Inspiration for teacher educators

In the collection of resources below are examples from teacher education that we consider to be innovative. In various ways, the examples touch upon the knowledge production in teacher education as

a space of negotiation between theoretical perspectives and the experiences of practice in a specific context,
and/or aim to help novice teachers to develop reflection in-action as well as on-action and in order to detect their “thinking frames”.

Innovative practices on a course level

This selection of examples demonstrate units in courses in teacher education programmes in Helsinki, Tallinn and Uppsala.

Implementing learning outside of the classroom in collaboration with the surrounding society

This is a compulsory task at Practicum II at Tallinn University. The goal is to support preservice teachers to take an active teaching role when implementing learning outside the classroom. Students are encouraged to seek cooperation possibilities with museum experts etc and to integrate out of classroom learning experiences more deeply with classroom based learning.

Practicum task on Learning-Event in an Open Environment Pdf, 306 kB.

Subject-integration and collaboration across departments

The example below is an example of a collaboration between several departments in science and social sciences that are involved in the Primary School Teacher Education Program at Uppsala University. The example illustrates a project that is subject-integrative as well as focused on open learning environments.

Interdisciplinary example in teacher education course at Uppsala University Pdf, 29 MB.

Practicum task on Phenomenon-based learning

This student task is a compulsory assignment in Practicum I at Tallinn University. The goal is to support pre-service teachers in implementing subject-integrative/phenomenon-based learning. The project has a theme and at least two learning goals that can be achieved thanks to subject integrative learning. Students present their projects at the final practicum seminar.

Practicum task on Phenomenon-based learning project at Tallinn University Pdf, 139 kB.

Subject-integration in Practicum course at advanced level

The example below is an example of a student task that allows the student teacher to document, analyse, and reflect on students’ thinking in a subject-integrative teaching situation. Furthermore, this task is designed to help the student teachers to think about what they would like to investigate further in regards to students’ learning, shortly before starting the writing process of their final student thesis within the program.

Practicum III, subject-integrative lesson plan at Uppsala University Pdf, 74 kB.

Observation in the Practicum course at basic level

This example is a compulsory student task for Practicum II at Uppsala University. It was specifically designed to observe, collect visual documentation, and reflect on open learning environments.

Practicum II_observation task at Uppsala University (English) Pdf, 145 kB.

VFU II_observera undervisning i öppen lärmiljö (Swedish)

Supporting the development of reflective practitioners

This presentation ties together relevant research about Estonian primary school teachers and pupils and highlights the most important findings that are relevant to this project and to the development of the primary teacher education program at Tallinn University. It gives a brief overview of the steps that have been made due to the research results and inspiration of DePTER project. The last part of the presentation includes reflections from a teaching practicum supervisor’s point of view.

Supporting the development of reflective practitioners Pdf, 794 kB.

Giving the pre-service teachers a bird's eye view

This e-book is directed at pre-service teachers at Tallinn University. The goal of the book is to give a coherent overview of all the practicums that pre-service teachers will have during their teacher training.

Klassiõpetaja eriala koolipraktikad (Primary school teacher practicums)

Innovative practices in student work

In this short video, Laura Gerassimova introduces her Master Thesis that she wrote on the topic of "Visualisation as a strategy supporting the development of scientific concepts for newly arrived migrant students, based on one Tallinn school’s 3rd grade".

The aim was to work out a teaching technique that helps forming science concepts in nature science lessons for newly arrived migrant students.

Three research questions were set:

What is the most difficult in science concept learning for newly arrived migrant students?
How does visualisation as a strategy supporting the development of concepts contribute in newly arrived migrant students’ science concept learning?
How to effectively conduct visualisation supporting teaching?

Other teaching resources

Aktionsforskning/Action research

This is a power point set for teaching action research. It includes tasks that can be done during class to stimulate thinking about and preparing for an action research project.

Aktionsforskning

Observation och etnografi/ Observation and ethnography

This is a brief outline of contents that can be used to discuss observational methods in class. The contents can easily be combined with action research, but require additional time in that case.

Etnografi och observation

Forskningsetik/research ethics

This is a presentation about research ethics principles, related core practices, and main guidelines to be followed in Finland. The action research material should be accompanied by the research ethics presentation.

Forskningsetik

Skriftlig uppgift/written task

These are the instructions for a task that can be used in a research methods course. While this is a more general description, it can easily be geared specifically to encourage action research.

Skriftligt arbete Pdf, 374 kB.

To DePTER start page