Session Information
01 SES 12 A, Teacher Professional Learning and Development (PLD) in Europe (Part 3)
Symposium continued from 01 SES 11 A
Contribution
REssential to Finnish education context is decentralisation and autonomy of municipalities, schools and teachers (Niemi, 2015). Therefore, teachers are active participants in the design of local curricula and courses. Teachers in Finland are required to have a master’s degree. An essential characteristic of teacher education in Finland has been its emphasis on research (Tirri, 2014). This orientation supports teachers in the local planning and assessment processes. Moreover, the research orientation supports student teachers in developing professional teacher identity and agency in their work (Niemi, 2015). The in-service education or support for the professional learning of teachers is the responsibility of the municipalities and cities in Finland. Teachers must participate three days per year to professional learning. Therefore, municipalities have organised short in-service courses for teachers. In addition to three in-service days, there is 120 hours for co-design time during the academic year for co-design, consultations, and for home-school co-operation. According to Kumpulainen (2017) and National Agency of Education (2019) the Finnish teachers and principals have participated actively in voluntary professional learning, typically yearly 80% - 91% of various teacher groups. Teachers’ professional learning is supported in various school, district and national level projects or activities. At school level, teachers in Finland, are seen as developers of the school community and school culture (Finnish National Board for Education [NBE], 2014). This idea of teachers as developers could be interpreted as an activity of a professional learning community (PLC) of teachers (Webb et al., 2009). In addition to development projects there are several teacher networks, which support teachers’ professional learning. One important current teachers’ professional learning innovation is s a tutor-teacher model . A tutor teacher is a teacher, who has fewer lesson hours than other teachers but supports other teachers in their own classrooms to use digital tools in education. National Agency for Education has been responsible for the development of tutor-teacher’s competencies and network of tutor-teachers As a summary, it is possible to recognise, how the outcomes of research on teachers’ professional development and learning are aimed to implement to Finnish teachers’ professional learning activities. The development project or professional learning communities activities are often long-term by nature (Oliveira, 2010). Teacher led development projects and PLCs support teachers to take an active role in their professional learning (Garet et al., 2001) and connect their professional learning to the classrooms and practice context (Van den Bergh et al., 2015).
References
Webb, R. et al.. (2009) Professional learning communities and teacher well‐being? A comparative analysis of primary schools in England and Finland. Oxford Review of Education, 35(3), 405-422 Van den Bergh, L. et al. (2015). Teacher learning in the context of a continuing professional development programme: A case study. Teaching and Teacher Education, 47(1), 142–150. Tirri, K. (2014). The last 40 years in Finnish teacher education. Journal of Education for Teaching, 40(5), 600–609. Oliveira, A. W. (2010). Improving teacher questioning in science inquiry discussions through professional development. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 47(4), 422–453. Niemi, H. (2015). Teacher Professional Development in Finland: Towards a More Holistic Approach. Psychology, Society, & Education, 7(3), 279-294. National Board of Education (NBE) (2014). The National Core Curriculum for Basic Education. Helsinki: NBE. Lavonen J., et al. (2020). A Collaborative Design for a Finnish Teacher Education Development Programme. Journal of Teacher Education and Educators, 9(2), 241-262. Kumpulainen, K. (2017). Opettajat ja rehtorit Suomessa 2016 [Teachers and principals in finland 2016]. Raportit ja selvitykset 2017:2. Helsinki: Opetushallitus Garet. M et al.. (2001). What makes professional development effective? Results from a national sample of teachers. American Education Research Journal, 38(4), 915–945.
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