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This study explored the physiological correlates of students' self‐reported emotions in ecologically valid settings by combining biosignal data (on physical and cardiac activity) and experience sampling method (ESM) data. The aim was to examine the concurrent associations between self‐reported excitement, calmness, anxiety, and boredom (adopted from the dimensional model of emotions) and students' heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) (indicators of physiological arousal and the activation of the autonomous nervous system). Students' physical activity was controlled in the models via the metabolic equivalent of task (MET) values (actigraphy data). A second objective was to explore how to combine the information stored by these three sources of ambulatory assessment. The study comprised 136 high school students with multiple repetitive data points. For three consecutive days, students wore biometric sensors and wristbands collecting their HR, HRV, and MET signals, and answered the ESM questionnaires five times a day on smartphones. When MET values were controlled for, self‐reported excitement was related to higher HR as well as lower HRV during a specific moment, indicating stronger sympathetic activity (i.e., physiological arousal/activation). Self‐reported boredom was related to lower HR but was unrelated to HRV. Self‐reported calmness and anxiety were unrelated to HR and HRV after controlling for MET. A 5‐min time window with a Gaussian weighted mean seemed to be an appropriate data processing method for capturing the physiological arousal (or abate) of self‐reported excitement and boredom. The findings suggest that the physiological stimulus of elevated HR could be interpreted by students as an adaptive state of excitement. Combining the experience sampling approach and the physiological measures revealed how the mind and body function in interplay and can therefore provide objective evidence of emotional and motivational processes as they unfold in students' daily lives. Background This study explored the physiological correlates of students' self-reported emotions in ecologically valid settings by combining biosignal data (on physical and cardiac activity) and experience sampling method (ESM) data. Aims The aim was to examine the concurrent associations between self-reported excitement, calmness, anxiety, and boredom (adopted from the dimensional model of emotions) and students' heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) (indicators of physiological arousal and the activation of the autonomous nervous system). Students' physical activity was controlled in the models via the metabolic equivalent of task (MET) values (actigraphy data). A second objective was to explore how to combine the information stored by these three sources of ambulatory assessment. Sample The study comprised 136 high school students with multiple repetitive data points. Methods For three consecutive days, students wore biometric sensors and wristbands collecting their HR, HRV, and MET signals, and answered the ESM questionnaires five times a day on smartphones. Results When MET values were controlled for, self-reported excitement was related to higher HR as well as lower HRV during a specific moment, indicating stronger sympathetic activity (i.e., physiological arousal/activation). Self-reported boredom was related to lower HR but was unrelated to HRV. Self-reported calmness and anxiety were unrelated to HR and HRV after controlling for MET. Conclusions A 5-min time window with a Gaussian weighted mean seemed to be an appropriate data processing method for capturing the physiological arousal (or abate) of self-reported excitement and boredom. The findings suggest that the physiological stimulus of elevated HR could be interpreted by students as an adaptive state of excitement. Combining the experience sampling approach and the physiological measures revealed how the mind and body function in interplay and can therefore provide objective evidence of emotional and motivational processes as they unfold in students' daily lives.

This study was funded by a project Learning to Be: Development of Practices and Methodologies for Assessing Social, Emotional and Health Skills within Education Systems (#4120034) in the framework of Erasmus+ KA3 program (582955-EPP-1-2016-2-LT-EPPKA3-PI-POLICY). We are also grateful for funding by the Academy of Finland (#308352) and Finnish Strategic Research Council (#327242)., In recent years, the school curricula in many European countries have introduced social and emotional learning (SEL). This calls for the teachers to have SEL competencies. The present study evaluates teachers’ and their students’ readiness for SEL during an intervention in five European countries. The participants were teachers (n = 402) in five European countries; Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, and Spain. The pre- and post-measuring points for both the intervention and the comparison group were at approximately the same time before and after the intervention. Comparison data consisted of 159 teachers in the same countries. The training for the intervention group lasted 16 h for the teachers and a maximum of 16 h for the principles and headmasters. An additional 9 h of further monitoring took place. There were two student groups participating in the study: the age group of 8–11 years (pre puberty) and the age group of 12–15-years (adolescents). Students, whose teachers had participated in the intervention, formed the intervention group (n = 2,552). Those students, whose teachers did not participate in the intervention, formed the comparison group (n = 1,730). The questionnaire data were collected at the beginning and at the end of the school year for both age groups. The results indicated that there was a favorable development in the intervention group in some of the measured skills among students, but the effects were different for the two age groups. This study adds to both theoretical and practical development of continuing teacher training about SEL and its possible role in reducing problem behavior among the students., Development of Practices and Methodologies for Assessing Social, Emotional and Health Skills within Education Systems 4120034, Erasmus+ KA3 program 582955-EPP-1-2016-2-LT-EPPKA3-PI-POLICY, Academy of Finland European Commission 308352, Finnish Strategic Research Council 327242

The Engaging Learning Environment (ELE) model was introduced into a company’s work-place to support the learning and well-being of the employees. The participants were 107 middle managers: E-learning group (n = 42) and a comparison group (n = 42) as well as a blended ELE intervention group (n = 23) assigned by the company that combined e-learning and face-to-face sessions. All groups participated in pre- and post-tests. The participants’ knowledge was assessed by 16 MCQs and their application skills by the Dealing with Challenging Interaction (DCI) method which consisted of case studies. The descriptions of how to act in case situations were content analysed. A repeated measures GLM was used to determine whether knowledge and skills changed during the leadership training, and whether their belonging to one of the groups had any bearing on this. The analysis showed that the e-learning group improved their performance more than the comparison group and the results of the ELE intervention group improved even more. Therefore, it is possible to learn communication skills online.

The present study investigated the dynamic nature of students' daily experiences and general study engagement using intra-individual assessment. More specifically, we examined individual differences in the relationship between university students' task-specific value and situational emotions and, further, whether first-year study engagement would moderate this association during the first two years of studies. Intra-individual state assessments were conducted via mobile phone-based experience sampling method (ESM) during participants' first (N = 72) and second (N = 56) academic years, resulting in 3089 and 2912 fully completed state questionnaires. In both years, students were asked five times a day over two weeks how important they perceived their current activity and their positive and negative emotions. Using multilevel structural equation modeling, we found that, on average, a higher perception of task-specific value was associated with higher positive emotions and lower negative emotions within individuals. However, individual differences were detected in the value-emotion relations especially during the second academic year. Finally, the findings indicated that overall study engagement, measured at the beginning of the first academic year, predicted between-person differences in these within-person relationships both years.

