Session Information
31 SES 09 A, Observations of Pedagogical Excellence in Teaching Across Nations (OPETAN): Results from a Four Nation Study
Symposium
Contribution
Finland has, in recent years, witnessed increasing levels of inward migration consistent with demographic trends in Europe (OSF 2019). Although Finland is home to pre-established national linguistic communities of Finnish (88 %), Swedish (5,2 %) and Sami (0,04 %) speakers, more recent migration patterns continue to enrich the cultural and linguistic diversity in Finnish schools. In 2017, newly arrived communities in Finland represented 7% of the country’s population (OSF 2019). The greatest increase of learners with Finnish as a second language (FSL), many of whom are multilingual, has been observed in urban locations (OSF 2019). The increasing linguistic diversity brings about challenges for education. The ‘gap’ in attainment between Finnish-speaking pupils and those with Finnish as a second language has been found to be as much as two years (Harju-Luukkainen et al., 2014). Whilst national education policies emphasise equity in outcomes for all learners, the conversion of such intentions into effective classroom practice remains a work-in-progress. Thus, the need for skilled teachers to facilitate the progress of FSL learners has never been greater. This paper is part of a project entitled Observation of Pedagogical Excellence in Teaching Across Nations or OPETAN. For this paper, we observed teaching in 8 Finnish primary classrooms in 2017, selected for their positive reputation in supporting multilingual learners. The Standards for Effective Pedagogy Plus rubric (SEP) was employed to evaluate the teaching observed (Teemant et al., 2014). Our findings demonstrate variation in pedagogical practice, with the most effective teaching identified in teachers’ practices of Contextualization (CTX), Challenging Activities (CA) and Modeling (M). In contrast, the standards for the Instructional Conversation (IC) (teacher assisted, small group) and opportunities for Critical Stance were scarce. In this paper, we analyze the integrating pedagogy in one class observed - a Year 2 mathematics lesson exemplifying the integration of the practices where the Finnish schools scored highest. To conclude, we consider the effectiveness of the SEP Plus rubric to capture effective teaching in Finnish contexts, and reflect on its continuing European and global relevance in highlighting outstanding pedagogy.
References
Harju-Luukkainen, H., Nissinen, K., Sulkunen, S., Suni, M. & Vettenranta, J. (2014). Avaimet osaamisen tulevaisuuteen. Selvitys maahanmuuttajataustaisten nuorten osaamisesta ja siihen liittyvistä taustatekijöistä PISA 2012 -tutkimuksessa. University of Jyväskylä. OSF 2019 = Official Statistics of Finland. [Population structure; Immigrants and integration]. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 28.1.2019]. Access method: http://www.stat.fi Teemant, A., Leland, C., & Berghoff, B. (2014). Development and validation of a measure of Critical Stance for instructional coaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 39, 136-147.
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