Search results for " professional development."
showing 10 items of 39 documents
Teachers as writing students: narratives of professional development in a leisure-time creative writing community
2022
The authors explored five in-service teachers’ experiences of professional development (PD) in Studies in Writing (30 ECTS programme at a Finnish open university) they participated in during their leisure time. Data consist of the teachers’ creative writings and semi-structured interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis was employed to holistically determine how the participants associated the creative writing community with their PD. The following themes were created: (1) Me as a writer, (2) Teaching and pedagogy, and (3) Writing and emotions. To illustrate these findings, three creative narratives were composed based on data excerpts. These ethnodramatic dialogues gave voice to the teachers’…
Exploring teachers’ stories of writing : a narrative perspective
2018
This study takes a narrative perspective to examine teachers as writers and autobiographical creative writing as a way for promoting teachers’ professional development. In a creative writing group for Finnish primary and secondary school teachers, the teachers expressed themselves and explored their lives and identities through autobiographical creative writing. The aim of this study was to examine the stories the teachers tell about their relationship to writing and the goals they set for their professional and personal development in the writing group. Through thematic analysis, seven descriptive themes were found in teachers’ narratives of writing. Furthermore, based on the narrative ana…
Teacher educators' professional identity formation in a challenging context : experience from Eritrea
2017
In Eritrea, the education sector is currently under reform pursuing to equip the teacher education to meet the country’s critical need for sufficiently qualified teachers. Here, teacher educators have a critical role in defining the quality of teacher education. Earlier research suggests that examining the implications of teacher educators’ professional identity formation for their professional development is crucial in developing the quality of future teachers. Yet, little is known of the identities and practices of teacher educators in Eritrea. This study thus focuses on examining the relationship between the teacher educators’ professional identities and their allegedly challenging worki…
La rubrica per promuovere l’autovalutazione degli insegnanti
2016
Attraverso la ricerca presentata si sono voluti mettere a fuoco quegli aspetti legati all’autovalutazione degli insegnanti, intesa come processo sistematico di esame e revisione delle pratiche messe in opera da una comunità professionale. Questo lavoro documenta una ricerca svolta con un gruppo di 144 docenti in servizio. Per consentire agli insegnanti di acquisire maggiore consapevolezza della propria pratica educativa e didattica, si è scelto di progettare e realizzare insieme a loro, in assetto cooperativo, una rubrica per l’autovalutazione dell’efficacia dell’insegnamento. Nei risultati finali si evidenzia come il processo di progettazione e costruzione della rubrica abbia rappresentato…
"Learning Online" for Vocational Teachers : Visualisation of a Competence-Based Approach in Digital Open Badge-Driven Learning
2018
Vocational education in Finland is based on competence-based qualification requirements. Meanwhile, digital open badges promote competence-based assessment and shared expertise in digital environments. The educational setting supports gamified learning solutions and enhances student motivation. The current study aims to examine how learners experience the competence-based approach in the badge-driven learning process of professional development. The theoretical framework focuses on the concept of instructional badging in the competence-based approach. Coordinated by the country’s northernmost school of profesional teacher education, “Learning Online” is a national professional development p…
Continuing professional development among social‐ and health‐care educators
2021
Future social‐ and health‐care educators will be required to have versatile competence in educating professionals that reflects both the constantly changing health‐care environment and delivery of high‐quality patient care. Continuing professional development can be defined as a process that aims to increase educators' competence and well‐being, along with the effectiveness of an organisation. This study aimed to describe educators' continuing professional development and clarify the contribution of continuing education. The research applied a qualitative approach as only limited information about social‐ and health‐care educators' professional development currently exists.’ Data were colle…
Why in-service teachers left their employment and pursued master's studies at a Finnish university
2016
This study investigates why in-service teachers left their jobs and went to a Finnish University to study on an International Master’s Programme in Education. The purpose of this research is to enrich the studies in the field of teachers’ professional development and the field of international students’ study. Besides that, it aims to better understand the complicated reasons that teachers leave their jobs and choose a full-time degree to study. The researcher used an online survey to collect data, in which the participants who are in the researched master degree programme. Following the survey, thematic analysis was used during the initial data processing. The notion of “push and pull” was…
In pursuit of beginning teachers'competence in promoting reading motivation: a mixed-methods study into the impact of a contunuing professional devel…
2020
As teachers’ reading motivation and self-efficacy for promoting reading motivation can be considered vital for their reading-oriented promotive teaching practices and students’ reading motivation, this study evaluated the impact of a year-long CPD program for beginning primary school teachers. A convergent parallel mixed-methods design with repeated measures was established, including a comparison and two CPD conditions (group vs. individually-oriented). Based on the quantitative results only no clear impact of and differences between the conditions could be observed. The qualitative analysis, however, showed growth in teachers’ reading motivation and self-efficacy at a different pace and l…
Becoming a Language Teacher: A dream come true or a source of anxiety?
2015
In this qualitative study the author examined personal narratives written by 14 Finnish speaking student teachers of Swedish, in order to find out what they tell about their thoughts and feelings concerning their future work as language teachers. The following three themes were in focus: firstly, what university students tell about their reasons for wanting to become teachers in the first place; secondly, what kinds of worries concerning their future work they mention in their narratives; and thirdly, how student teachers could be supported during transition from teacher education to teaching. According to the study, students choose teaching for reasons that are related to: (a) teacher iden…