Complex processes like teaching and learning include more than theoretical knowledge and methodology. Increased knowledge about and understanding for teachers work will influence the development of teacher education and also have importance for teacher’s professionalism. The ongoing societal changes involve a new way of thinking, which ought to be visible in teacher education as it is complicated to foster the new generation teachers with yesterday methods. However, there are many different opinions about the best way to get optimal learning and high qualified teaching. Besides the theoretical studies, where teacher educators opinions of what makes good teaching is clear, learning to teach involves the first steps of becoming a professional teacher. To a large extent student teachers` teaching competence is developed in the context where their practice takes place. During the practice periods in teacher education student teachers usually are influenced by their supervisors and it is not uncommon that they, more or less unconscious, imitate their supervisors` teaching methods. New teachers may feel stranded at their first position without sufficient knowledge of the complexity of the teacher role and a lack of tools to handle it Therefore, it is fully understandable that new teachers use methods and strategies of adjustment from their own school period. Due to that the socialization of teachers can be based on their own experiences from school and shaping of the teacher role can occur primarily prior to and after teacher education. Throughout the first year in their new profession novice teachers will face unpredictable situations, which are not in accordance with their earlier teaching experiences. As a result feelings of being unprepared for meeting pupils’ needs, classroom management and understanding school culture are common for beginner teachers. These feelings obstruct them to feel comfortable in the teacher role, which is neither congruent with the role which the education supports, nor with the ideas about the teacher profession which they bring with them into the teacher role. Many research studies from the Nordic countries mirror this problematic and there is a growing interest in collaboration across the borders. Through grants from the Swedish Research Council cooperation between the researchers in the current symposium has been ongoing the last three years. By using different research methods in their studies, concerning teacher education and the first time at school, the researchers want get deeper understanding about what constitutes a professional teacher and how the gap between teacher education and the first time as a teacher can be overlapped. Results from interviews, questionnaires and literature studies, concerning teacher students and beginner teachers, will be presented in the symposium.

Questionnaries and Interview studies

The expected outcome is that analytical and critical aspects of the studies will influence and contribute to enhancement of future techer education in the Nordic counttries