University students’ epistemic beliefs may have practical consequences for studying and success in higher education. Such beliefs constitute epistemic theories that may empirically manifest themselves as epistemic profiles. This study examined university students’ epistemic profiles and their relations to conceptions of learning, age, gender, discipline, and academic achievement. The participants were 1515 students from five faculties who completed questionnaires about epistemic beliefs, including a subsample who also completed a questionnaire that included conceptions of learning. We measured epistemic beliefs: reflective learning, collaborative knowledge-building, valuing metacognition, certain knowledge, and practical value. First, we analyzed structural validity by using confirmatory factor analysis. Second, we conducted latent profile analysis that revealed three epistemic profiles: Pragmatic (49%), reflective-collaborative (26%) and fact-oriented (25%). Then, we compared the conceptions of learning across the profiles as well as demographic information, credits, and grades. The profiles’ conceptions of learning varied: The reflective-collaborative group scored high on conception of learning named “construction of knowledge.” Its members were more likely to be females, teachers, and mature students, and they had the highest academic achievement. The fact-oriented group (mostly engineering/science students) scored highest on “intake of knowledge.” The pragmatic group scored highest on “use of knowledge:” During the second year, their academic achievement improved. In sum, the epistemic profiles were closely related to conceptions of learning and also associated with academic achievement.

The rise of modern socio-digital technologies has fundamentally changed the everyday environments in which young people communicate with each other and cultivate interests. To gain a more sophisticated understanding of this phenomenon, this study provides in-depth, qualitative insights into adolescents’ experiences of their socio-digital developmental ecologies. The 15 interview participants were recruited based on a previously conducted questionnaire. The semi-structured theme interview addressed the socio-digital aspects of the participants’ interest-driven behaviours and related networks with the aid of participant-generated egocentric maps. The data not only qualitatively enrich the picture on adolescents’ friendship- and interest-driven socio-digital participation but also provide new perspectives on the phenomena through the added network-layer of analysis. The youth seem to vary in their motivational profiles related to their participation and the potential relevant psychological background factors for this variation are considered. Educational implications of these results are discussed when it comes to effective student engagement and connected learning.

The aim of this study was to examine i) the prevalence of achievement goal orientation profiles among Finnish sixth- and seventh-graders (N = 419), ii) the stability and change in these profiles across the transition from elementary to lower secondary school, and iii) the profile differences in academic achievement (grades) and academic well-being (school engagement and school burnout). Using latent profile analysis, four goal orientation profiles were extracted: indifferent, success-oriented, mastery-oriented, and avoidance-oriented. Latent transition analysis confirmed that these profiles were stably identified over time. There was substantial stability in profiles: being assigned to the same group yielded the highest transition probabilities (0.63–0.75). Likely transitions were from success-oriented to indifferent and from indifferent to avoidance-oriented. Of those who transitioned, the majority moved from more to less favorable profiles. Students who stayed in the mastery-oriented group across the transition displayed the most adaptive pattern of motivation, academic achievement, and well-being. ISSN:1041-6080

This article examined digital learning engagement as the out-of-school learning component that reflects informally emerging socio-digital participation. The gap hypothesis proposes that students who prefer learning with digital technologies outside of school are less engaged in traditional school. This hypothesis was approached from the framework of connected learning, referring to the process of connecting self-regulated and interest-driven learning across formal and informal contexts. We tested this hypothesis with longitudinal data. It was of interest how digital engagement, operationalized as a general digital learning preference, wish for digital schoolwork, and their interaction, is related to traditional school engagement. This was examined both cross-sectionally in three time points and longitudinally across three years. The participants were 1,705 (43.7% female) 7th–9th graders (13-15 years old) from 27 schools in Helsinki, Finland. We explored the structure of correlations between latent constructs at each time point separately, and finally, to evaluate longitudinal relations between digital engagement and school engagement we specified latent cross-lagged panel models. The results indicate that students holding a stronger general digital learning preference experienced higher schoolwork engagement, both contemporaneously and over time, indicating successful connected learning. However, the results also showed support for the gap hypothesis: Students who preferred digital learning but did not have the chance to digitally engage at school, experienced a decrease in school engagement over time. The article shows that there is a need to examine the reciprocal interactive processes between the learners and their social ecologies inside and outside school more closely. This article examined digital learning engagement as the out-of-school learning component that reflects informally emerging socio-digital participation. The gap hypothesis proposes that students who prefer learning with digital technologies outside of school are less engaged in traditional school. This hypothesis was approached from the framework of connected learning, referring to the process of connecting self-regulated and interest-driven learning across formal and informal contexts. We tested this hypothesis with longitudinal data. It was of interest how digital engagement, operationalized as a general digital learning preference, wish for digital schoolwork, and their interaction, is related to traditional school engagement. This was examined both cross-sectionally in three time points and longitudinally across three years. The participants were 1,705 (43.7% female) 7th–9th graders (13-15 years old) from 27 schools in Helsinki, Finland. We explored the structure of correlations between latent constructs at each time point separately, and finally, to evaluate longitudinal relations between digital engagement and school engagement we specified latent cross-lagged panel models. The results indicate that students holding a stronger general digital learning preference experienced higher schoolwork engagement, both contemporaneously and over time, indicating successful connected learning. However, the results also showed support for the gap hypothesis: Students who preferred digital learning but did not have the chance to digitally engage at school, experienced a decrease in school engagement over time. The article shows that there is a need to examine the reciprocal interactive processes between the learners and their social ecologies inside and outside school more closely.

The present study examines antecedents of university students' academic emotions (Pekrun, Goetz, Titz, & Perry, 2002) in the context of self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985; 2000), using realtime assessment and intra-individual analyses. We investigated whether daily autonomous and controlled-motivated educational goals predicted students' academic emotions. University students (N = 55) completed smartphone diaries over 14 consecutive days. The two-week intensive longitudinal data were organized in a hierarchical three-level structure, with situations (Level 1) nested within days (Level 2) nested within students (Level 3). Students' goal motivation was assessed in morning questionnaires, and academic emotions in three daytime questionnaires. The results of the multilevel structural equation models showed that setting self-determined autonomous educational goals predicted positive emotions, whereas controlled motivation predicted negative emotions in everyday academic situations, applying both to within-person processes and between-person differences. Both kinds of goal motivation, autonomous and controlled, were associated with determination in students' daily lives. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introducción.. En este estudio exploramos el desarrollo de las habilidades de aprendizaje social y emocional (SEL) de los docentes, mediante el uso de MET [Maestros Eficaz y Técnicamente preparados] (Gordon Training International) como intervención con dos grupos de docentes. También quisimos abordar el modelo de Gordon desde la perspectiva de la psicología educativa moderna. Los efectos de la intervención MET sobre los docentes fueron examinados utilizando el modelo de Kirkpatrick y Kirkpatrick (2006), ya que consideramos importante observar diversos aspectos de los resultados de la intervención, incluyendo las reacciones, el conocimiento, la aplicación del conocimiento (habilidades) y el bienestar general de los participantes.Método. Los docentes participantes en el MET eran tutores (n=20) de un centro de primaria y profesores de materia (n=23) de un centro de secundaria de Finlandia. El grupo de comparación comprendió profesores de materia (n=26) de un centro de secundaria que no participaron en MET. Las diferencias estadísticas de los resultados posteriores a la prueba se examinaron con ANOVA unidireccional de muestra dependiente.Resultados. En el grupo de comparación no se encontraron diferencias entre las mediciones previas y posteriores a la prueba. Entre los participantes las reacciones hacia el MET fueron positivas. Además hubo resultados significativos en otros dos aspectos: mejoraron tanto el conocimiento como la aplicación del conocimiento. El bienestar general de los docentes medido al final de la intervención mostró cambios menores.Conclusión. MET pareció alcanzar sus objetivos, pues los docentes aprendieron a aplicar habilidades de SEL durante la intervención.

