This study examined the use of an educational movie to trigger reflection on academic organizational cultures in a course at Oulu University of Applied Sciences in Finland. The 17-minute movie depicted an ordinary day for a university lecturer. It sparked classroom discussions after viewing. Analysis of video recordings and student surveys found that the movie lightened the mood and engaged students in intensive discussion about their own experiences. It helped the teacher provide personalized guidance by understanding student perspectives. Viewing the movie also helped students grasp the course concepts of organizational cultures. Discussions reflected that an increasing "corporate culture" in academia has reduced flexibility and ability to meet student needs, while also limiting research time.

1. USE OF AN EDUCATIONAL MOVIE AS
TRIGGER FOR REFLECTION ON
ACADEMIC ORGANIZATIONAL
CULTURES
Tiiu Tenno, PhD; Asko Karjalainen, PhD & Blair Stevenson, PhD
The School of Vocational Teacher Education,
Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Finland
ISATT - 16th Biennal Conference on Teachers and Teaching, July 1-5, 2013

2. The Educational Movie
• educational movie
– has specific educational purpose
– has been written and dramatized
• trigger film
– short
– effective
– typically used to activate students

3. ’THE CLAN’ – FILM IS DESIGNED
ESPECIALLY FOR TRAINING AND
CONSULTING UNIVERSITY TEACHERS AND
STAFF

4. The Educational Movie ‘The Clan’
• a fully dramatized 17 minute long film
• demonstrates explicit, real-life contexts by
presenting unstructured problems in an
academic environment
• the film script was constructed by applying the
theory of subjective and objective layers of
meaning

5. …. one working day in the life
of an ‘ordinary’ university
lecturer - hurry

6. …. one working day in the life
of an ‘ordinary’ university
lecturer – meeting students

7. THE RESEARCH PROJECT

8. The Research Project
• Context: The School of Vocational Teacher Education at
the Oulu University of Applied Sciences in Finland
• Course: Higher education institutions – codes of laws,
statutes and practices
– Course has been delivered since 2007 as an optional
component of the teacher education program
– Key objective was to encourage participants to become
active change agents in their own organizations
– Key teaching method was the use of dialogue
– Key assignment was writing reflections on the course
topics

9. Watching the video

10. 1. What impact did the use of the educational
movie have on student-teacher interactions
in relation to the learning objectives?
2. What meaning structures were reflected
upon and shared during the classroom
discussions as a result of viewing the
educational movie?
Researchquestions

11. Data collection
• The data consisted of Video recordings of the resulting
conversations between course participants after viewing the
video.
– Recorded data consisted of two twenty minute sessions of classroom
discussion during which the teacher was an active participant.
• Teacher’s field notes during the workshops concerning his
own experiences and interaction with the students.
• A post-survey was conducted with participating students
consisting of questions focusing on the students’ perceptions
of the impact of the video on their ability to achieve the
learning objectives of the course.

12. Classroom discussion

13. The strategy of data analysis
Classroom
discussion after
viewing the
video
Observing the
video footage
data and
analyzing
discussion,
phase 1
Observing the
video footage
data and
analyzing
discussion,
phase 2
A final
interpretation
workshop
(R3) =outsider-
researcher
(R1) =teacher-
researcher
(R2) =recorder-
researcher
Post-survey for the
participating students

14. Process of data analysis
• 1. The researchers (R1, R2, R3) observed the video footage data
independently;
• 2. An interpretation formula was made by the two researchers (R1
and R2) based on the MeM framework;
• 3. Interpretation workshops were held, during which two
researchers selected, transcribed and interpreted the most
meaningful expressions and sequences (R1 and R2);
• 4. A preliminary summary of the interpretations including a
constructive hypotheses was made by the R1 researcher to
summarize the cases;
• 5. R2 and R3 evaluated the interpretation in a critical reflection
session which also included an analysis and interpretation of data
drawn from the post-course survey; and
• 6. A final interpretation workshop was held with R1, R2, and R3.
Graph

15. Example of the post-
survey for the
participating students

16. The MeM framework gives a two dimensional illustration for the
ontological categories of the meaning structures.

17. FINDINGS

18. Research question 1: What impact did the use of the educational
movie have on teacher-student interaction in relation to the
course learning objectives?
1. The viewing of the movie ‘lightened’ the mood among the students
and allowed the participants to immediately enter into an intensive
discussion.
2. Immediately after viewing the film, students were keen on
articulating their own experiences, which in all cases were even more
detailed than the fictional ‘experience’ viewed on the film ->
therapeutic function of the film.
3. By hearing students’ personal experiences, the teacher was able to
give more personalized guidance and instruction during the course.
4. Viewing the movie promoted learning of the theory. Students
during these sessions more easily grasped an understanding of the
idea of organizational cultures discussed within the course.

19. Research question 2: What meaning structures were reflected
upon and shared during the classroom discussions as a result of
viewing the educational movie?
• Coporate culture has taken root in academy?
– Academic work has gradually become “business-like” in structure
within which the demands on staff have become ‘results-based’ and
administrative mechanisms created by the organizations have left little
room for individual freedom and academic flexibility.
• By working under this corporate culture, university teachers
described themselves as increasingly losing the ability to meet
students’ needs as a ‘good teacher’;
• While at the same time, they did not have time to concentrate on
the production of high quality research neither.

20. Tiiu Tenno
tiiu.tenno@oamk.fi
The School of Vocational Teacher Education Oulu
Uusikatu 2
90100 OULU FI