Relation of resemblance in information retrieval

A method using the amount of semantic information of query terms as weight in a fuzzy relation of resemblance is presented. The relation can be used to partially order documents in decreasing order of resemblance with the query. Large operational bibliographic data bases are used to test the validity of the approach.     

New and Old: Multimedia as a Tool for Providing Interpretation and Meaning: Reflections on the Finnish Art Education History Project

During the last decade, Pirkko Pohjakallio, a researcher at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, has been involved in historical research. In her presentation of a recently produced CD-ROM, she emphasizes the role of art education in building a national identity and in shaping gender roles. Children’s pictures are also used to analyze how educational concepts and philosophies have changed. Without this new medium, it would be much harder to organize the riches of the pictures in the collection for students and researchers to explore.     

Learning from and with museum objects: design perspectives, environment, and emerging learning systems

Sociocultural approaches emphasize the systemic, context-bound nature of learning, which is mediated by other people, physical and conceptual artifacts, and tools. However, current educational systems tend not to approach learning from the systemic perspective, and mostly situate learning within classroom environments. This design-based research aims to seek answers to these challenges by enhancing the use of museum objects and inquiry tools in learning through developing a new kind of virtual environment. By using learning objects that represent physical objects, the students can develop their own research questions, and choose related museum artifacts and inquiry tools with which to find answers to their questions during forthcoming museum visits. This study aims to examine what kinds of learning systems emerged when three different student groups collaboratively designed their visits to the Finnish Forest Museum based on their own interests and afforded resources in the learning environment. Data analysis indicates that a tool-driven system typically seems to represent the approach of primary school students, with an object-driven system for technical college students, and a strategic, research-question-driven system for teacher-education students. When considering the desired effects of technology and open environments on emerging learning systems and processes, the results of the study suggest that self-organization and free choice do not necessarily lead to research-question-driven learning processes, unless the variation in student approaches, design-process scaffolding, and paying attention to the social arrangements, and to the use of tools during the implementation of inquiry activities are all taken into account.     

Teachers’ perceptions of boys’ and girls’ shared activities in the school context: towards a theory of collaborative play

The Finnish educational system and curricula lay emphasis on play, collaboration and equality. Modern educational practices allow the learning environment to be enlarged from indoor classrooms to outdoor playful learning environments (PLEs). PLEs have been constructed in schoolyards in Finland with the goal of increasing learning through play in curriculum‐based education and augmenting collaborative play (ColPlay) between boys and girls. In order to better understand and describe such developments, the author set out to ascertain how teachers perceive mixed‐gender play activities in pre‐primary and basic education. Fourteen teachers were interviewed and the obtained data were analysed using the grounded theory as an analytical approach. The research suggests five premises for ColPlay: (1) the most suitable forms of ColPlay are outdoor games and role‐play, (2) gender roles adjust in contemporary play culture, (3) teachers’ pedagogical thinking on ColPlay includes various practices to promote collaborative relationships between girls and boys, (4) teachers have confidence in ColPlay and (5) learning to collaborate with both genders requires practice and reflection. The study offers useful insights for teachers, teacher educators and designers of game content and learning environments.     

Institutional Tendencies of Legitimate Evaluation: A Comparison of Finnish and English Higher Education Evaluations

This article analyses institutional evaluations of higher education in England and Finland through the concept of legitimacy. The focus of the article is on the institutional tendencies of legitimacy. This author's hypothesis is that evaluation is legitimate when the evaluation process is of a good quality and accepted both morally and in practice by people involved in the process. The central question is: What are the institutional tendencies of modern higher education evaluation? The article deliberates the many‐sided elements of legitimate evaluation and ends with conclusions that show the similarities and differences of institutional tendencies of higher education evaluation in the studied countries.     

Learning the routines: "professionalization" of newcomers in secondary school

Education systems are expected to enhance both social regulation and emancipation of school students. The contradictions between these aims are visible in the everyday life at school in tensions between control and agency. These tensions are explored in this article by analysing the first two weeks in secondary school, on the basis of ethnographic data collected in the project "Citizenship, Difference and Marginalization in Schools: with Special Reference to Gender." Multilayered processes and practices are involved in the induction of new students. Banal instructions in the "official school," the construction of differences and continuities in the "informal" school, and the ways in which bodies of students are placed in the time-space paths in the "physical" school are explored. The authors ask how school students are taught to become "professional pupils" routinized in the everyday life of their new schools, and how students themselves construct competences through negotiation, withdrawal, or resistance.     

Threats,Utopias and Development Continuities in the Future of Adult Education

This study is based on the hypothesis of futurology stating that future images influence in many ways the present activities and decision‐making of both individuals and communities. The purpose was to forecast various possible future developments in adult education based on future images of adult educators (N = 117) working in Finnish institutions of vocational education. The information was gathered by mailed questionnaires which were collected at training sessions arranged by regional governments for adult educators. The data contained 832 future images. Threatening and desirable images associated with the functions and resources of adult education were most frequent. There were least mentions regarding continuities and the organization and process of education.     

Cross-boundary collaboration and knowledge creation in an online higher education course

This study investigated an international, inter-university and multidisciplinary online course with the aim of helping higher education students develop competencies for solving complex problems in collaboration with their peers and stakeholders. The course design was informed by the knowledge creation framework and ideas about cross-boundary collaboration. We attempted to enrich perspectives on knowledge creation by investigating how higher education students (N = 42) from different fields of study and from 17 different nationalities perceived, built and regulated cross-boundary collaboration in the pursuit of real-life problems presented by companies or non-governmental organisations. Drawing on data from 11 in-depth group interviews and team reports of students who had completed this course, we showed the kinds of activities the students considered relevant for cross-boundary collaboration and knowledge creation online. Given this extended context for knowledge creation, the study contributes to the pedagogical development of online learning in higher education.     

Learning environments preferred by university students: a shift toward informal and flexible learning environments

Learning Environments Research - Universities are facing new challenges that pose various demands for developing learning environments. These challenges are related to different pedagogical...