We explored doctoral students’ writing profiles using a person-centred approach. We also studied differences between profiles in terms of experienced well-being and perceptions of the learning environment. The participants of our study (n = 664) were PhD students from three faculties at the University of Helsinki, Finland. The Writing Process Questionnaire (Lonka et al. Journal of Writing Research, 5(3), 245-269 2014) was used to measure writing conceptions and problematic writing. Well-being was measured by MED NORD, adapted to the doctoral context (Lonka et al. Medical Teacher, 30, 72-79 2008; Stubb et al. Studies in Continuing Education, 33(1), 33–50 2011), and Perceptions of the learning environment, using specific items from Dahlin et al. Medical Education, 39, 594–604 (2005). PhD students with similar patterns of writing variables were identified through latent profile analysis (LPA). We conducted one-way ANOVAs to examine group differences with respect to well-being and perceptions of learning environment. We identified three writing profiles: Growth-Transforming (51%), Ambivalent (40%), and Fixed-Blocking (9%) groups. The Fixed-Blocking group reported a lack of interest the most often and also reported receiving the least feedback. The Growth-Transforming group was the most and the Fixed-Blocking group the least satisfied with their studies. It appeared that epistemic beliefs related to research writing were most decisive in differentiation among PhD students. Blocks were related to beliefs in innate ability. We concluded that although problems in writing are quite common, epistemic beliefs may be even more decisive in terms of successful research writing.

espanolIntroduccion: La tendencia global de los nuevos curriculos de muchos paises de la OCDE indica que las habilidades de interaccion social son cada vez mas importantes. Los educadores deben comenzar a fomentar el desarrollo de las competencias sociales de los alumnos, lo que requiere el desarrollo de sus propios conocimientos y habilidades. Este estudio investigo el posible cambio en el conocimiento de los docentes, su conocimiento aplicado y su percepcion de competencia durante los talleres Lions Quest (LQ). Para medir esto, los participantes res- pondieron a la encuesta de LQ. Metodo: Reunimos diez muestras de 2120 participantes en nueve paises. Del total de partici- pantes, 1206 docentes asistieron a los talleres LQ para docentes (grupo de intervencion). Los datos de comparacion se recopilaron de 914 docentes que no participaron en el LQ; se calcu- laron las puntuaciones de la suma media de las medidas de multiples items, y estas fueron utilizadas como variables en los analisis posteriores. Especificamos un diseno mixto multiva- riado en el que examinamos el efecto de la intervencion con respecto al cambio medio de las variables a traves del tiempo en los diferentes grupos. En cuanto a la muestra, exploramos las diferencias de medias intra-grupo entre las puntuaciones pre-test y pos-test y evaluamos los tamanos del efecto de la intervencion. Resultados: Los resultados indicaron que la intervencion tuvo un efecto positivo en los parti- cipantes en todas las muestras menos una, y que los docentes se beneficiaron de la formacion continua en aprendizaje social y emocional (ASE). Discusion y Conclusion: Los resultados del presente estudio indican que merece la pena in- cluso una intervencion de relativamente corto plazo y bajo coste en el ASE de los docentes. Un ASE adecuado permite afrontar mas facilmente los desafios dentro y fuera de la escuela, ahora y en el futuro, tanto para los docentes como para sus alumnos. EnglishIntroduction: The global trend of new curricula in many OECD countries indicates that so- cial interaction skills are becoming increasingly important. Educators need to start fostering the development of learners’ social competences, which requires development of their own knowledge and skills. This study investigated the possible change in teachers’ knowledge, their applied knowledge, and their sense of competence during the Lions Quest (LQ) work- shops. For us to measure this, the participants responded to the LQ inquiry. Method: We collected ten samples from 2120 participants in nine countries. Of all the partic- ipants, 1206 teachers attended the LQ teacher workshops (intervention group). Comparison data were collected from 914 teachers not participating in the LQ, and the mean sum scores from the multi-item measures were computed and used as variables in further analyses. We specified a multivariate mixed design, in which we examined the effect of the intervention with regard to mean change over time across groups in the variables. Sample-wise, we ex- plored the within-group mean differences between pre- and post-test scores and evaluated the effect sizes for the intervention. Results: The results indicated that the intervention had a positive effect on the participants across all samples apart from one, and that teachers benefitted from continuous training on social and emotional learning (SEL). Discussion and conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that even a relatively short-term, low-cost intervention in teachers’ SEL is worthwhile. Successful SEL enables teachers and their students to face challenges more easily, inside and outside school, now and in the future.

Studies of how students experience their Ph.D. education have been promoted as an indicator to improve doctoral programmes (assessment-oriented studies) and/or to enhance understanding of career development among this collective (research-oriented studies). Interest in the latter group has increased in recent years as researcher development has become a field of study in the context of higher education. In this respect, a database of studies measuring the Ph.D. experience could be of use to researchers. We therefore conducted a review of 53 empirical studies, focusing only on large-scale research based on data obtained from questionnaires and scales, published between 1991 and 2018. In terms of results, we provide an overview of studies conducted in the last 27 years, reveal the core elements that are traditionally considered in measuring the Ph.D. experience, and identify some gaps and contributions in clarifying this generic term. Directions for future research are offered.

Recent research shows an increased concern with well-being at school and potential problems associated with students' use of socio-digital technologies, i.e., the mobile devices, computers, social media, and the Internet. Simultaneously with supporting creative social activities, socio-digital participation may also lead to compulsive and addictive behavioral patterns affecting both general and school-related mental health problems. Using two longitudinal data waves gathered among 1702 (53 % female) early (age 12-14) and 1636 (64 % female) late (age 16-18) Finnish adolescents, we examined cross-lagged paths between excessive internet use, school engagement and burnout, and depressive symptoms. Structural equation modeling revealed reciprocal cross-lagged paths between excessive internet use and school burnout among both adolescent groups: school burnout predicted later excessive internet use and excessive internet use predicted later school burnout. Reciprocal paths between school burnout and depressive symptoms were also found. Girls typically suffered more than boys from depressive symptoms and, in late adolescence, school burnout. Boys, in turn, more typically suffered from excessive internet use. These results show that, among adolescents, excessive internet use can be a cause of school burnout that can later spill over to depressive symptoms.

