Intellectual Outputs

This project aims at producing six intellectual outputs (IO). All resources created within the project will be accessible to students, teachers and researchers. The IOs covers the concept of innovative methods in teacher education, the framing of action research and its ethical considerations, the development of subject integrative teaching, and the exploration and support in teaching in open learning environments.

Joint Staff Training Event 1, Uppsala on January 27th–30th 2020

Knowledge production in teacher education is a space of negotiation between theoretical perspectives and experiences of practice. Even though theories and practices go hand in hand, the gap between the two domains is often reproduced in the everyday life of teacher training, creating an unfortunate antagonism.

Researchers have pointed out the “necessary connection” between theory and practice. The assumption in this project, is that an intense interaction between on-site courses and activities in schools and campus courses at university, opens up to possibilities of new knowledges, practices, and “activity systems” in teacher education as well as in school (Ruus & Timoštšuk, 2014). In the long run, innovative practices in teacher education methods helps novice teachers to develop reflection in action as well as on action (Schön, 1983).

For teacher educators, it is important to investigate the causes, the performances, and the effects of the various instantaneous moves of the teacher in the classroom. Furthermore, it is crucial for all teachers to understand how these moves are interrelated to the perceived identities of the themselves as well as the students. It is a challenge to detect the various moves, but nevertheless important to investigate in order to support teachers’ “thinking frames” on their practices.

A collection of resources can be found in the pages “Inspiration for teachers” and “Inspiration for teacher educators”. The resources are meant to inspire and guide researchers, students, and teachers in the classrooms and at universities.

The collection of additional reading, gives tips on further investigation on the concept of innovation in curriculum and teacher education as well as examples of projects that aim at bridging the gap between theory and practice.

Collection of additional reading Pdf, 112 kB.

Joint Staff Training Event 2, online on April 27th–29th 2020

One of the guiding ideas of DePTER is to support student teachers to engage in action research during their training program. Projects with an action research design open up to investigations that are close to everyday life in schools but at the same time firmly grounded in a theoretical understanding of the practice. In order to support the student teacher as an inquiring practitioner, a guide is developed by the project members.

The guide on action research is a brief introduction to the concept of action research and some suggestions for how to carry out an action research intervention. In addition to this, the guide presents a discussion on ethical considerations to consider when conducting an action research project.

The guide can be used as an inspiration by student teachers in the process of planning and conducting a student research paper, as well as by classroom teachers interested in investigating their teaching practices.

Taking Action into Research Pdf, 559 kB.

Aktionsforskning i praktiken Pdf, 752 kB.

Teeme tegevusuuringu Pdf, 688 kB.

The action research guide was thoroughly updated within the DePTER project to suit our diverse teacher education contexts and schools. The prior version has been utilized substantially in the Estonian context, but was dated. Nevertheless, the fact that it has been used in teacher education for a decade suggests that it fills a gap of literature available in languages other than English. The significant revisions were made in the Estonian and English versions, and additionally it was translated into Swedish to further broaden the availability in a non-English context. The Swedish version serves student teachers and teacher educators in both Sweden and Finland. We consider action research to be a form of inquiry, especially suited for research in schools. This form of inquiry is motivating for student teachers. The extent of the research that student teachers are expected to conduct in Finland, Estonia and Sweden varies, but in all the three countries teacher education involve some degree of inquiry. The action research guide provides a positive and easily approachable outlook on the prospect of conducting research in schools.

Joint Staff Training Event 3, online on September 1th–3rd 2020

From a broad conceptual point of view, ethics encapsulates being brought face-to-face with moral values, decision-making, consequence, and responsibility. From a contextual point of view, the meaning of ethics moves within a field of tension between fixed values and sensitivity to the specific situation. Thus, it is essential to support student teachers' ethical awareness when conducting research in school-based context. Different kind of material, such as a guideline, that describes ethical considerations with the help of practical case examples, along with cognitive tools for approaching and solving the ethical issues are helpful in raising and practicing ethical awareness.

An entry point into investigating ethical awareness-training in teacher education, is mapping out where ethics is present within the program. In the DePTER-project, the partners analyzed the core documents, such as curricula and practicum instructions and other relevant documents related to the practicum period, for instance, special ethical guidelines for Practicum and task instructions for students.

