Adult students in web-based thesis seminars : insights and challenges for supervision

We examine the web-based thesis seminars in the context of academic adult education in our article which presents and reflects on the development of web-based teaching. Our reflection is based on our own web-based teaching experiences in the open university and in the class teachers' adult education programme aiming at the Master's degree, and in the feedback material that has been collected from the students. We first examine web-based seminars from the point of view of educational equality and accessible learning environments. Then we will analyse the requirement of scientificity of university context and the objectives related to the interaction and the adult educational solutions in web…

Becoming an Inclusive Teacher at the Interface of School and Teacher Education

The aim of this study is to assess how the pedagogical solutions of the inclusive teaching practice in class teachers' adult education programme support the development to become an inclusive teacher. What kind of interpretations do the students make of inclusion and inclusive school? How does the participation in school community with reflective support by teacher education community enhance inclusive professional orientation? The research material consists of qualitative network material written by 22 adult students: teaching practice plans, reflective practice stories and teaching practice feedback. The analytical approach was thematic text analysis. Inclusion was interpreted as pupils’ …

Pitkäkestoinen työharjoittelu luokanopettajien koulutusohjelmassa : koulutuskokeilun dokumentointi ja arviointi

Tässä tutkimuksessa palataan viime vuosikymmenten vaihteessa ja 90-luvun alussa toteutettuun poikkeuskoulutukseen ja erityisesti siitä virinneeseen opettajankoulutuksen koulutusohjelmalliseen kehittämistyöhön. Jyväskylän yliopiston Chydenius-Instituutissa etsittiin yhteyksiä poikkeuskoulutuksen ja ns. normaalin koulutuksen välille, kun poikkeuskoulutuksen kehittämistyössä saatuja kokemuksia sovellettiin ja erityisesti harjoittelukäytänteitä kehitettiin edelleen uuden ylioppilaspohjaiseen kokeilukoulutusohjelman puitteissa kahden vuosikurssin ajan 1992-1996.

Aikuisopiskelijoiden opiskeluun kiinnittymisen tukeminen yliopisto-opintojen alussa

Gender as a theme and a concept in teacher students' Masters' theses

In this study, Master’s theses from the field of teacher education have been analysed from the perspective of equality and gender aware research and education. Master’s theses from the field of teacher education reveal something about the world views constructed in teacher education. This study examines which kind of 1) selected topics and themes and their justifications, 2) conceptualisation of gender and 3) educational conclusions connected to gender topics do the Master's thesis contain. The material was selected from the thesis databases of two Finnish university teacher education units. All theses from the field of education completed in 2000-2007, with names or abstracts including wor…

The Role of Previous Workplace Learning in the Development of Adult Teacher Students’ Professional Expertise

This research describes and seeks for more understanding of the role of previous workplace learning for adult teacher students and its relationship to the development of their professional expertise. Previous refers here to earlier months or years of work in schools for adult students who are now starting their teacher education studies. This research aims to answer the following questions: In what kinds of work situations and contexts have teacher students learnt? How does this learning manifest in teacher students’ working life stories? The research material includes 80 working life stories of adult students who are just starting their teacher training to become Finnish class teachers, ph…

Developing Web-based Academic Adult Education: Learning Experiences as Starting Points for Planning and for Continuous Development

Different innovative web-based solutions for adult learning have made wide-ranging global breakthroughs. Increasingly flexible initiatives are expected in the future from web-based solutions in education and in developing expertise. Global changes reach individuals in their everyday lives, and web-based education enables the realization of lifelong learning in many ways. Traditionally, academic adult students' most central challenge has been the practical difficulties in participation: many connecting factors and responsibilities overlap in their busy everyday lives. New web-based teaching solutions have enabled participation in academic studies more equally and for an increasingly wider gr…

Building of the adult students' expertise and identity in the teacher's work which precedes the teacher education

This research describes adult students’ significant learning experiences in teacher’s work prior to teacher studies. The research material comprises of 39 essays written by the students of class teacher programme for adults in the beginning of the programme. The experiences at work has opened up the positive and tense sides of teaching and offered a realistic mirror to assess their own suitability for the profession. What was learned through practice created a bridge to studying the new theoretical material in teacher education. However, adult’s learning in a school context and at the teacher education is different. Education should utilize and examine critically the knowledge of adult stud…