Doctoral students and research assistants of the LECI Expert Group
Doctoral Students N-W
Mikko Niemelä
Doctoral Student
Research themes
Knowledge Integration in Education and Science. Core questions of the study are: a) what is integration in education, b) why integration is done, c) what kind of benefits and challenges are expected, d) how it is executed currently in Finnish schools, and d) how integration in schools is parallel and connected to practices of interdisciplinary science.
See poster presentation: Teachers’ Knowledge in Integrating the Curriculum
Funding
Finnish Cultural Foundation (Lauri Järvi Fund)
Contact information
E-mail: mikko.a.niemela@helsinki.fi
Alexandra Nordström
Doctoral Student, M.Soc.Sci
Research themes
Young children’s engagement and participation, multiliteracy, emotions, social construction, interaction, literacy practices and pedagogical moves.
See Alexandra Nordström's poster presentation here:
Current projects
Joy of Learning Multiliteracies / Monilukutaitoa Opitaan Ilolla (MOI)
Links
Nordström's profile on TUHAT - University of Helsinki
Nordstrom's profile on LinkedIn
Contact information
E-mail: alexandra.nordstrom@helsinki.fi
Helmi-Riikka Olkinuora
Master Student, Research assistant
Research themes
"Teacher Interventions in Students’ Joint Work in a Novel Design and Making Environment". The study analyzes teacher interventions in students’ joint work in a novel digital design and making environment, focusing on which kind of situations caused teachers to intervene in students’ joint work and which intervention strategies teachers use when intervening. The data consists of video recordings that were filmed at a participating primary school, which had introduced a new design and making environment (called the FUSE Studio). The results depict what it entails from a teacher to facilitate and further students’ engagement and development of relative expertise in interest-driven peer collaboration and learning.
Current project
Learning by Making: The Educational Potential of School-Based Makerspaces for Young Learners' Digital Competencies (iMake)
Contact information
E-mail: riikka.olkinuora@helsinki.fi
Birgit Paju
Doctoral Student, M.A.
Research themes
Inclusive education, inclusion, educational reform, collaboration, training.
Current projects
Fostering Inclusive Education in schools – teaching staff’s perceptions and contradictions
Links
Contact information
E-mail: birgit.paju@helsinki.fi
Heidi Paju
Doctoral Student
Research themes
Political formation of vocational education: A comparative study of Finnish and Estonian vocational education systems. The emphasis of the research lies on a comparative study of Estonian and Finnish Vocational Education Training systems. The research adopts two methodological approaches: historical comparative approach, and critical policy analysis
Funding
Seed funding from Journal of Vocational Education and Training
Contact information
E-mail: heidi.paju@helsinki.fi
Yenny Hinostroza Paredes
Doctoral Student
Research Themes
Initial teacher education; education policies; teacher educators; critical social theory, comparative research. My study aims to compare the professional agency of Chilean and Finnish teacher educators in the managerial university. Its main questions are: How do academic teacher educators construct their professional agency in teacher education departments of Chilean and Finnish universities? How do they exercise agency within managerial work environments? How does this agency impact their professional agency negotiations and their career path expectations?
Links
Hinostroza Paredes' profile on LinkedIn
Contact Information
Christopher Petrie
Doctoral Student, MA (Educ.)
Research themes
Innovation and strategy in education: Cultivating innovation friendly systems.
The nature of Christopher's doctorate is interdisciplinary between education and organisational change. It aims to study the implementation of education innovations to new contexts from the three perspectives of funders, innovators, and implementers.Christopher is also the Head of Global Research at the Finnish Education non-profit, HundrED.org.
Current projects
Lessons for education during the coronavirus from Taiwan, Japan, and Learning Equity (a US non-profit) crisis in partnership with the OECD, World Bank, Global Education Innovation Initiative, and HundrED
Creativity in partnership with the LEGO Foundation
Spotlight on 21st Century Skills in Latin America in partnership with Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
Past Projects
Interdisciplinary Computational Thinking with Music and Programming (Master's thesis)
Links
Contact information
christopher.petrie@helsinki.org
Lauri Pynnönen
Doctoral Student
Research themes
My research investigates non-formal digital game-based learning (GBL) with refugee children in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Within the scope of the project digital GBL is used to teach early-grade children the basics of numeracy and literacy with tablet computes and selected mobile applications. The children learn to read in their native language, basics of English and basic numeracy without a teacher at their own pace following learning goals that mimic those of the national curriculums of their respective countries.
See project website: Digital Game-Based Learning in Emergency Contexts
See poster Lauri Pynnönen's poster presentation here:
Contact information
E-mail: lauri.pynnonen@helsinki.fi
Juhana Rantavuori
Doctoral Student, MA (Educ.)