To find mutual ground in the comparison between teacher training programs, different foci which may produce ethically justifiable outcomes was identified. These foci may also provide an indication of the main ethos of a program, or parts of it, when key documents are viewed in the light of these perspectives. Furthermore, an analysis pinpointing the alignment of ethical ethos in components of teacher education curriculum (course syllabi, instruction, assessment tasks) might reveal misalignments; ethics is addressed, for example, in the intended learning outcomes, but it is not as frequently and explicitly present in course content descriptions.

Another way to approach ethics in teacher education is through ethical analysis; a step-by-step process model for analysing “when”, “where” and “how” matters of ethical nature emerge (Mustajoki & Mustajoki, 2017). This model can be used to analyze a situation of an ethical nature both in teacher education and in students’ own experiences of teaching.

In the resources below, are the models for inspiring and supporting teacher educators to analyze their programs. These models could be used in partnerships between teacher training programs in the development of ethical content in teacher education.

Model for identifying ethics in teacher education Pdf, 50 kB.

When, where, and how do ethics emerge in teacher education? Pdf, 138 kB.

Overviews and results from analysis of ethics content

The overview below is an example of how the intended learning outcomes in the Practicum courses of the Primary School Teacher Education Program at Uppsala University was mapped out from the lens of explicit and implicit ethical content. The overview was used in course and program development and dialogue for teacher educators. The overview is in English and in English and Swedish.

Mapping Ethics in Practicum Courses at UU Pdf, 106 kB.

Mapping Ethics in Practicum syllabuses UU_SVE & ENG Pdf, 117 kB.

The document, below, Analysis of the University of Helsinki Code of Conduct for Practice in the light of ethical frameworks presents analytical work done during the project to strengthen practicum from an ethics perspective. The document describes an analysis of the ethical frameworks that the University of Helsinki Code of Conduct for practicum draws on. The analysis suggests that perspectives of principle ethics, utilitarian ethics, rule ethics and care ethics are present. The analysis was used to strengthen the way in which ethics is presented as part of the practicum experience.

Analysis of HU ethical code of conduct for practice 2020

The document below, Etik i läroplanen för klasslärarutbildning 2016-2019 Helsingfors universitet, synthesises the results of an analysis of ethics in the class teacher curriculum at the time of the start of the DePTER project. The analysis was used to identify the role of ethics in the curriculum as a whole and to inform subsequent curriculum development.

Etik i läroplanen för klasslärarutbildning 2016-2019 Helsingfors universitet

The document below, Etik i läroplanen för klasslärarutbildning 2020-2023, Helsingfors universitet, synthesises the results of an analysis of ethics in the class teacher curriculum mid-project. The analysis was used to synthesise changes compared to the previous curriculum.

Etik i läroplanen för klasslärarutbildning 2020-2023, Helsingfors universitet Pdf, 751 kB.

Presentations and student tasks in teacher education

The presentation below was part of the introduction day for student teachers at the start of the course Practicum II at Uppsala University.

Teachers’ professional ethics in Practicum II

This student task below is a compulsory assignment in Practicum I at Uppsala University. The students will carry out the task in a three-step design aiming at the reflection of their own practice in connection to the identification of certain events in the classroom.

Practicum I, critical incident

This student task below is a compulsory assignment in Practicum I at Uppsala University. The students will carry out the task in a three-step design aiming at the reflection of their own practice in connection to the identification of certain events in the classroom.

Practicum II, the teacher’s professional role

This student task below is a compulsory assignment in Practicum I at Tallinn University. The goal is to support pre-service teachers to notice and describe teaching and learning related problems and to analyze the situation based on relevant literature.

Practicum task Individual research assignment Pdf, 103 kB.

This student task below is a compulsory assignment in Practicum II at University of Helsinki. The specific task is one of key exercises supporting students in making connections between different aspects of practicum experiences and school life.

School as a community task in subject practice course Pdf, 43 kB.

Joint Staff Training Event 4, online on April 12-14, 2021

Subject-integrative teaching rests upon a holistic approach to teaching and learning. The goal of the subject-integrative teaching is to, among other things, be able to better engage the students in their own learning, to make the students understand the similarities and relationships between different subjects, and to allow students to develop and use their creativity.

