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This study explores prospective primary school teachers' misconceptions concerning basic concepts in chemistry. The data was gathered during the years 2012-2016 among first-year primary school teachers in Finland (N = 389). The results show that every year, as many as 40%-80% of teachers share the same kinds of misconceptions as children ages 5-12 (depending on the investigated concepts). The results further show that the prospective primary teachers do not develop a solid foundation in chemistry during their school years, indicating that this area should be addressed more effectively in Finnish elementary schools. To raise the quality of school instruction, it is crucial that teacher education curricula consider this when methods of instruction in science courses are developed for prospective primary teachers.

Finnish 15-year olds have been among the top overall performers in international student assessment studies during the last decade; metaphors like "miracle" and "paradox" have emerged, especially related to school mathematics. The goal of this article is to situate the good results in the Finnish educational policy in the 1990s, as well as in accounts from five Finnish Swedish-speaking mathematics teachers in a teacher training school who set out to restructure their teaching and learning practices.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to show (1) how social innovations are created through co-production in social enterprises in Finland and (2) how enabling ecosystems for the creation of social innovations can be enhanced by the government. Design/methodology/approach: This study is a descriptive case study. The data comprises focus group interviews that were conducted during a research project in Finland in 2022. The interviewees represented different social enterprises, other non-profit organisations and national funding institutions. Findings: Social enterprises create social innovations in Finland through co-production, where service innovation processes, activism and networking are central. Also, to build an enabling ecosystem, government must base the system upon certain elements: enabling characteristics of the stakeholders, co-production methods and tools and initiatives by the government. Originality/value: The authors address an important challenge that social enterprises struggle with: The position of social enterprises in Finland is weak and entrepreneurs experience prejudice from both the direction of "traditional" businesses and the government which often does not recognise social enterprise as a potential partner for public service delivery. Nonetheless, social enterprises create public value by contributing to the co-production of public services. They work in interorganisational networks by nature and can succeed where the traditional public organisations and private businesses fail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Futures studies explore potential consequences of present day actions, and help in formulating desirable visions of the future, to guide action in the present. Although these aims have remained roughly the same, the practices and implicit theories supporting them have varied through time. This article looks at the evolution of futures through the framework of the long-wave theory, discussing the results of thematic interviews of futures professionals in three geographic areas: Finland, South Korea, and California. The long-wave theory sees societies changing in forty to sixty year cycles driven by technological development, around which social practices evolve. There have been five socio-technical waves since 1780s. Each wave brought about a set of policies and social models, and a shared mind-set. In the fourth wave, futures was mostly practiced with the spirit of the postwar economic expansion, techno-optimism, and linear worldview, with futures methods that reflected trust in scientific authority, and aimed at forecasting the most probable outcomes for the future. The fifth wave was defined by uncertainty, which was managed by using strategy tools like scenarios that prepared for various different short- and mid-term outcomes. For the sixth wave, futures practitioners are divided between the expertled quasi-predictive model that dominates especially in the technology forecasting work, and the systemic perspective, which questions the centrally organized process-view to futures. New methods, often developed outside the field, have in many ways inspired and shaped the intellectual space in which the evolution of both practices and theory may occur in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article combines Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 1990, 1993) data from four projects conducted in Finland between 1990 and 1995. The projects studied a stratified random sample of Finnish nonpatients, a cohort of twins, a group of elderly men, and a random sample collected to investigate sleep difficulties. The 343 records from these four studies provide a representative survey of Rorschach responding throughout the Finnish population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Study addresses citizen participation in Finnish national foresight processes. • Systematic analysis of three Finnish Government Reports on the Future (2009–2018). • Additional insights from theme interviews of four key experts from the Finnish foresight system. • Findings indicate that currently the methodology used and aims are somewhat misaligned. • Study discusses the futures of national foresight processes especially with regard to citizen participation. Finland has implemented a process of governmental foresight, aimed at understanding multidimensional and interdependent future challenges in order to support national decision-making, and to strengthen the national innovation system. This study focuses on three Government Reports on the Future. The Reports are key documents that act as inputs for the parliament in a futures oriented dialogue between the government and the parliament. They represent the government's view on a topic chosen to represent a crucial challenge for the long term futures of Finland. The study describes and analyses the approaches, methods, and aims, as they appear through document analysis of the three latest Reports. In particular, the article examines the role of citizen participation in the production of the Reports. To strengthen the analysis and gain further insights, representatives of key experts from the national foresight system were consulted. The findings are discussed from the perspective of the role of participation in these reports, and the implications for building systems level foresight competences. Conclusions based on the findings are drawn about potential future directions of the reporting processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]