Research themes
Cultural-historical activity theory; expansive learning; social movements; workplace learning
Current projects
Learning in Productive Social Movements
Links
Rantavuori's profile on TUHAT - University of Helsinki
Rantavuori's profile on ResearchGate
Rantavuori's profile on LinkedIn
Rantavuori's profile on Academia
Rantavuori's profile on GoogleScholar
Contact information
Email: juhana.rantavuori@helsinki.fi
Jenny Renlund
Doctoral Student
Research themes
Young children and emergent literacy, multiliteracies, environmental education, digital literacy, interaction, peer dialogue, meaning making, aesthetic dimensions of learning, equal learning opportunities
Current projects
Contact information
E-mail: jenny.renlund@helsinki.fi
Päivi Ristimäki
Doctoral Student, M.Sc. (Econ.&Bus.Adm.)
Research themes
Learning and Concept Formation in Digital Era, Transformation of Management Team´s Agency, Explorative and Exploitative Actions of a New Logic for Business Activity, Customer-oriented Development, Ethnographic Research Settings and Research-based Interventions
Recent projects
Learning production concepts (OT) – Tools for the management of networked activity
Links
Ristimäki's profile on TUHAT - University of Helsinki
Ristimäki's profile on LinkedIn
Ristimäki's profile on ResearchGate
Contact information
E-mail: paivi.ristimaki@helsinki.fi
Heidi Sairanen
Doctoral Student, MA (Educ.)
Research themes
Young children and learning, agency and sense of agency, meaning making, motivation for learning, multiliteracy, children’s media and digital literacies, children’s voice, children as co-researchers
See Heidi Sairanen's poster presentation here:
Current projects
Learning Multiliteracy With Joy / Monilukutaitoa Opitaan Ilolla (MOI)
Links
Sairanen's profile on TUHAT - University of Helsinki
Contact information
E-mail: heidi.sairanen@helsinki.fi
Doctoral Student
Research themes
New forms of capability building and HRD practices, changes in work organizations and work practices, learning, generalization and concept formation, cultural-historical activity theory.
Contact information
E-mail: marika.schaupp@helsinki.fi
Rachel Sinquefield-Kangas
Doctoral Student, M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction
Research themes
Creativity and artistic practices as faculties for empathy development during adolescences. Critically pedagogy, aesthetic development and Identity. Visual culture, augmented & virtual reality in education. Arts based education research methods.
See poster presentation: The socio-cultural interpretations that lie between us: Exploring empathy in 21st century visual arts pedagogy the Equation
Current projects
Links
Sinquefield-Kangas's profile on TUHAT - Univesity of Helsinki
Sinquefield-Kangas's profile on ResearchGate
Sinquefield-Kangas's profile on LinkedIn
Sinquefield-Kangas's profile on Twitter
Contact information
E-mail: rachel.sinquefield-kangas@helsinki.fi
Skype: Live: rkangas_4
Marika Toivola
Doctoral Student
Research themes
Teacher’s agency and identity in Flipped learning. The study contributes to existing research knowledge in two ways: On the one hand, it helps understand the process of conceptualization of the phenomenon of Flipped learning particularly from math teacher perspective. On the other, the study is contributing in particular to efforts at promoting a change in the teaching of mathematics.
See poster presentation: Teachers’ Agency and Identity in Flipped Learning
Links
Contact information
E-mail: marika.toivola@helsinki.fi
Doctoral Student
Research themes
Changing collaborative work and learning as well as social assessment of valuation-tied decisions in and out of virtual environments. My research project applies activity theory and pragmatism. The aim of my dissertation is to study valuation as a part of organizational learning in the context of virtual environments, from augmented and mixed reality to full immersive virtual surroundings. In singular work-life projects, the aim is to form knowledge and tools for practical use.
Links
DigIT research group
Vasarainen's profile on LinkedIn
Contact information
E-mail: minna.vasarainen@helsinki.fi
Yan Wang
Doctoral Student
Research themes
Comparative studies on the Finnish and Chinese science curriculum. The doctoral thesis is an article-based one to investigate how aims for scientific literacy and 21st century competencies are implemented in National Primary Science Curricula in Finland and China. Further empirical research would be done based on the analysis results of the intended curriculum.
See Yan Wang's poster presentation here:
Funding
China Scholarship Council for doctoral studies
Links
Wang's profile on TUHAT - University of Helsinki
Contact information
E-mail: yan.wang@helsinki.fi
Chinny Wong
Doctoral Student
Research themes
Engaging young children in sustainability education through applying design practices: ecological literacy, climate change education, playful learning, multiliteracies, design thinking, pedagogical creativity, co-creation and participatory methods.
Links
The Joy of Learning Multiliteracies – MOI
Chinny’s profile on ResearchGate
Contact information
Email: chin.wong@helsinki.fi