We present here a long-term, multi-methodological research project concerning research-based teacher education, its trends, pedagogy and future challenges. As the eight year project is reaching its end, a review of what has been done and what has been reached, is in place. Finnish class teacher education has been academic higher education for thirty years. Today it is called research-based, in which the aims are at achieving a balanced development of personality of future teacher, a process in which a teacher's pedagogical thinking and professional learning play essential roles (Kansanen et al., 2000). As a variation of research-based teacher education, multimode approach has the same standards as all the other academic programs. The study program is the same as the one adopted in the basic teacher education program, as well as the organizing theoretical themes framing it. The difference is in the methods used in teaching, studying and learning. Multimode pedagogy has several advantages compared to the traditional campus-based models of organizing the studies in teacher education. It opens new and flexible ways to plan studies and it also enables studying in various ways, e.g. learning while working in one’s own class. New and expanding combinations of theory and practice challenges the pedagogical practices in research-based teacher education and experiences gained from multimode pedagogy gives possibilities to develop the whole study program of teacher education at the University of Helsinki. The aims of the research were to find out experiences and attitudes towards research-based teacher education in general, as well as specifically towards multimode pedagogy as its variation.

The project consist of several data sets, which have been reported and presented individually (see Krokfors et al. 2006; Kynäslahti et al. 2006; Jyrhämä et al. 2008, Krokfors & al. 2009). The research design as a whole has a mixed methods approach, and the methods have been chosen pragmatically. In this presentation we introduce a three-stage research, which is a large part of the entire research project. In the first stage, a survey was targeted for a special group of students who were working as officially unqualified teachers while studying. In the second stage another survey was conducted in 2006, and students of ‘traditional’ class teacher education were targeted. The content of the survey was basically similar to that of the multimode teacher education students, as were the results. In the third stage of the research, teacher educators in the authors’ own department were the targets.

The results indicated that the students mainly understood the idea of research-based approach as the basis of the curriculum structure, and appreciated it most in research seminars and in working on the master’s thesis. The comparison of attitudes and experiences revealed that the students expected a more research-based approach in the courses than what actually took place. (Jyrhämä et al., 2008.) The results also indicated that teacher educators’ attitudes towards the approach were positive and that they appreciated this approach as an organising theme. As a conclusion, the main goal of such teacher education is to produce teachers who think and approach their work in an inquiring manner, which means that theoretical, pedagogical thinking is applied in practical settings. Instead of providing ready answers and tips, the future teachers are encouraged to make independent pedagogical judgements. This calls for autonomy, which in turn requires sufficient educational knowledge and professional self-assurance.