Kai Hakkarainen
Biographic Data
| ID | 110031 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kai Hakkarainen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kai |
| FAMILY NAME | Hakkarainen |
| SIGNATURE | HAKKARAINEN K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Helsinki |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3507-7537 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 23 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Teachers’ transformative professional agency
This study examines teachers' transformative professional agency during their participation in the Learning and Teaching in Digital Environments Professional Specialization program. It explores what inspires teachers to develop educational practices and how they drive educational change in the context of digitalization. Data, comprising teachers' application letters and final interviews (n = 28), were analyzed qualitatively using content analysis…
“As Long as You Have Your Smartphone, You’re Connected with Friends”
Smartphones’ role in schools has been widely debated in recent years, and this study foregrounds students’ voices on their role in social processes at school. Data were collected from 58 students in two Finnish lower secondary schools through open-ended questionnaires and focus group interviews and analyzed inductively using qualitative content analysis. The findings emphasize that, according to students, smartphone use plays a central role in fo…
Educational design and implementation of game literacy in a multiliteracy learning environment
This initial cycle of a larger design research explored game literacy in Finnish primary schools within a specifically designed multiliteracy learning environment. While games in education have been studied, specific design principles and processes for game literacy remain less explored. Grounded in game literacy theory and multiliteracies pedagogy, activities encouraged students to engage with, analyze, and apply game literacy concepts. Conducte…
Creating Transformative Research–Practice Partnership in Collaboration with School, City, and University Actors
Traditional educational research has been criticized for the gap between the research and practice communities, meaning that outcomes do not transfer to educational praxis. To meet this challenge, policymakers, funders, and researchers are developing research–practice partnerships (RPPs). The purpose of this research is to study the research–practice partnership as a strategy for educational transformation in the Finnish educational context. This…
Idea generation and knowledge creation through maker practices in an artifact-mediated collaborative invention project
This investigation involved carrying out interventions that engaged teams of lower-secondary (13–14-year-old) Finnish students in using traditional and digital fabrication technologies to make materially embodied collaborative inventions. By relying on video data and ethnographic observations of the student teams' collaborative invention processes, the investigation focused on investigating 1) how the teams generated and developed their design id…
Preparing students for the future
To implement educational transformations that prepare young people for the future society, it is valuable to deepen scientific understanding of socio-cultural, psychic, and physical aspects of learning environments. Towards that end, in this case study we examined educators’ and construction specialists’ perceptions of pedagogical activities and how design of physical learning environments intends to reciprocally support those activities in the c…
How Mindsets, Academic Performance, and Gender Predict Finnish Students’ Educational Aspirations
This study examined Finnish eighth graders’ (N = 1136) educational aspirations and how those can be predicted by mindsets, academic achievement, and gender. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate how two mindset constructs (intelligence and giftedness), domain-specific academic performance (mathematics and reading), and gender relate to students’ educational aspirations on three levels (academic, vocational, and un…
Teachers as transformative agents in changing school culture
This interview study examined the transformative professional agency of expert teachers selected to perform city-wide innovator and developer roles in the context of digital school transformations in Helsinki, Finland. Our analysis revealed that exploring and developing a novel digital pedagogy in one's own teaching was considered the core of their innovation activity. The insights and know-how developed through classroom innovation enabled produ…
Developing students’ digital competences through collaborative game design
This exploratory study engaged teams of elementary and middle school students in the collaborative design of digital games. Game design is theoretically examined in this study as a form of knowledge-creating learning that is characterized by collaborative efforts to advance a shared object of activity, i.e., the game being designed. Using mixed methods, we examined how students experienced the game design project and how the project fostered conn…
Lessons learned on student engagement from the nature of pervasive socio‐digital interests and related network participation of adolescents
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 question…
Epistemic roles of materiality within a collaborative invention project at a secondary school
In this study, we examined maker‐centred learning from an epistemic perspective, highlighting the agentic role of material engagement and artefacts in learning and creativity. The use of physical materials plays a crucial role in maker activities where the socio‐epistemic aspects of knowledge creation entangle with the designing and making of physical artefacts. By taking a case study perspective, we analysed video data from nine design sessions …
Bringing maker practices to school
The present investigation aimed to analyze the collaborative making processes and ways of organizing collaboration processes of five student teams. As a part of regular school work, the seventh-grade students were engaged in the use of traditional and digital fabrication technologies for inventing, designing, and making artifacts. To analyze complex, longitudinal collaborative making processes, we developed the visual Making-Process-Rug video ana…
Co-teaching in non-linear projects
Co-teaching is regularly paired with school improvements and educational reforms, yet research does not clearly separate the challenges of co-teaching for teacher professional development, course improvement and for wider reforms. We explored how co-teaching emerged and what barriers teachers experienced as meaningful for their co-teaching after a national core curriculum reform. Two cross-sectional data sets were collected. Three qualitatively d…