Approaches to subject-integrative teaching vary in different national contexts as well as locally within countries to some extent. Furthermore, the use of terminology when describing subject-integrative teaching practices shows concepts such as phenomenon-based teaching, theme-based teaching, interdisciplinary, or cross-subject teaching.

Key components of phenomenon-based teaching and learning. Pdf, 52 kB.

Gathering around a common theoretical understanding of the key components of phenomenon-based teaching and learning, teacher educators, researchers, and teachers affiliated to DePTER, explored a variety of practices in each country connected to this approach.

Subject-integration in teacher education

Equipping future teachers with knowledge and experience of subject-integrated teaching should be done in teacher training programs. The examples from the schools in Tallinn, Uppsala, and Helsinki, offer clues as to how to develop methods in teacher education for giving student teachers opportunities to explore, learn, and practice subject-integrated teaching with children.

1. Stepping out of your comfort zone

The challenge of stepping out of the comfort zone of your area of expertise is the same for teacher educators as for classroom teachers. Important to keep in mind is that partnerships with colleagues within as well as outside departments is beneficial. Joint efforts in the professional development for teacher educators is crucial.

2. Start small

Implementing subject-integrated projects in teacher education requires a dedicated time for planning, performing, and assessing. Nonetheless, smaller projects should not be discarded. In fact, starting small with one or a few units of a larger course in a transdisciplinary cross departmental collaboration could start a ripple effect for more units and several other colleagues to join.

3. Real-life phenomena and open learning environments

Subject-integrated teaching in teacher education benefits from a phenomenon-/theme-based approach. Outdoor activities, excursions, extramural pedagogies, and storytelling in teaching is helpful in facilitating subject-integrative pedagogical projects. Furthermore, connecting student-lead tasks engaging schools, working with pupils, creates authenticity to student teachers as well as teacher educators.

Examples of subject-integrative projects in schools in local schools in Sweden, Helsinki, and Estonia can be found in “Inspiration for teachers”. The examples were presented by teachers from the schools at the Joint Staff Training Event in April 2021.

Joint Staff Training Event 5 in Tallinn, September 13-15, 2021

Phenomenon-based and subject integrative teaching and learning often seeks to identify new ways of utilising existing learning environments or identifying ways in which to broaden conceptions of learning environment. Pre-service teachers should experience as well as have opportunities to critically reflect on teaching and learning in diverse learning environments during their teacher training.

The teaching task “Engagement across Learning Environments” is developed within the DePTER-project partnership and involves outreach activities with schools. The teaching task illustrates an example of the workflow in fall 2021. Adjustments to fit other contexts is advised.

Teaching task “Engagement across Learning Environments” Pdf, 196 kB.

Introductory mini-lecture 1, by Helene Uppin:

This video explains why you should take your students out-side from your classroom and how to create meaningful learning activities in out-of-classroom learning environments. This video was filmed by Tarmo Lehari at the Fat Margaret museum and visitor centre of Estonian Maritime Museum. References and information about the presentation can be found below the film.

Introductory mini-lecture 1, “Why should you learn outside the classroom”, by Helene Uppin, (11.36 min.). See video below.

Introductory mini-lecture 2, by Anne-Mai Näkk:

This video explains various aspects of learning engagement (behavioural, emotional, cognitive, and social), risks, and tips to support learning engagement. References to research can be found towards the end of the film.

Introductory mini-lecture 2, “Learning Engagement: What is it, why, and how should you support it?”, by Anne-Mai Näkk, (12.07 min). See video below.

Joint Staff Training Event 6, in Tallinn, January 31-February 2, 2022

The project aims at supporting the primary teacher education programs at the three partner institutions. The partner institutions have shared and developed course outlines for teacher education, including learning outcomes, contents, teaching methods, learning activities and assessment of learning in connection to the results of the five other intellectual outputs.

The various examples are designed in regards to the different local contexts of the partners. Nonetheless, they are meant to inspire teacher educators at other universities.

A collection of resources can be found in “Inspiration for teacher educators”.

Introductory mini-lecture 1, “Why should you learn outside the classroom”, by Helene Uppin

Introductory mini-lecture 2, “Learning Engagement: What is it, why, and how should you support it?”, by Anne-Mai Näkk

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