High goal coherence of a course has a positive effect on the participant's competence development. However, studies on the goal coherence of the youth development programmes are scarce. The participants were 153 teachers who attended to the LQ teachers’ workshop. They filled in the questionnaire before and after the training. In addition, 61 teachers who comprised the comparison group answered also to the questionnaire twice but they did not participate in the LQ. The LQ questionnaire consisted of two elements, namely, how participants experienced the importance of the goals and their perceived competence in promoting the LQ goals. Four pairs of variables describing the participants’ perceived importance of a course goal and the participants’ perceived competence towards implementing it were produced in exploratory factor analysis. The coherence values for variable pairs using distance values were calculated by subtracting the perceived importance from the perceived competence for each goal. The coherence increased at the second measurement point among both the intervention and comparison groups. The LQ intervention resulted in a significantly increased coherence in the ‘safe environment’ and ‘promoting SEL’ variable pairs among training participants compared with the comparison group. Participating in the LQ training did not, however, increase the coherence significantly with regards to the ‘help others’ or ‘healthy life’ variable pairs compared with the comparison group. This piece of research highlights an interesting means of investigating the effectiveness of teacher training.

Implementing 21st century skills at school, including social and emotional learning (SEL), has become increasingly important in many countries. The present study investigated in four countries the development of teachers’ SEL, through which people develop their social and emotional intelligence, by using internationally widely-used Lions Quest (LQ) teacher workshops as an intervention. Possible changes in teachers’ attitudes, values, knowledge, and skills during the LQ were explored. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted using data from the pre-test responses of two countries. This analysis produced three factors. The created factor structure was further confirmed using pre-test data from another two countries. Repeated measures ANOVA (GLM), giving its ability to perform overall comparisons in one step, and the specified follow-up comparisons were used to examine the gain scores between and within groups, and to statistically control for some characteristics. The results showed that the teachers perceived the importance of the LQ goals as more important after participating in the LQ teachers’ workshop. In addition, they felt more competence in implementing the LQ content in their classrooms. Further, teachers valued the LQ higher after the workshop. In the comparison group, however, no changes were found. In conclusion, LQ appears to fulfill the expectations of supporting teachers in implementing LQ content, including 21st skills and SEL, in the classroom.

Readiness to use digital technologies in meaningful ways is in the focus of national Finnish curricula, implemented in 2016. There is variance in how digitalization is proceeding in education. While many schools are even ahead of their time, there are stills schools that are behind. Because the main strength of the Finnish school system has been equal and free opportunities for all, we do not feel that it is acceptable that the degree of meaningful digitalization varies so much. In my latest book Phenomenal Learning from Finland [5] I discuss this issue from the point of view of developing minds and brains of Finnish youth and look at the situation also from the global perspective. PISA2015 results showed that Finnish youth, especially girls, were among the best (five) in the world in science, reading and mathematics. The interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) was, however, quite lowamong Finnish youth. We have a problem to attract new generations in STEM. I shall describe some innovations of Finnish science educators. School engagement and life satisfaction are quite good in Finland as compared to other high-achieving OECD countries. Our recent study showed that Helsinki area 6th graders really appreciated their class teachers and the teacher was the main source of their engagement at school [2]. The only aspect where the pupils found that the teacher could not help was supporting their digital engagement at school. We should bridge the gap that appears to grow between those competences developed at school and those that are required in life after school or outside schools. We should also promote digital engagement and STEM engagement at schools. Not all Finnish youth are smooth in using digital technologies. Less than half of those Finns who were born in 2000 and whom we have followed since they were 6th graders, showed some advanced technological skills. Those young people who were interested in technology, were the least likely to be engaged at school in general and expressed cynical attitudes towards education. Among these were those 25% who were active gamers and those 10-15% of youth who created something new by using digital technologies. In our latest study high school students and university freshmen (including engineering students) were showing quite similar profiles. The life of an active citizen calls for smooth using of ICT. In modern world, it is almost impossible to do even shopping or banking without being able to use advanced technologies. During the digital era, there is a need for many other broad-based competences that ICT skills, such as multiliteracy as well as socio-emotional and cultural competences. This keynote shall address the intensive reforms, both in research-based teacher education and at school that are going on in Finland. In addition to the new Finnish curricula, the latest developments in education, innovative pedagogical methods, technologies in education and new learning environments are going to be presented. For more information, see [1, 3, 4, 6]

5th ICEEPSY International Conference on Education & Educational Psychology in Kyrenia Cyprus (Oct 22-25, 2014)/ guest editors: Zafer Bekirogullari, Melis Minas. There is a hypothesized gap between the technology-mediated practices of adolescents and school, hindering student motivation and well-being. This study examined how students’ school motivation is associated with ICT-use. Previous research has shown that achievement goal orientations are related to students’ academic and emotional functioning. Simultaneously, adolescents engage in various socio-digital activities on a daily basis. Our aim is to integrate these two approaches to examine whether students with different motivational profiles display different patterns of socio-digital participation. The participants were Finnish high school students (N=1342) who filled in a self-report questionnaire assessing school motivation and ICT-use both in and out of school. We examined the structural validity of the measurement model by confirmatory factor analyses, classified the students by latent profile analyses and examined group and gender differences by ANOVAs. Four groups were identified: indifferent, success-oriented, mastery-oriented, and avoidance-oriented. The groups differed in their generalized motivational beliefs and there were meaningful differences in terms of their orientations to socio-digital participation: e.g. indifferent students were more likely to engage in hanging-out and gaming, avoidance-oriented students were the least engaged in academic activities. Also, there were some interesting group × gender interaction effects. We found that students’ indifference towards school is associated with ICT-engagement outside of school (gaming and hanging-out). We conclude that there appears to be evidence of discontinuities between today's schools and their students, raising a question of whether the indifference is the cause or the outcome. Furthermore, the findings raise new insights on achievement goal and gender interaction effects.

The qualitative changes in teachers’ responses in challenging situations were analysed during a four-day Teacher Effectiveness Training (TET) course, which aimed at improving teachers’ interpersonal dynamics with pupils, parents and colleagues. The participants were 21 teachers from one elementary and 23 teachers from one secondary school attending a TET course in Finland. Qualitative abductive content analysis was used to classify the data. Frequencies based on this analysis were also looked at. After TET the teachers described the behaviour of their pupils and expressed their feelings and the actual consequences of that behaviour, instead of using generalized labels and subjective interpretations of the pupils’ behaviour. They were also more likely to support pupils’ autonomy and agency by acknowledging pupils more, by increased listening or by asking pupils to participate actively in problem solving. This study deepens our understanding of the nature of the qualitative shift in teachers’ thinking durin...

