Browsing by Subject "koulukoira"
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(Helsingin yliopisto, 2020)Use of dogs in school environment has increased during the last years. In earlier studies it has been found that dogs can increase social well-being in classrooms, motivate pupils, help them take part in school work and calm them. Few years ago the new curriculum for basic education made emotion education part of mandatory content in elementary school. Goal for emotion education is to teach pupils to understand their emotions and express them in way that is good for them and others. In this study the goal is to find out in what whey teacher can use school dog as a part of emotion education and what kind of experiences the teacher and pupils have on this kind of classes. This study was a qualitative study. The participants were 37 elementary school pupils from grades 5.-6. and a teacher who had given those pupils emotion education. The pupils wrote shorts texts to the teacher evaluating given classes. To help write these texts they had some questions they were able to use. The teacher was interviewed using theme interview. Both the texts and the interview were analysed using content analysis. Dog’s appearance was a meaningful thing to the classes. The teacher and pupils felt that the dog made the classes more motivating and it also affected to the atmosphere positively. The teacher thinks that the dog makes it easier for the pupils to open up and they will also have stronger memory trail of these classes. The pupils found that being physically near the dog was important and the dog affected also their mood. Some pupils didn’t think that the dog affected them in any way. School dog can make emotion education easier as it makes easier to talk about difficult things and makes learning environment better. With dog emotion education can be carried out in various ways that are inspiring for pupils.
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(Helsingin yliopisto, 2020)Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract The aim of this thesis is to study high school students´ experiences with school dog activity, its effects on their well-being and burnout prevention. The focus of this study is the students' views of dog assisted pedagogy. The theoretical part of the thesis addresses both animal assisted and dog-assisted activity. The definition of well being and how it is emphasized in the national curriculum of Finnish high schools are also covered in this section. We end the theoretical part by defining the term burnout and why is it considered an essential part of this study. This study is a case study and the material used in this study was gathered from one high school. Via skype meeting, five high school students were interviewed about their experiences of school dog activity.The results were analyzed based on the theoretical frame of the study and also based on content oriented analysis. School dogs have a clear connection to students' well-being and their strengths during burnout. The school dog activity received positive feedback from all interviewed students. According to the interviewees, school dogs helped them cope with burnout. Burnout was said to include social, physical and mental aspects. The interviewed students told that school dogs gave them support when they found themselves on the verge of a burnout. Dogs had a calming effect on students during burnout and they also raised positive feelings among students. School dogs were seen as an essential part of students' well-being. Working with school dogs reduced anxiety and evoked feelings of pleasure. School dogs also helped the students meet new people and interact with each other. According to the students, dogs had a calming effect on them and they also reduced stress- and anxiety-related symptoms. School dogs were shown to have many beneficial roles. For example, dogs were seen as friends, listeners and also therapists. Having a school dog around during break was shown to evoke positive feelings in students. The attitudes towards school dog activity were also positive among students' families. The interviewed students saw many future opportunities for the school dog activity and gave a lot of ideas on how to expand it. All the students considered the school dog activity as a success in their school.
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(Helsingin yliopisto, 2019)School dogs have been the subject of recent media attention and their numbers appear to be on the rise. The purpose of this study was to find out what kind of experiences Finnish teachers using dog assisted pedagogy have on the method. The aim was also to compare the experiences of Finnish teachers with the findings of earlier studies on the impact of school dogs in the classroom environment. The study is a qualitative master's thesis, and was carried out as an interview study. The research material consisted of interviews with three teachers in the Helsinki metropolitan area. All of the teachers had years of experience with teaching and also had been using dog assisted pedagogy for quite some time. All of them had at least one officially tested and trained dog to assist them in the classroom. The data analysis was carried out as a theory-driven content analysis. The results of this study were largely in line with the previous studies. The study found, among other things, that the presence of the dog in the class reduces pupils' behavioral problems and aggressive behavior, smooths emotional reactions and increases school satisfaction. The findings of this study supported the conclusion already drawn in previous studies that school dogs can have positive effects in the classroom environment. However, the study also raised concerns about the future of dog-assisted pedagogy. The interviewed teachers saw a threat in that not all dogs entering the school were officially tested or that the teachers were not trained to use the method in question.
