Session Information
10 SES 13 A, Developing Adaptive Expertise in Future Teachers: International perspectives on innovations in initial teacher education
Symposium
Contribution
In Finland, in line with the reform of the Core Curriculum for Basic Education (Finnish National Board of Education 2016), also in teacher education, together with academic skills, the emphasis is placed on interdisciplinary and generic skills and competences to be mastered by teachers-to-be (Häkkinen et al. 2017; Valtonen et al. 2017). It is expected that these experiences would assist students to become competent to more comfortably apply these approaches in their own teaching. However, not much research exists yet that positions student teachers as learners and investigates, how student teachers themselves experience these new practices. This study focuses on student teachers’ meaningful learning experiences (Kostiainen et al. 2018; Loughran 2002), acquired over the course of their four-year master level teacher education in a Finnish university. The study has two nested layers. Together with activating critical reflection skills of future teachers and to support the adaptive competence of student teachers to develop (Conner & Sliwka, 2010), the aim is, through reflections, to better understand the ways in which student teachers construct their own learning. This allows teacher educators to design for educational practices that may foster more relevant learning experiences (Schmidt 2010). The data, collected during seminar entitled “Professional expertise in the field of education”, includes students’ (n=80) writings in which they reflect what has been the most meaningful issue(s) during their teacher education, including their reasons for choosing these issues. Based on qualitative content analysis (Krippendorf 2013), results showed the importance of interpersonal relationships, practical experiences, theoretical understanding, critical thinking and reflection skills, acquiring significant values necessary in teachers’ work and challenging oneself in generating meaningful learning over the course of teacher education studies.
References
Conner, L., & Sliwka, A. (2014). Implications of research on effective learning environments for initial teacher education. European Journal of Education, 49(2), 165 - 177. doi: 10.1111/ejed.12081 Finnish National Board of Education (2016). National core curriculum for basic education 2014. Helsinki: Finnish National Board of Education. Häkkinen, P., Järvelä, S., Mäkitalo-Siegl, K., Ahonen, A., Näykki, P., & Valtonen, T. (2017). Preparing teacher-students for twenty-first-century learning practices (PREP 21): a framework for enhancing collaborative problem-solving and strategic learning skills. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 23(1), 25-41. doi:10.1080/13540602.2016.1203772 Kostiainen, E., Ukskoski, T., Ruohotie-Lyhty, M., Kauppinen, M., Kainulainen, J., & Mäkinen, T. (2018). Meaningful learning in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 71, 66-77. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2017.12.009 Krippendorff, K. (2013) Content analysis: an introduction to its methodology (3rd ed). California, CA: Sage Publications. Loughran, J. J. (2002). Effective reflective practice. In search of meaning in learning about teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(1), 33e43. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487102053001004. Valtonen, T., Sointu, E., Kukkonen, J., Häkkinen, P., Järvelä, S., Ahonen, A., Näykki, P., Pöysä-Tarhonen, J. & Mäkitalo-Siegl, K. (2017). Insights into Finnish first-year pre-service teachers’ 21st century skills. Education and Information Technologies, 22 (5), 2055-2069. doi:10.1007/s10639-016-9529-2
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