Thesis work is the first important research where the PhD candidate has to take primary responsibility for their work. Sometimes it is forgotten, or at least not enough attention is paid to the fact, that for many PhD students it is also the first time they have to face such a complex, ultimately self-regulated learning task (Sachs, 2002, p.99) as thesis writing. But what do the protagonists think about it? There is a gap in the literature concerning studies that focus on PhD students’ writing conceptions as a main target. The aim of this study was to validate the structure of the Writing Process Questionnaire developed by Lonka and her colleagues (Lonka et al., 2014). To do this, we asked two groups of 631 Spanish and 431 Mexican PhD students to complete the questionnaire, and used Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) to assess the validity of a hypothesized 6-factor model, and to test its invariance across the two groups. The results confirmed the broad 6-factor structure of the questionnaire but indicated that the knowledge transforming sub-scale needed to be revised into a more specific knowledge creation factor. This modified structure generalized across both the Spanish and Mexican samples. We suggest that the revised structure for the knowledge transforming factor reflects the fact that these two groups of Spanish-speaking PhD students perceive the development of knowledge in writing as a solitary rather than a collaborative process. Our research provides evidence that the Writing Process Questionnaire is a reliable and generalizable measure, having shown strong invariance properties in the two populations studied. info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

Gaming experience has been suggested to lead to performance enhancements in a wide variety of working memory tasks. Previous studies have, however, mostly focused on adult expert gamers and have not included measurements of both behavioral performance and brain activity. In the current study, 167 adolescents and young adults (aged 13–24 years) with different amounts of gaming experience performed an n-back working memory task with vowels, with the sensory modality of the vowel stream switching between audition and vision at random intervals. We studied the relationship between self-reported daily gaming activity, working memory (n-back) task performance and related brain activity measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The results revealed that the extent of daily gaming activity was related to enhancements in both performance accuracy and speed during the most demanding (2-back) level of the working memory task. This improved working memory performance was accompanied by enhanced recruitment of a fronto-parietal cortical network, especially the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In contrast, during the less demanding (1-back) level of the task, gaming was associated with decreased activity in the same cortical regions. Our results suggest that a greater degree of daily gaming experience is associated with better working memory functioning and task difficulty-dependent modulation in fronto-parietal brain activity already in adolescence and even when non-expert gamers are studied. The direction of causality within this association cannot be inferred with certainty due to the correlational nature of the current study. peerReviewed

The purpose of the present study was to investigate knowledge-creating agency by examining doctoral students' accounts of their pursuits, using structured interviews. We examined all of the talk apparently related to agency of 13 doctoral students taking part in collective doctoral training in two, highly regarded Finnish research communities (natural science and medicine). The doctoral process involved the participants pursuing article-based theses based on collectively shared research problems and journal articles co-authored with the supervisor and other senior researchers. Based on the qualitative analysis of the interviews, three categories of agentic talk were identified, respectively, for three proposed types of knowledge-creating agency: personal, distributed, and ‘object-related’. Personal agency involved participants' reflection on their academic competence, self-efficacy, and personal strengths and weaknesses. Distributed agency played an important role in assisting these participants overcomin...

Introduction Pursuing a PhD is always a highly inspiring and challenging journey. Earlier research on the doctoral experience has shown that while many students find their doctoral process rewarding, some face serious challenges including personal sacrifices, intervening life experiences, departmental problems, lack of support, difficulty in completing the dissertation, as well as a lack of funding (Appel & Dahlgren, 2003; Jairam & Kahl Jr., 2012; Protivnak & Foss, 2009; Spaulding & Rockinson-Szapkiw, 2012). For instance, Lee (2009) found that nursing students enrolled in doctoral studies perceived multiple responsibilities, financial issues, difficult relationships with faculty members or advisors ,as well as a lack of academic self-discipline and negative academic self-image as detracting factors in their study process. The challenges provided by doctoral studies are not necessarily negative; in fact, solving complex ill-defined problems can be seen as essential to creating new knowledge. At best, such challenges can be positive forces that encourage students to progress in their doctoral process. They may, however, also become stressors if adequate support is not given to the student. At worst, they can become insurmountable obstacles that lead to delays or even dropping out from doctoral studies. Some evidence shows that problems in doctoral studies often originate not from the research process itself but from the relation between the doctoral student and the scholarly community (Pyhalto, Stubb, & Lonka, 2009). For instance, doctoral students' experiences of social isolation from their scholarly communities, with respect to overlapping communities, groups of supervisor-students dyads, other senior researchers, or academics within and across departments, faculties, or institutions (Ali & Kohun, 2006; Lovitts, 2001), and mismatches between students' expectations and those of the community, have been suggested to cause withdrawal from doctoral studies (Golde, 2005; Hoskins & Goldberg, 2005; Tinto, 1993). Moreover, there is also evidence of doctoral students often experiencing reduced wellbeing and distress while pursuing their PhDs (Hyun, Quinn, Madon, & Lustig, 2006; Kurtz-Costes, Helmke, & Ulku-Steiner, 2006), and a remarkably high number of students, 30-50% or even more in different contexts and countries, decide to leave their studies (Golde, 2005; McAlpine & Norton, 2006). Previous studies on the doctoral experience have provided information about factors associated with students' persistence, time-to-the-doctorate, and attrition (Golde, 1998, 2005; Hoskins & Goldberg, 2005; Lovitts, 2001; Tinto, 1993; Wao & Onwuegbuzie, 2011). Moreover, there is an extensive body of literature on disengagement among undergraduate students (Pekrun, Goetz, Frenzel, Barchfeld, & Perry, 2011; Salanova, Schaufeli, Marti'nez, & Breso, 2010; Schmitt, Oswald, Friede, Imus, & Merritt, 2008; Schreiner, Noel, Anderson, & Cantwell, 2011) as well as among employees in work settings (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001; Hakanen, Bakker, & Schaufeli, 2006; Schaufeli, Salanova, Gonzalez-Roma, & Bakker, 2002). However, little is known about what disengages (and ultimately withdraws) doctoral students from their studies and the kinds of episodes that are associated with disengagement. Accordingly, there is a need for a better understanding of the nature of the experiences that reduce doctoral student engagement during the doctoral process and the dynamics that contribute to disengagement. Analyzing these disengaging episodes will make it easier to identify the central developmental objectives in doctoral education. This may help to prevent the disengaging experiences that may be associated with delays and even students abandoning their doctoral studies. The present study focuses on exploring doctoral students' experiences of disengagement from the doctoral process in various environments within and outside academia. …

This study explored the relationships between situational academic emotions, self-study time, and learning outcomes in a lecture course. The participants were 107 Finnish first-year teacher students in a student-activating educational psychology lecture course. Interest and exhaustion were positively related, whereas anxiety was negatively related to the grade awarded for the course. These three situational academic emotions explained overall 29% of the course grade and they still predicted significant variance in grades even with the influences of self-reported self-study time controlled. Finally, a mediation analysis revealed that interest mediated the relationship between self-study time and learning outcomes. This study explored the relationships between situational academic emotions, self-study time, and learning outcomes in a lecture course. The participants were 107 Finnish first-year teacher students in a student-activating educational psychology lecture course. Interest and exhaustion were positively related, whereas anxiety was negatively related to the grade awarded for the course. These three situational academic emotions explained overall 29% of the course grade and they still predicted significant variance in grades even with the influences of self-reported self-study time controlled. Finally, a mediation analysis revealed that interest mediated the relationship between self-study time and learning outcomes.

