Piia Näykki

Simulation-based learning (SBL) is widely used in different contexts where the purpose is to learn and train professional skills. The aim of this qualitative study was to examine forest machine operator students’ meaningful learning experiences of skills training and performance, and guidance from the teacher and the simulator in a SBL session. Six operator students completed four tasks using the simulator under the teacher’s guidance. After the SBL session, the students watched the screenshot videos of the tasks, annotated meaningful learning experiences, and were interviewed about them. A thematic analysis was used. The findings showed that learning experiences of skills training and performance were mainly described through errors, whereas successes were rarely mentioned. The teacher’s guidance was perceived as advice and feedback which were considered useful and supportive for the learning and developing professional skills. The simulator’s guidance was also characterised through advice and feedback, but these were perceived as overly strict. The findings suggest that the teacher’s support is needed particularly in the initial phase of simulation training. It is important to foster the development of operator students’ self-assessment skills and to encourage them to be active and responsible in their learning of new skills in SBL sessions.

Socially shared regulation of learning (SSRL) can promote high-level collaborative learning. However, the sequential interplay between sociocognitive, socioemotional and motivational group-level challenges and SSRL strategies remains unclear, particularly in comparative analyses of pre-service and in-service teachers engaged in computer-supported collaborative problem-solving tasks. To address this gap, 33 pre-service and 33 in-service teachers were video-recorded in face-to-face settings while working in groups of three on collaborative problem-solving tasks within a virtual simulation on a desktop computer. A total of 25.7 h of video data were analysed using a theory-driven coding scheme that captured sociocognitive, socioemotional and motivational challenges, as well as collaborative regulatory activities grounded in the SSRL framework. Process mining was employed to visualise and compare sequential patterns of challenges and regulation. The findings indicate that pre-service teachers exhibited stronger sequential patterns linking planning, monitoring and controlling activities, whereas in-service teachers demonstrated more pronounced sequences involving monitoring and planning following socioemotional and motivational challenges. These differences reflect distinct tendencies in how collaborative learning activities were organised over time, rather than differences in effectiveness or learning outcomes. This study contributes to the learning sciences by extending SSRL research and offering theoretical and methodological insights into analysing collaborative learning as a dynamic process. From a practical perspective, the findings inform the pedagogical design of collaborative learning and teachers’ professional development by highlighting the need for profile-sensitive scaffolds that support shared planning, monitoring and adaptive regulation.

This study examines emotion regulation during emotional challenges in mathematics group tasks among teacher education students (N = 62). The data consisted of 87 hours of videotaped group interaction and students’ pre- and post-evaluations of their group experiences. The results show that emotional challenges and regulation varied across groups and tasks. Pre-evaluations were associated with the level of regulation, whereas post-evaluations were associated with the level of challenge but not with regulation. Qualitative case analyses further illustrate group-specific challenges and regulation strategies, including task structuring, awareness raising, encouragement, and social reinforcement. The findings indicate that regulation strategies did not always align with the challenges faced, leading to recurring difficulties within groups. These results have implications for the design and support of collaborative learning: beyond helping students stay on task, groups may benefit from increased awareness of the nature of their challenges and sufficient time to address them through negotiated interaction.

Background: In recent years, the use of virtual reality (VR) environments for education has gained interest in research and education. However, little is known about the potential of social VR environments for collaborative learning. Objectives: This study explores pre‐service teachers' (PSTs') collaborative learning and role‐based drama activity, focusing on their self‐created fictional avatar characters and their experiences of presence while working on a group‐based virtual drama activity. Methods: PSTs' course on environmental storytelling was used as the context of the study, in which they worked in small groups in a VR environment (AltspaceVR) from the desktop computers due to COVID‐19 restrictions. Qualitative research data were collected via questionnaire ( N = 15). The data were analysed using a community of inquiry model to explore the PSTs' experiences of online presence. Results and conclusion: The results showed that the PSTs' experienced creating and acting as virtual characters as meaningful and engaging activities, and elements of presence were manifested in their reflections. Based on this case study, it can be concluded that the interactive virtual drama activity has the potential to foster the experience of presence in online learning.

This paper examines how social presence (SP) was manifested in pre-service teachers' (PSTs) online virtual drama activity in AltspaceVR. As part of a course related to climate education, the PSTs worked in media teams (blog/vlog, TikTok, magazine) to create a strategy for promoting climate awareness. The data consist of screen recordings of the activities and PSTs' written reflections. We analyzed the data based on affective, cohesive and interactive dimensions of SP (Garrison et al., 1999; Whiteside, 2015), and examined how the PSTs had built their characters. The video analysis revealed many instances of SP, indicated especially by cohesive and interactive responses. Overall, the VR environment was conducive to creating a shared fictional reality, but clear instructions are needed for character building.

