Lahti, Finland
"By measuring and analyzing students' emotional experiences, we can develop school culture and promote the goals of the National Core Curriculum," explains Päivi Nilivaara, the head of education operations for NayaDaya Inc.
Emotions play a major role in human behavior, interaction, learning, and well-being. They also have a huge impact on the development of transversal competences, everyday skills, community spirit, and an inspiring learning atmosphere.
Even though the new Finnish curriculum emphasizes the importance of emotions, there is no established method for the systematic identification and development of students' emotional experiences.
"The emotions experienced by students can be measured and understood, which contributes, in turn, to the learning of important emotional skills," says Päivi Nilivaara, an expert on schools and curricula who has trained to thousands of teachers. Nilivaara took over as head of education operations for start-up company NayaDaya Inc. at the beginning of February.
The NayaDaya® solution is a Finnish innovation: a digital solution for measuring, analyzing, and improving emotional experiences and engagement among users, customers, personnel, students, and patients. Based on scientific research, the solution consists of a multilingual application for expressing context-related emotions and a cloud service for utilizing emotional data and Big Data.
Digitalization poses a threat to empathy and can cause emotional problems for children and adolescents. The NayaDaya® solution uses digital tools to instead build a connection and understanding between the school, students, and parents. At the same time, emotional skills and empathy can be promoted, alongside generation of meaningful data to assist in the development of the learning environments and working methods.
"Digital interaction in schools can benefit students and the entire community. By recognizing, expressing, and understanding complex emotions, we can increase empathy and the sense of responsibility. The goal is to promote ecosocial knowledge and ability and build a more sustainable society," explains Nilivaara.
The application enables students to express their emotions via their cell phones in various contexts - for instance, at the start or end of a class or the school day. Emotional experiences can be connected to subjects, groups, schools, learning environments, working methods, and other factors. The strength and content of emotional engagement are measured with the Emotional Engagement Index and 20 emotion families.
"An emotional profile based on scientific research and a comparative index can be used to analyze students' emotional experiences in various learning situations. It is possible to develop learning conditions and teaching systematically and to strengthen students' emotion-processing skills. The results can then be discussed with the students and their parents," says Nilivaara.
The results achieved by Finnish schools are admired the world over. Realized in collaboration with the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation (Tekes), the technology contributes to the achievement of the goals set in the Finnish National Core Curriculum and education-export initiatives. The solution can be applied at all levels of education.
"The emotion application, which is available as an easy-to-implement product, and the cloud service with its capacity to process large quantities of data offer the opportunity for fast progress both in Finland and internationally. Education, digitalization, and emotions form a combination that brings together the central opportunities of the future," explains Timo Järvinen, CEO and co-founder at NayaDaya Inc.
Schools in e.g. Asikkala and Lappeenranta, Finland, will launch pilot projects in March to test the NayaDaya® solution.
Päivi Nilivaara, Head of Operations, Education, NayaDaya Inc., tel. +358 50 917 1621, [email protected]
Timo Järvinen, CEO and co-founder, NayaDaya Inc., tel. +358 40 505 7745, [email protected]
The NayaDaya® solution is a digital technology for measuring, analyzing, and improving emotional experiences and engagement among users, customers, personnel, students, and patients. Based on scientific research, the solution consists of a multilingual application for expressing context-related emotions and a cloud service for utilizing emotional data and Big Data. NayaDaya Inc. is a Finnish forerunner in designing and creating emotional value. More information at www.nayadaya.com.
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