Entrance to university does not automatically lead to high academic engagement and success, and there may be individual differences in student engagement. In the present study, university students' (N = 668) academic engagement and disengagement profiles, and the differences between them in terms of academic achievement, were investigated. Students from introductory courses were classified by Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) into homogenous groups having similar patterns according to the following variables: study engagement, study-related exhaustion, lack of interest, lack of self-regulation, and uncertainty of one's career choice. Four groups of students were identified: engaged, disengaged, undecided, and alienated. Engaged students received the highest grades, with disengaged and undecided students performing most poorly. In addition, the profiles were related to the behavioral indicators of engagement (i.e., ECTS credits). Even after two years of studying, engaged students were performing better than disengaged students. The study's implications for both research and practice are discussed. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The role of motivation and emotions in learning has been extensively studied in recent years; however, research on the role of the physical environment still remains scarce. This study examined the role of the physical environment in the learning process from the perspective of basic psychological needs. Although self-determination theory stresses the role of the social and cultural environment, as yet the role of the physical environment has been unexplored. The study focused on beginning chemistry university students’ (n=21) experiences in a chemistry laboratory. The data consisted of focus-group interviews and self-report questionnaires. The results indicate that the physical environment can support or thwart the fulfillment of the basic psychological needs. The usability and functionality of spaces and tools contributed to not just the fluency of the intellectual activity but also to the related emotional experience of oneself acting in a particular environment. The physical environment was a source of procedural facilitation: It complemented and challenged the students’ existing skills, contributing to their experiences of autonomy and competence. The everyday successes or struggles in the laboratory built on the students’ developing professional identity as well as their sense of belonging to the professional community. This study demonstrates that the design and functionality of the physical environment has a significant role in users’ intellectual and emotional functioning. It is essential to utilize psychological and pedagogical knowledge when designing or renovating work and learning environments in order to fully make use of the potential of physical environments as part of human performance.

There is a variation in terms of how researchers perceive the nature of research work. Previous research has mainly looked at the members of academia who already have established themselves in the ...

This study investigates how doctoral students perceive research work in the context of their own PhD projects. Thirty-two students from a Finnish university were interviewed, representing three disciplines: medicine, natural sciences and behavioural sciences. Their conceptions of research varied in terms of describing research as a job to do, obtaining qualifications and gaining accomplishments, a personal journey, and making a difference. The conceptions in each category differed in terms of how product-oriented vs. process-oriented and person-centred vs. community-centred they were. The four categories were not exclusive: the students often reported overlapping conceptions. The emphasis of conceptions was different in each discipline, and also varied according to the phase of studies.

Current theories of learning emphasize the role of motivational and affective aspects in university student learning. The aim of the present study was to examine the interrelations among approaches to learning, self-regulated learning, and cognitive strategies in the context of teacher education. Cognitive-motivational profiles were identified among novice teacher students. It was also looked at, whether well-being, epistemological beliefs, and study success in an activating lecture course were related to these profiles. The participants were 213 first year teacher students, who participated in an activating lecture course at a major Finnish university. The students filled in a questionnaire including items based on the MED NORD instrument (Lonka et al. in Med Teach 30:72–79, 2008). The structural validity of the scales was tested by means of a series of factor analyses. Latent class clustering was used for clustering students into homogeneous groups. Finally, a series of ANOVAs was conducted to examine between-group differences across the criterion variables. Three groups of students were identified (1) non-regulating students (50%), (2) self-directed students (28%), and (3) non-reflective students (22%). Non-regulating students expressed the highest levels of stress, exhaustion, and Lack of Interest. Self-directed students received the highest grades. The profiles were not only related to study success, but also to the general well-being of the students. It was concluded that motivational profiles may have not been optimal, even in this highly-selected population. It is of interest to see, how these students shall develop during their studies.

In the present study teacher students’ contextual learning experiences were examined longitudinally in authentic study environments using the contextual activity sampling system, a means of mobile-supported experience sampling. The students’ (n = 9) experiences were first recorded during a 2 week period in their first year of study. The same measurements were repeated again for a 2 week follow-up in the second year, accompanied by interviews before and after the follow-up. The first year of study consisted mostly of lectures and ordinary small-group work, whereas the second measurement period ran parallel to the completion of an intensive inquiry-based project, which was the focus of the present study. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed that studying during the inquiry-based period produced stronger experiences of being challenged as well as negative affects than the teacher-centered period. The participants’ experiences of competence, commitment and positive affects did not differ during the two periods. However, interview data indicated that the participants enjoyed the inquiry-based period and that the work was intensive. Contextual data and interviews were also used to describe students’ experiences during one particular study session during the inquiry-based project. The results suggest that negative affects may be an essential part of the process of gradually learning to take responsibility for both individual and collaborative learning processes. Possibilities for using experience-sampling methods to analyze collaborative learning are also discussed.

This study presents a new approach to estimation of a nonlinear growth curve component with fixed and random effects in multilevel modeling. This approach can be used to estimate change in longitudinal data, such as day-of-the-week fluctuation. The motivation of the new approach is to avoid spurious estimates in a random coefficient regression model due to the synchronized periodical effect (e.g., day-of-the-week fluctuation) appearing both in independent and dependent variables. First, the new approach is introduced. Second, a Monte Carlo simulation study is carried out to examine the functioning of the proposed new approach in the case of small sample sizes. Third, the use of the approach is illustrated by using an empirical example.

This paper explores doctoral students' experiences of their scholarly communities in terms of socio-psychological well-being. Further, the study examines how experiences were related to study engagement and to self-reported stress, exhaustion, and anxiety. Altogether 669 doctoral students from the University of Helsinki, Finland, responded a survey. The answers to an open-ended question were content analysed and then statistically compared to well-being and study engagement items. The results showed that there was variation in students' experiences of the scholarly community regarding socio-psychological well-being. More than half of the answers, where students had explicitly described their experience (n = 383), emphasised the scholarly community as source of burden (56%), but experiences of inspiration and empowerment were also frequently reported in the answers (44%). Feelings of empowerment were positively related to study engagement and negatively related to stress, exhaustion, and anxiety.

This study investigated the relationships among approaches to learning, regulation of learning, cognitive and attributional strategies, stress, exhaustion, and study success. University students (N = 437) from three faculties filled in a questionnaire concerning their self-reported study behaviour, cognitive strategies, and well-being. Their interrelations were examined in a variable- and a person-oriented way. Latent class clustering was used for clustering students into homogeneous groups. Three groups of students were identified: non-academic, self-directed, and helpless students. Helpless students reported higher levels of stress and exhaustion than non-academic or self-directed students. Self-directed students had the highest GPA. Our findings demonstrate the usefulness of combining cognitive and emotional aspects for investigations of students’ learning.

Studying in higher education requires long‐term commitment. Previous studies have shown that commitment, perceived competence, intrinsic motivation and work‐life orientation are positively related to academic achievement. This study examines the kinds of goals theology students have at the beginning of studies, and whether these goals are related to academic achievement during their first three years at university. Personal project analysis was used to acquire information about first‐year students’ study‐related personal goals and related evaluations. The evaluations were factor analysed, and three clusters of students were derived on the basis of the factors: the committed, self‐fulfillers and the non‐committed. The results show that students who perceived progress, were capable and had intrinsic reasons for their goals advanced more rapidly in their studies. The implication is that variation in academic achievement is at least partly a consequence of variation in orientation towards studying at the begi...

