, academic self-concepts, and occupational motivations. In both…

This article focuses on young people's attachment to their home district. The purpose of this study was to establish how attached young people aged 17 were to their home district and what factors were involved in young people's attachment to their home districts. The structure of the young people's lives was studied on the basis of the…

The national Finnish Schools on the Move programme support schools with their individual plans to promote school-based physical activity (PA). We examined the changes in adolescents' recess and overall PA in four lower secondary schools and described the school actions to promote students' PA and the local contact persons' perceptions of the…

Majority of NOS studies comprise of determination or assessment studies conducted with ordinary students. In order to gain further understanding on variation in NOS understandings among the students, there should be different research attempts focusing on unconventional students such as academically advanced students. The purpose of this study is…

This study aimed to examine the validity and reliability of an instrument designed to measure student perceptions of curricular goals in physical education, the Curricular Goals in Physical Education Questionnaire. Participants were 879 Finnish students from grades 7 to 9 (412 girls, 467 boys; mean age 13.81). An exploratory factor analysis was…

Within the European TILA project a case study was carried out where pupils from schools in Finland and the Netherlands engaged in debating sessions using the 3D virtual world of OpenSim once a week for a period of 5 weeks. The case study had two main objectives: (1) to study the impact that the discussion tasks undertaken in a virtual environment…

Learning difficulties have been found to dilute the possibilities that young adults have in their educational careers. However, during the last few decades, education has become increasingly important for employment and overall life satisfaction. In the present study, we were interested in the effects of mathematical and reading difficulties and…

The overall aim of the project is to allow for the collaboration of high school students of different European countries on small, selected maths topics. This involves the use of technology, student mobility and English language competency. Benefits are also expected to accrue to teachers of mathematics by providing the opportunity to work with…

In this follow-up study, development of co-teaching was studied in four different schools in Helsinki, Finland. Teachers, altogether 54, 51 and 26, respectively, responded to an electronic questionnaire three times during one year. The attitudes towards co-teaching were positive although the frequency of co-teaching remained low. Co-teaching was…