Search results for "faculty development"

Teacher beliefs regarding learning, pedagogy, and the use of technology in higher education

2017

This study examines university teachers’ beliefs about the role of technology in achieving the pedagogical aims of learning within teaching development initiatives at a Finnish university. The initiatives targeted technology adoption in teaching and learning and were enhanced within teacher groups, with support from a university level network program. Thematic interviews were conducted with the members of 11 initiative groups, covering 18 teachers from various disciplines. The qualitative content analysis revealed diverse belief groups. Technology was perceived as a tool for: the promotion of self-paced studying without explicit learning aims; active and interactive learning; integrative le…

The newly qualified teacher in the working community

2014

Focusing on the working community, this article concentrates on the newly qualified foreign language teachers’ (NQT) experiences and on factors that promoted or prevented the development of professional expertise at the outset of their working life. It draws on a qualitative longitudinal study conducted at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland, between 2003 and 2008. All the study participants were female and they were about 24 years old at the time. The data consisted of the NQTs’ essays and journal entries which they wrote on events that had a significant impact on their teaching during their first three to four years of work. The study suggests that by listening to the NQTs’ voices in the…

The ‘outdoor school’ as a school improvement process: empirical results from the perspective of teachers in Germany

2017

ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on school improvement processes in the context of weekly curricular-based teaching and learning activities outside the classroom – known as Drausenschule or ‘outdoor school’ – in three German primary schools. Qualitative interviews were conducted with three teachers two years after implementing the ‘outdoor school’. The teachers’ experiences show that the implementation and (ongoing) development of an outdoor school affects (1) teaching as such; (2) the school staff, and (3) the entire school as an organisation. The three areas are interlinked in different ways and the school improvement process cannot be approached from the perspective of any one area alone.

Conceptualising and contesting ‘fast policy’ in teacher learning: a comparative analysis of Sweden, Finland and Australia

2020

In this article, the authors refer to key national policies, and associated politics, in the Swedish, Finnish and Australian contexts, to reveal the key discourses that characterise how ongoing tea...

Qualitative analysis of teachers' written self-reflections after implementation of a social-emotional learning program in Latvia

2016

The aim of the present study was to analyze teachers' written self-reflections after implementation of a social-emotional learning program, which was recently developed specifically for the sociocultural context of Latvia. The goal of the analysis was to examine how teachers reflect upon their own strengths and weaknesses in implementing the program. Participants were 630 classroom teachers (614 female and 16 male) aged 22 to 75 years (M = 45.04, SD = 9.95). Thematic analysis of the teachers' written self-reflections led to five thematic categories: (a) evaluation of pupils' performance, (b) teacher's professional competencies, (c) evaluation of the program, (d) relationship aspects, and (e…

An exploration of the influence of professional relationships on the career pathways of physical education teacher educators

2018

This paper focuses on the professional journeys of 14 mid- and late-career teacher educators in seven countries in the subject area of physical education. Data was gathered through two rounds of semi-structured interviews and revealed a strong emphasis on the professional relationships impacting upon participants’ entry to and development within the profession. Career interest development, career choice and career performance were all affected by the people with whom participants formed relationships throughout their careers. The findings are discussed with reference to the role of teacher educators in selecting, encouraging and supporting their teacher education colleagues.

Supporting and constraining factors in the development of university teaching experienced by teachers

2017

Higher education calls for reform, but deeper knowledge about the prerequisites for teaching development and pedagogical change is missing. In this study, 51 university teachers’ experiences of supportive or constraining factors in teaching development were investigated in the context of Finland’s multidisciplinary network. The findings reveal that the supportive factors in teaching development arise from the nature of the development itself, i.e. from the teachers’ opportunities to act as active agents in an authentic development process. Furthermore, the circumstances of the development also play essential roles (both constraining and supportive) in teaching development. Such support, at …

2019

This research clarifies how a collaborative team teaching model (CTTM) can support both pre-service and in-service teachers’ professional development in using inquiry-based science teaching in primary schools. The data were collected via a questionnaire-based survey approach after inquiry projects implementation at public schools in four Finnish cities. In total, 98 pre-service teachers and 51 in-service class teachers were involved in the research. According to their experiences collaborative team teaching was seen as an adequate teaching approach in primary school science lessons. Both in-service and pre-service teachers experienced inquiry-based science teaching enthusiastically and rece…

The challenge for school-based teacher educators : establishing teaching and supervision goals

2019

School-based teacher educators (SBTEs) should be able to set goals in two roles – as a teacher and as a supervisor of student teachers. The purpose of the study was to investigate school-based teacher educators’ teaching and supervising goals and to identify how teachers in the role of supervisors perceived university expectations. Thematic analysis indicated that teachers have difficulty establishing goals for themselves as teachers and supervisors. Their teaching goals proceeded from curricula and focused on their pupils’ cognitive development, whilst their perceptions about supporting pupils’ social development were vague. Teachers were unaware of what exactly universities expected of th…

Voicing the challenges faced by an innovative teacher community

2011

This research draws on sociocultural theories of learning and activity theory to explore the challenges faced by an innovative community of teachers in Central Finland. The aim of the teacher community was to develop a stream of foreign‐language (FL)‐mediated teaching and learning in the locality from kindergarten to upper secondary level. To achieve this goal, the teachers needed to form coherent groups within the member schools, as well as between the schools. The aim of this research is to give voice to the challenges identified by the teachers and in so doing give voice to the teacher community itself. Recognising the voice of this community also contributes to a broader conceptualisati…