Interconnections between the discursive framing of space-time and the interpretation of a collaborative task
Face-to-face Contacts, Facebook Connections and Academic Support
The purpose of the present study is to investigate gender and cultural background similarities among adolescents’ patterns of networking within a multicultural Finnish school. The participants consisted of 109 seventh to ninth graders who represented three cultural groups: major-culture ( n = 50; 46%), bi-culture ( n = 26; 24%) and minor-culture ( n = 33; 30%). A social networking questionnaire was administered to trace face-to-face, Facebook and…
Organizational learning in forensic fingerprint investigation
How Has the Emergence of Digital Culture Affected Professional Magic
We examined how the emerging digital culture has affected magicians’ careers, the development of their expertise and the general practices of their professions. We used social network analysis (n=120) to identify Finland’s most highly regarded magicians (n=16) representing different generations. The participants were theme interviewed and also collected self-report questionnaire data. The results revealed that digital transformations have strongl…
Entrepreneurship as a twenty-first century skill
The Dark Side of Internet Use
Extending collective practices of doctoral education from natural to educational sciences
The purpose of the present investigation was to examine how a collective knowledge-creation-oriented approach to doctoral education is being adopted in research within the field of education. The authors interviewed nine leaders of national centres of excellence in science research and 12 education professors whose research communities cultivate collective practices of doctoral education. In order to examine how the collective practices differ fr…
Sociodigital Revolution
Reflections on the Use of DWR in Intercultural Collaboration
This article is a reflection on a Developmental Work Research project focused on the introduction of information and communication technology in schools in Africa. The longstanding project incited us to examine developmental research partnership as a joint mediated activity that takes place in a developing country. The data include several workshops, Change Laboratories (CLs) in three schools, and ethnography from these schools. By tracing the bo…
Intercultural Collaboration
The Knowledge Creation Metaphor – An Emergent Epistemological Approach to Learning
Three Abductive Solutions to the Meno Paradox – with Instinct, Inference, and Distributed Cognition
The Dark Side of Internet Use
Teachers as transformative agents in changing school culture
This interview study examined the transformative professional agency of expert teachers selected to perform city-wide innovator and developer roles in the context of digital school transformations in Helsinki, Finland. Our analysis revealed that exploring and developing a novel digital pedagogy in one's own teaching was considered the core of their innovation activity. The insights and know-how developed through classroom innovation enabled produ…
Co-teaching in non-linear projects
Co-teaching is regularly paired with school improvements and educational reforms, yet research does not clearly separate the challenges of co-teaching for teacher professional development, course improvement and for wider reforms. We explored how co-teaching emerged and what barriers teachers experienced as meaningful for their co-teaching after a national core curriculum reform. Two cross-sectional data sets were collected. Three qualitatively d…
Three Abductive Solutions to the Meno Paradox – with Instinct, Inference, and Distributed Cognition
Face-to-face Contacts, Facebook Connections and Academic Support
The purpose of the present study is to investigate gender and cultural background similarities among adolescents’ patterns of networking within a multicultural Finnish school. The participants consisted of 109 seventh to ninth graders who represented three cultural groups: major-culture ( n = 50; 46%), bi-culture ( n = 26; 24%) and minor-culture ( n = 33; 30%). A social networking questionnaire was administered to trace face-to-face, Facebook and…
Intercultural Collaboration
Expertise in Translation
The present paper focuses on the translation process, particularly on the features of the expert translation process, viewing expertise in translation as a specific case of expertise in general. It utilises conceptual and methodological tools developed in cognitive psychology. In this paper, translation is conceptualised as problem-solving and translation tasks as ill-defined problems. We argue that professionalism does not equal expertise. Four …
Models of Innovative Knowledge Communities and Three Metaphors of Learning
The authors analyze and compare three models of innovative knowledge communities: Nonaka and Takeuchi's model of knowledge-creation, Engeström's model of expansive learning, and Bereiter's model of knowledge building. Despite basic differences, these models have pertinent features in common: Most fundamentally, they emphasize dynamic processes for transforming prevailing knowledge and practices. Beyond characterizing learning as knowledge acquisi…
The Knowledge Creation Metaphor – An Emergent Epistemological Approach to Learning
Three Abductive Solutions to the Meno Paradox – with Instinct, Inference, and Distributed Cognition
Reflections on the Use of DWR in Intercultural Collaboration
This article is a reflection on a Developmental Work Research project focused on the introduction of information and communication technology in schools in Africa. The longstanding project incited us to examine developmental research partnership as a joint mediated activity that takes place in a developing country. The data include several workshops, Change Laboratories (CLs) in three schools, and ethnography from these schools. By tracing the bo…
Intercultural Collaboration
Sociodigital Revolution
Extending collective practices of doctoral education from natural to educational sciences
The purpose of the present investigation was to examine how a collective knowledge-creation-oriented approach to doctoral education is being adopted in research within the field of education. The authors interviewed nine leaders of national centres of excellence in science research and 12 education professors whose research communities cultivate collective practices of doctoral education. In order to examine how the collective practices differ fr…
Organizational learning in forensic fingerprint investigation
How Has the Emergence of Digital Culture Affected Professional Magic