An in-depth understanding of student experiences and evaluations of learning analytics dashboards (LADs) is needed to develop supportive learning analytics tools. This study investigates how students (N = 140) evaluated two student-facing LADs as a support for academic path-level self-regulated learning (SRL) through the concrete processes of planning and monitoring studies. Aim of the study was to gain new understanding about student perspectives for LAD use on academic path-level context. The study specifically focused on the student evaluations of the dashboard support and challenges, and the differences of student evaluations based on their self-efficacy beliefs and resource management strategies. The findings revealed that students evaluated dashboard use helpful for their study planning and monitoring, while the challenge aspects mostly included further information needs and development ideas. Students with higher self-efficacy evaluated the dashboards as more helpful for study planning than those with lower self-efficacy, and students with lower help seeking skills evaluated the dashboards as more helpful for study monitoring than those with higher help seeking skills. The results indicate that the design of LAD can help students to focus on different aspects of study planning and monitoring and that students with different beliefs and capabilities might benefit from different LAD designs and use practices. The study provides theory-informed approach for investigating LAD use in academic path-level context and extends current understanding of students as users of LADs.

Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan opettajaopiskelijoiden kokemuksia kuormittavuus- ja voimavaratekijöistä covid-19-pandemiasta seuranneen etäopetusjakson aikana sekä kuormituksen ja voimavarojen välistä yhteyttä. Tutkimusaineisto kerättiin etäopetusjakson aikana tammikuussa 2022 verkkokyselyllä (N=76). Vastaajista suurin osa (74 %) oli toisen vuoden opiskelijoita, jotka olivat opiskelleet siihenastiset opettajaopintonsa koronapandemian aikana etäopetuksessa. Monimenetelmäisen tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että opettajaopiskelijat kokivat kuormittuneisuutta eli uupumusta ja ahdistusta. Lisäksi naiset kokivat miehiä enemmän sekä ahdistusta että uupumusta. Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin kuormituksen ja voimavarojen välistä yhteyttä ja huomattiin, että resurssienhallintastrategioista ajan ja opiskeluympäristön hallinta sekä vaivannäön säätely olivat kohtalaisesti yhteydessä opiskeluinnon ulottuvuuksien kanssa. Laadullisen analyysin tulokset avoimista kysymyksistä syventävät analyysia tuoden esille tekijöitä, jotka kuormittivat opettajaopiskelijoita, mutta myös tekijöitä, jotka opiskelijat kokivat voimavaroikseen covid-19-pandemian aikaisessa etäopiskelussa. Opettajankoulutus voi olla keskeisessä roolissa tarjoamassa opettajaopiskelijoille tukea voimavarojen vahvistamiseen myös poikkeusaikana, esimerkiksi mahdollistamalla yhteisön muodostumisen, aktiivisen toiminnan ja informaalin kohtaamisen.

This study explores video as a tool for student teachers in reflecting upon their own teaching practice. The particular interest is in exploring, what kind of socio-emotional experiences did the student teachers describe during the video-assisted collaborative reflection and what benefits student teachers experienced through the video-assisted collaborative reflections? The study implements a video-observation model (Participatory and Empowering Video Analysis- model, PEVA™) developed for a professional teacher education programme and investigates the model from student teachers’ perspective. The participants are student teachers in an international professional teacher education programme (n = 24) at a university of applied sciences. Student teachers video recorded their own teaching sessions displaying their work in different roles: teacher-led content specific instructions, group working sessions and individual student guidance and tutoring sessions. Student teachers were advised to annotate their own videos with a video-reflection tool by focussing on socio-emotional interactions, non-verbal elements of interaction and moments, where students felt successful and empowered. In addition to self-reflection, videos were viewed and annotated by a peer student and a teacher educator. After the phases of reviews and annotations (self-,peer-, and teacher annotations), an hour-long collaborative reflective feedback discussion was held either face-to-face or online. These sessions were facilitated by the teacher educator, involving the videoed student and the reviewing peer. Video annotation data was transcribed, and, in addition, the student teachers’ reflective writings (54 pages) and teacher educators’ notes of the reflective feedback sessions (20 pages) were used as data. The results of this study indicate that student teachers viewed the video reflection process as helpful in making socio-emotional experiences visible and tangible. The video annotation tool was recognised as useful for indicating socio-emotional experiences and making them more concrete thus resources for reflection. A combination of own, peer’s and teachers’ annotations functioned as a collaborative tool for increasing awareness of different socio-emotional experiences. By observing videos of their own teaching as well as teaching videos of their peers, student teachers were able to evaluate teaching situations holistically and observe connections of their own socio-emotional behaviours to their students.