Objective: To assess the impact on knowledge and attitudes of a tailored educational intervention on depression using a modified version of the Prochaska stages of change model, compared with standard continuing medical education, for general practitioners (GPs) in primary care in Iran. Method: Using a randomized controlled trial, a total of 192 GPs were evenly randomized to intervention or control arm. The topic for the educational intervention was depressive disorders. The participants were divided in to small and large groups, depending on their initial stage of change. The GPs' knowledge and skills regarding management of depressive disorders were assessed through a questionnaire with 7 multiple choice questions, 11 Likert statements, 3 case vignettes, and 1 essay question. Attitudes toward management of depressive disorders were also assessed. Both questionnaires were validated. Results: There was a significant improvement in knowledge mean scores regarding multiple choice and Likert questions (intervention effect 6%; P = 0.002), as well as for the case vignettes and essay question (intervention effect 12%; P = 0.011) in the intervention arm, in comparison with the control arm. There were significant changes in mean attitude scores in both study arms, but no difference between them. Conclusions: A theoretical model of medical learning and behavioural change can be used to devise educational formats that suit different stages of learning. Such tailored educational formats can improve GPs' knowledge and skills regarding management of depressive disorders.

The experience of clinical teachers as well as research results about senior medical students' understanding of basic science concepts has much been debated. To gain a better understanding about how this knowledge-transformation is managed by medical students, this work aims at investigating their ways of setting about learning anatomy. Second-year medical students were interviewed with a focus on their approach to learning and their way of organizing their studies in anatomy. Phenomenographic analysis of the interviews was performed in 2007 to explore the complex field of learning anatomy. Subjects were found to hold conceptions of a dual notion of the field of anatomy and the interplay between details and wholes permeated their ways of studying with an obvious endeavor of understanding anatomy in terms of connectedness and meaning. The students' ways of approaching the learning task was characterized by three categories of description; the subjects experienced their anatomy studies as memorizing, contextualizing or experiencing. The study reveals aspects of learning anatomy indicating a deficit in meaningfulness. Variation in approach to learning and contextualization of anatomy are suggested as key-elements in how the students arrive at understanding. This should be acknowledged through careful variation of the integration of anatomy in future design of medical curricula.

The Prochaska model of readiness to change has been proposed to be used in educational interventions to improve medical care.To evaluate the impact on readiness to change of an educational intervention on management of depressive disorders based on a modified version of the Prochaska model in comparison with a standard programme of continuing medical education (CME).This is a randomized controlled trial within primary care practices in southern Tehran, Iran. The participants included 192 general physicians working in primary care (GPs) were recruited after random selection and randomized to intervention (96) and control (96). Intervention consisted of interactive, learner-centred educational methods in large and small group settings depending on the GPs' stages of readiness to change. Change in stage of readiness to change measured by the modified version of the Prochaska questionnaire was theThe final number of participants was 78 (81%) in the intervention arm and 81 (84%) in the control arm. Significantly (P0.01), more GPs (57/96 = 59% versus 12/96 = 12%) in the intervention group changed to higher stages of readiness to change. The intervention effect was 46% points (P0.001) and 50% points (P0.001) in the large and small group setting, respectively.Educational formats that suit different stages of learning can support primary care doctors to reach higher stages of behavioural change in the topic of depressive disorders. Our findings have practical implications for conducting CME programmes in Iran and are possibly also applicable in other parts of the world.

OBJECTIVE To obtain an understanding of basic science medical teachers' conceptions of learning and their ideas for facilitation of learning. METHODS Teaching staff at a biomedical centre (n = 62) were asked to describe their definitions of learning, their suggestions for how to solve an applied educational problem and their intended activities when teaching students. The research was carried out using a questionnaire consisting of open-ended and fixed-choice questions. RESULTS Although 1 in 4 teachers endorsed constructivist conceptions of learning, only 1 in 8 actually reported using activating teaching strategies. Conceptions of learning did not co-vary with teaching practice. CONCLUSIONS The assumption that conceptions of learning and teaching practice are aligned was challenged. The current questionnaire could be used as an intervention tool for educational development to map whether or not there is a match between teachers' conceptions and their practice.

The relationship between medical students' well-being, motivation, and their conceptions of learning and knowledge has not been previously explored.This study aimed to validate a research instrument intending to measure medical students' (n = 280) (1) experiences of stress, anxiety and disinterest, (2) motivational (thinking) strategies, (3) conceptions of learning and knowledge (epistemologies), and (4) approaches to learning.We developed an instrument, MED NORD, which is a composition of scales measuring different theoretical constructs that previously have shown good predictive value, validity and reliability. A principal component analysis with Varimax-rotation was performed in order to see how the scales related to each other.The internal consistency reliability was found to be satisfactory or good for each scale. The results showed five factors: Dysfunctional Orientation, Collaborative Knowledge Building Orientation, Cookbook Orientation, Social Orientation, and Individual Abilities Orientation. These study orientations were related to how medical students perceived their learning environment.The new tool showed consistency and validity and was judged appropriate for future use in measuring medical students' well-being and study orientations.

Objective To assess the validity and reliability of an 11-item questionnaire for stages of readiness to change according to a modified Prochaska model (including attitude, intention and action stage) in the context of continuing medical education (CME) on depressive disorders for general practitioners (GPs) in Tehran, Iran. Methods Three hundred and fifty GPs were recruited for filling in a questionnaire in order to assess content validity and modifying the questionnaire. Fifty-nine GPs were involved for testing reliability and 39 GPs for testing concurrent validity. Content validity of the questionnaire was assessed by expert consensus. Concurrent validity was assessed by correlating the results of a semi-structured interview with those of the self-assessment questionnaire. For testing reliability there was a test–retest approach with an interval of 3–7 days. Results A panel of experts was held at four times and the final version of modified Prochaska questionnaire (MPQ) was compiled by the panel. Total κ coefficient for concurrent validity of the whole questionnaire was 0.80. Only two of the questions had a κ coefficient lower than 0.70. In the test–retest, 96% of participants reassigned to the same stage and the total κ coefficient of reliability was 0.89 for the whole questionnaire. Conclusion The validity and reliability of the MPQ for assessing GPs’ readiness to change in the field of depressive disorders were found to be high in the Iranian context. These findings support its application in tailoring and evaluating CME programmes for GPs in Iran.

Clinical teachers often complain that medical students have forgotten or somehow "lost" knowledge that has been taught at pre-clinical levels at the time of entering the clinical part of education. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore, whether transfer of knowledge was identified as a problem by the teaching staff of anatomy and surgery, and if so, what strategies they used to overcome it. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten medical teachers in anatomy and surgery. Most teachers recognised that there was a problem of transfer and some individuals had adopted strategies to address this. However, there was no formal educational strategy suggested to overcome the problem of transfer. The conclusion is that transfer needs to be addressed both by basic science teachers and clinical teachers. There is a need for a mutual educational discourse of the contexts students will face.