We examined how the emerging digital culture has affected magicians’ careers, the development of their expertise and the general practices of their professions. We used social network analysis (n=120) to identify Finland’s most highly regarded magicians (n=16) representing different generations. The participants were theme interviewed and also collected self-report questionnaire data. The results revealed that digital transformations have strongl…
Entrepreneurship as a twenty-first century skill
The Dark Side of Internet Use
Face-to-face Contacts, Facebook Connections and Academic Support
The purpose of the present study is to investigate gender and cultural background similarities among adolescents’ patterns of networking within a multicultural Finnish school. The participants consisted of 109 seventh to ninth graders who represented three cultural groups: major-culture ( n = 50; 46%), bi-culture ( n = 26; 24%) and minor-culture ( n = 33; 30%). A social networking questionnaire was administered to trace face-to-face, Facebook and…
Interconnections between the discursive framing of space-time and the interpretation of a collaborative task
Epistemic roles of materiality within a collaborative invention project at a secondary school
In this study, we examined maker‐centred learning from an epistemic perspective, highlighting the agentic role of material engagement and artefacts in learning and creativity. The use of physical materials plays a crucial role in maker activities where the socio‐epistemic aspects of knowledge creation entangle with the designing and making of physical artefacts. By taking a case study perspective, we analysed video data from nine design sessions …
Bringing maker practices to school
The present investigation aimed to analyze the collaborative making processes and ways of organizing collaboration processes of five student teams. As a part of regular school work, the seventh-grade students were engaged in the use of traditional and digital fabrication technologies for inventing, designing, and making artifacts. To analyze complex, longitudinal collaborative making processes, we developed the visual Making-Process-Rug video ana…
Co-teaching in non-linear projects
Co-teaching is regularly paired with school improvements and educational reforms, yet research does not clearly separate the challenges of co-teaching for teacher professional development, course improvement and for wider reforms. We explored how co-teaching emerged and what barriers teachers experienced as meaningful for their co-teaching after a national core curriculum reform. Two cross-sectional data sets were collected. Three qualitatively d…
Developing students’ digital competences through collaborative game design
This exploratory study engaged teams of elementary and middle school students in the collaborative design of digital games. Game design is theoretically examined in this study as a form of knowledge-creating learning that is characterized by collaborative efforts to advance a shared object of activity, i.e., the game being designed. Using mixed methods, we examined how students experienced the game design project and how the project fostered conn…
Lessons learned on student engagement from the nature of pervasive socio‐digital interests and related network participation of adolescents
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 question…
How Mindsets, Academic Performance, and Gender Predict Finnish Students’ Educational Aspirations
This study examined Finnish eighth graders’ (N = 1136) educational aspirations and how those can be predicted by mindsets, academic achievement, and gender. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate how two mindset constructs (intelligence and giftedness), domain-specific academic performance (mathematics and reading), and gender relate to students’ educational aspirations on three levels (academic, vocational, and un…
Teachers as transformative agents in changing school culture
This interview study examined the transformative professional agency of expert teachers selected to perform city-wide innovator and developer roles in the context of digital school transformations in Helsinki, Finland. Our analysis revealed that exploring and developing a novel digital pedagogy in one's own teaching was considered the core of their innovation activity. The insights and know-how developed through classroom innovation enabled produ…
Idea generation and knowledge creation through maker practices in an artifact-mediated collaborative invention project
This investigation involved carrying out interventions that engaged teams of lower-secondary (13–14-year-old) Finnish students in using traditional and digital fabrication technologies to make materially embodied collaborative inventions. By relying on video data and ethnographic observations of the student teams' collaborative invention processes, the investigation focused on investigating 1) how the teams generated and developed their design id…
Preparing students for the future
To implement educational transformations that prepare young people for the future society, it is valuable to deepen scientific understanding of socio-cultural, psychic, and physical aspects of learning environments. Towards that end, in this case study we examined educators’ and construction specialists’ perceptions of pedagogical activities and how design of physical learning environments intends to reciprocally support those activities in the c…
Creating Transformative Research–Practice Partnership in Collaboration with School, City, and University Actors
Traditional educational research has been criticized for the gap between the research and practice communities, meaning that outcomes do not transfer to educational praxis. To meet this challenge, policymakers, funders, and researchers are developing research–practice partnerships (RPPs). The purpose of this research is to study the research–practice partnership as a strategy for educational transformation in the Finnish educational context. This…
Educational design and implementation of game literacy in a multiliteracy learning environment
This initial cycle of a larger design research explored game literacy in Finnish primary schools within a specifically designed multiliteracy learning environment. While games in education have been studied, specific design principles and processes for game literacy remain less explored. Grounded in game literacy theory and multiliteracies pedagogy, activities encouraged students to engage with, analyze, and apply game literacy concepts. Conducte…
Psychology (17 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Computer Science (15 works) · Pedagogy (10 works) · Knowledge management (8 works) · Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Child Development and Digital Technology (5 works) · Engineering (5 works)