Blended mobility of Higher Education Students
The project hosts a series of seminars with student teachers for primary school from Tallinn, Helsinki and Uppsala. The seminars circle around themes relating to the intellectual outputs of the project.
International Student seminar in December 14th-15th, 2020
The topics of the seminars were teachers’ professional ethics and subject-integrative/phenomenon-based teaching. These topics were discussed by student teacher from Uppsala University, Tallinn University, and the University of Helsinki. The students had the possibility to share experiences with students and teacher educators from the other universities.
Additional days were for preparation and consultation for student teachers and teacher educators were organised at each university.
Teachers’ professional ethics
We explored teachers’ professional ethics through dilemmas that the student teachers had encountered during teaching practicum. Topics evolved around, for instance, how to take language minorities into consideration in the classroom, how to address situations where students who break school rules, and how to include students with special needs.
We used a reflection tool Pdf, 42 kB. which provided a structure for exploring and discussing ethical dilemmas. The model was collected from the professional ethics guideline for teachers in Sweden, and was adapted and translated for the student seminar. The model involves four areas of inquiry concerning the given dilemma. Together they form the abbreviation PARC:
- Exploring the ethical challenge (what is the Problem?)
- Analysing the dilemma/challenge
- Scrutinising Reactions to it, and
- Identifying Consequences for suggested actions.
Despite many differences, it became clear that many of the issues identified were common for participants from all the three countries, and the mutual insights could be synthesised into the following take home-message:
- Solving the ethical challenge may begin from posing the right question, e.g. why do we have challenging behavior, rather than who is at fault.
- Breaking up the ethical challenge may help to identify its constituent elements and facilitate analysing it from different angles.
- Discussing ethical challenges in teachers’ work requires the existence of a safe space.
- Knowing one’s values is the very foundation of ethical decision-making.
- In addition to providing a structure for approaching ethical challenges, the reflection model can be used to make teachers’ professional knowledge visible and explicit.
Subject-integrative/phenomenon-based teaching
In addition to ethical dilemmas/challenges, the theme of subject-integrative/phenomenon-based teaching was explored from the perspective of students’ experiences and examples from teaching practicum.
We discussed advantages and challenges of phenomenon-based learning, for instance, how to be impartial in assessing pupils, how to support student engagement, the importance of sensitivity to the pupils’ interests. It was also pointed out in the discussions how these approaches in teaching can increase pupils’ motivation and help them develop an inquiring mind-set and research skills alongside other transversal skills. It is also important to be able to identify when subject-integrative/phenomenon-based teaching is appropriate. A final issue that was discussed was how to work with colleagues who may not be familiar or interested in these approaches.
The core elements of teaching approaches that build on integrating different subjects or utilise the idea of building learning around a phenomenon is developed in the framework for phenomenon-based teaching. Pdf, 47 kB.
The short version is as follows (see also Lonka 2018; Symeonidis Schwarz, 2016):
1) Problem-solving & exploring: Rather than answering isolated questions, the approach focuses on problem-solving. Part of the process may be to identify the problem in the first place, as this can be fuzzy and unclear.
2) Wider perspective: To understand social and natural phenomena, it is often necessary to have knowledge and understanding in many different fields, and to be able to combine these specific knowledges with each other.
3) Real world context: The problems or phenomena that pupils work with should be relevant and real, or realistic. The “real world-connection” makes the learning experience meaningful.
4) Collaborative learning: In order to bring in a broader spectrum of knowledge and competences, collaboration or team work is necessary. This requires but also creates a sense of community and interaction. Pupils construct understanding together, and everyone can bring something to the mutual learning process.
5) Cyclic process: Knowledge and skills are built on prior knowledge, which is enriched by increased understanding and new insights. Learning is not always a linear progression from start to goal. The process in itself is the purpose of subject-integrative teaching in school.
References
Lonka, K. (2018). Phenomenal learning from Finland. Edita.
Symeonidis, V., & Schwarz, J. F. (2016). Phenomenon-based teaching and learning through the pedagogical lenses of phenomenology: The recent curriculum reform in Finland. Forum Oświatowe, 28(2), 31–47.
Yrkesetik i vardagen – ett fördjupningsmaterial (in Swedish). (2006). Lärarförbundet och Lärarnas riksförbund. Sweden.