Modern learning psychology places an emphasis on the ability of teachers to promote their students’ social and emotional learning (SEL) and living a good life. Research on precisely how teachers promote SEL and well-being among their students, however, remains scarce. This study focused on evaluating the Lions Quest teaching workshop (LQ), which aims to improve the knowledge and skills of teachers in SEL and to promote a healthy and meaningful life among students. In total, 153 Finnish teachers participated in LQ. We compared these to 61 Finnish teachers who did not participate in the LQ training as well as a second comparison group consisting of 46 Finnish teachers to investigate the possible effects of pre-testing. We collected data from the intervention group before and after the training and from the first comparison group at approximately the same time points. Data from the second comparison group was collected only once. Using the repeated measures general linear model, we analyzed teachers’ readiness to promote the LQ goals from two perspectives, namely from participants’ experienced importance of those goals and their perceived competence in promoting them. In addition, we evaluated task values among participants. Teachers participating in LQ rated the goals as more important and relevant after receiving training. Furthermore, participants from the intervention group felt more competent in skills related to the LQ goals than the comparison groups.

PhD in the field of medicine is more common than in any other domain. Many medical doctors are driven towards PhD, but also students with other backgrounds (usually MSc) are conducting a PhD in medical schools. Higher education has invested a lot in developing generic and research competences. Still little is known about how PhD students themselves perceive the competence of future PhDs’. The aim of this study is to determine how medical PhD students perceive their future competences and whether there is a difference between MD PhD and MSc PhD students’ perceptions. Moreover this study examines students’ perceptions of their learning environment and their experienced well-being. The data were collected from 163 medical PhD students. The survey data consisted of Likert type statements, open-ended questions and background variables. PhD students' perceptions of acquired competences were content analysed. The connection between conducted degree and emphasised competences were analysed using cross tabulation and c² -test Perceptions of well-being and the learning environment were examined using descriptive statistics of scales. The results showed that PhD students considered a wide variety of competences to be central to future PhDs’. Their perception of their future competences consisted of scientific and generic competences. All students emphasised scientific competences over generic competences but MSc PhD students emphasised generic skills more than MD PhD students. PhD students’ perceptions of their well-being and the learning environment showed that PhD studies are a burdening and stressful process. However students also felt that they received feedback from the scientific community.

1. IntroductionSinging has been profoundly rooted in human culture from ancient times (Blacking, 1976; Cross, 2001; Mithen, 2006; Sepp, Ruokonen, & Ruismaki, 2014; Small, 1980). Although singing is a commonplace activity, not all people in Western societies sing, even when they would like to. Many report themselves to be tone deaf, which is often synonymous for "can't sing" (Sloboda, Wise, & Peretz, 2005). Both professional musicians and lay people often concur with the common folk psychology belief that the singing skill is an "on-off phenomenon": either you have it or you do not (see Abril, 2007; Knight, 2011; Richards & Durrant, 2003; Welch, 2001). As Wise and Sloboda (2008) argue, the field of music, including singing skills, is particularly susceptible to the talent explanation of success. Further, commonly used concepts such as tone dumb, monotone, uncertain singer, poor pitch singer, and onchi, in Japanese meaning "tone idiot", (Murao, 1994) refer to permanent singing disabilities. Additionally, most people who have not received vocal training believe that they are inaccurate singers (Dalla-Bella & Berkowska, 2009) and self-report to be tone deaf, which often, however, is not the case (see Cuddy, Balkwill, Peretz, & Holden, 2005; Pfordresher & Brown, 2007; Sloboda et al., 2005).Modern learning theories see learning as a process of participating in a culture and developing one's identity and attributions as a learner (e.g. Bruner, 1996; Wenger, 2003). Belief in innate fixed abilities is generally harmful (Dweck, 2008). If learning is reduced to an individual, innate ability (Schommer, 1990), a distorted picture forms of the potentiality of learning (see Vygotsky, 1978). For instance, if the ability to write in an academic style is seen as an on/off, innate characteristic, a writer would be less likely to revise his or her texts or develop him - or herself as an author - in other words, the development of writing skills may stop (Lonka, Chow, Keskinen, Hakkarainen, Sandstrom, & Pyhalto, 2014). Moreover, attitudes and expectations affect learning results, as the Pygmalion effect argues: teachers' expectations of their students' abilities have been shown to influence students' learning outcomes and student performance in school (see e.g. Jussim & Harber, 2005). Socio-cultural research has convincingly shown that learning and teaching form a multifaceted, deeply culturally rooted net where e.g. situated possibilities, motivation, received support, and conceptions of oneself as a learner play a role (Bruner, 1996).However, a fracture often occurs between learning conceptions based on modern learning sciences and learning conceptions in music. For instance, singing is not traditionally taught to those who do not "naturally" sing in tune, which may be related to the identity formation of a non-singer (e.g. Knight, 2011; Numminen, 2005; Whidden, 2009). An orientation towards the end product frequently comes at the expense of the process: the emphasis on sight-singing skills and performance in Western choirs has created a situation where many "ordinary" people feel threatened by the thought of solo auditioning in order to join in choral activity. In addition, conductors tend to expect their singers to already be good rather than accept the responsibility of teaching and developing them (Richards & Durrant, 2003). In the Finnish music education system, students of singing pedagogy practice their teaching skills with highly selected trainee students who have demonstrated their singing skills in an entrance test. Consequently, future singing teachers may not learn to work with beginners with no, or a minor, singing background. Traditionally, singing pedagogy is based on a teacher modelling-apprentice approach, which focuses on the student's ability to sing according to the teacher's or other models. This approach emphasizes behavioural aspects and overlooks motivation and self-efficacy (see Bandura, 1997). …

The aim of the study was to examine do health care students, who study at different programs, value similar expert qualities. To investigate this issue, a questionnaire was administered among health care students in a Finnish polytechnic (two cohorts, total n = 466), consisting of a scale for rating the importance of different expert qualities. The questionnaire resulted in the following dimensions of the conceptions of expertise: (1) social skills, (2) scientific skills, (3) innovativeness, (4) continuing self-development, and (5) problem-solving skills. Also the Inventory of General Study Orientations (IGSO) was applied to analyse possible motivational explanations for different conceptions of expertise. In addition to the scales, an open-ended writing task was used to explore in depth students' conceptions of expertise. It appeared that study orientations were a minor factor in the study, while study environment (study programs) clearly differentiated students' conceptions of expertise. Thus, the study argues that health care students' conceptions of expertise are constituted mainly on domain-specific bases and that students who graduate from different programs may possess very diverse ideas about their profession. Consequently, different conceptions captured during the education form a major challenge for inter-professional care later in work-life. This phenomenon should be taken into account when organising health care education.