International Student seminar in September 2021
This seminar explored various forms of pedagogies in open learning spaces, and were discussed by student teacher from Uppsala University, Tallinn University, and the University of Helsinki. The students had the possibility to share experiences with students and teacher educators from the other universities.
Additional days were for preparation and consultation for students and teacher educators were organised at each university.
The aim of this task is to give the student a wider view of the environments what other students use and their learning potential for formal education, especially during distance learning. Student should after the completed task:
- obtain new conceptual approaches to analyse learning environments, learning engagement and subject-integrated/phenomenon-based learning (minilectures about learning engagement and learning in open learning environments are available from 1st September 2021),
- observe their own immediate surroundings and create a photo diary to find learning potential from different environments (task should be completed by 13th of September 2021),
- analyse possibilities to use out-of-school learning environments to support curriculum-goals (especially during distance and hybrid learning) (task is completed on the 13th of September 2021 seminar),
- create a learning assignment for students that incorporates different available learning environments and supports student engagement (task is completed on the 14th of September 2021 seminar)
Students from all three partner universities collaborated on content and methods for carrying out a teaching unit in an open learning environment in each of their contexts. To prepare for the joint work, they were introduced to the topic in two mini-lectures.
1. “Why should you learn outside the classroom?” Helene Uppin, Tallinn University
Short overview of the lecture
- Learning is contextual
- Learning in open learning environments have various benefits
- Field trip as an organisational frame for learning
- Tips to have a successful field trip
- Missing the potential of field trips
- Changing the mindset about learning in open learning environments
2. “Supporting learning engagement” Anne-Mai Näkk, Tallinn University
Short overview of the lecture
- The concept of learning engagement
- Engagement as a way to promote interest towards learning and subjects
- Characteristics of primary school pupils’ engagement
- Risks of hindering pupils’ engagement
- Tips to support pupils’ engagement
- Changing the mindset about supporting pupils’ learning engagement
The implementation of the task
Orientation
Students receive a task description and two pre-recorded 15 minutes lectures about basic concepts when talking about learning environments and autonomy/engagement supportive structure of learning.
Students observe their own surroundings to discover learning potential for teaching a previously agreed concept from three types of environments: home, outdoors (all outdoor environments that are considered safe during distance learning – parks, gardens, playgrounds, etc.) and digital. Students document their findings in a short photo diary.
Photo diary contains 3-6 photos, 1-2 photos from each domain (home, outdoors and digital). Digital learning opportunities can be saved as screen shots. We recommend using Google slides or a similar web-based presentation program for sharing photos with the group.
Analysis and creation of a learning activity
- 1st day: Students share their photo diaries in group, and discuss with others how they have expanded their understanding of learning environments and choose one relevant topic to work on the following day. The chosen topic should be in accordance with the national curriculum. See, for example, cross-curricular topics in the Estonian National Curriculum in the appendix. We recommend working with cross-curricular topics, for example the theme of environment and sustainable development is represented in the national curriculums of all participating countries.
- 2nd day: Students create learning instructions for a specific learning assignment for students in primary school, in groups of 4-5, and share results with others. Students are free to implement these tasks with their practicum classes, but this is not part of the DEPTER project workflow
International Student seminar in December 2021
The seminar explored tools for observing and reflecting on teaching in open learning environments in the different national contexts of the teacher programs in Uppsala, Tallinn, and Helsinki.
Additional days were for preparation and consultation for students and teacher educators were organised at each university.
Swedish, Estonian, and Finnish student teachers prepared different tasks that were adapted to their own courses. The common denominator of the three different tasks was that some kind of tool for observing teaching was used.
In the transnational groups, the students compared perspectives and observations.
The discussion took two main questions as point of departure:
- What particular “sightings” did the tool help you discover concerning learning?
- What did you think that the tool did not allow you to see?
Concerning the first question, the students agreed on the importance of preparations, for example how teaching in the classroom could help students to focus on teaching outside of the classroom. The second question touched upon methods in teacher education, progression, and the risks of tunnel vision due to observation tools. Students and teacher educators should maintain the awareness of the double bind of observation tools, namely the benefits of focus through tje tool but also the importance of keeping an eye open for unexpected learning outside of the box.
Student task at Tallinn University: Engagement in different learning environments for students Pdf, 196 kB.
Student task at Uppsala University: Practicum II_observation task at UU Pdf, 145 kB.