Heikki Kynäslahti

Investigating Finnish teacher educators’ views on research‐based teacher education

In this article, we examine teacher educators’ views on research‐based teacher education. Finnish research‐based teacher education has four characteristics: (1) the study programme is structured according to a systematic analysis of education; (2) all teaching is based on research; (3) activities are organized in such a way that students can practice argumentation, decision‐making and justification when inquiring about and solving pedagogical problems; and (4) the students learn formal research skills during their studies. According to the results, teacher educators appreciate the research‐based approach to which the university is committed, although they were sceptical about how well this vision transfers to the students.

Towards ICT in Everyday Life in Finnish Schools: Seeking Conditions for Good Practices.

The article discusses how to strengthen educational use of information and communication technology (ICT) in Finnish schools. The conceptions and experiences of the successful integration of ICT in everyday school settings are reported. Participant observations in 20 schools in different parts of Finland were carried out, including discussions with principals and teachers. The results show that when promoting new technology and practices in schools, many components overlap and support each other. The following six main characteristics of successful integration were identified: (1) ICT included in strategic planning, as part of school culture, (2) teaching and learning methods facilitating participation and leading to empowerment, (3) flexible curriculums, (4) high investments in communication, (5) optimum leadership and management, and (6) teaching staffs strong capacity and commitment. The research indicates that an open school culture allows staff to take risks when applying new technology, creates learning environments and empowers learners.

Learning a teacher's work

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to bridge the theoretical perspectives of workplace learning and teacher learning. Teacher learning takes place, for example, in the course of a teachers work as well as in the institutional setting of a school. This article describes research conducted on such learning.Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a mixed methods approach. It includes interviews (n=8), which are analysed according to a qualitative content analysis, as well as a survey, which is analysed quantitatively (n=113). In the quantitative analysis descriptive statistics as well as a factor analysis were used.Findings – The research indicates that teacher learning takes place in several different settings; when these are taken into account teacher education is shown to be important. The study also shows that teacher education has succeeded in integrating work and study to some degree when the perspective of workplace learning is taken into account.Originality/value – There seem to be few st...

Mobile learning in personnel training of university teachers

In this article, we discuss why mobile learning is being introduced to the academic teaching environment. We also report experiences of a pilot project undertaken in connection with personnel training at the University of Helsinki. The aim of the the UniWap project is to develop the educational use of mobile technology and to find pedagogical applications beneficial for higher education. The project deals with the WAP technology to be tested, piloted and completed in order to facilitate teaching and learning at the university. An environment of activities has been developed in order to provide services for flexible teaching and studying.

Educating inquiry-oriented teachers: students' attitudes and experiences towards research-based teacher education

In this article, we will discuss research-based teacher education as an organizing theme of teacher education. We will report the results of two surveys in which students expressed their attitudes towards the research-based approach and their experiences of research-based teacher education. The construct validity of the inventory was tested using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The comparison of the factor means revealed that the multimode teacher education group had a statistically higher mean score than the traditional class teacher education group for factors which dealt with the pedagogical content knowledge of those subjects that class teachers teach in their classes. When the experienced implementation of the research-based approach was analyzed, the results ran in the same direction. The difference between the attitudes and experiences concerning the research-based approach was remarkable. However, our results suggest that the research-based approach is an appreciated general level organizer for teacher education.

Icts in a School’s Everyday Life

The ICTs at School’s Everyday Life Project is a national project carried out by the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Ministry of Education and the Finnish Board of Education in co-operation with industry and commerce. The project was included in the Finnish government programme and National Information Society Policy of Finland. The aim of the project was to create a national educational technology plan and the vision was that Finnish schools will have models and practices to use ICT innovatively for wide dissemination to all Finnish schools.

Icts in a School’s Everyday Life – Developing the Educational Use of Icts in Finnish Schools of the Future

The ICTs in School’s Everyday Life Project is a national project carried out by the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Ministry of Education and the Finnish Board of Education in co-operation with industry and commerce. The project was included in the Finnish government programme and National Information Society Policy of Finland.

What children and youth told about their home city in digital stories in ‘C my city!’

Children and youth have become an important stakeholder group in urban/city planning and tourism. While there are many practices of youth participation in planning in various countries, a policy of involving pupils and students as so-called ‘volunteer (tourist) guides’ is promoted in recent years in Japan. Previous studies have shown that there are many positive effects created from children being tourist guides. We developed this idea and conducted a project called ‘C my city!’ in Finland in order to facilitate children and youth to introduce their home city through digital storytelling. In the pilot project, 38 digital stories were made by the participants and the stories were embedded on a web-based map. Through analysis of the articulated words in the stories, we investigated how they introduced their home city. Furthermore, we discussed possibilities of applying this method in cross-curricular settings in school.

Science Teachers’ Metaphors of Digital Technologies and Social Media in Pedagogy in Finland and in Greece

In this study we draw from the interviews of four science teachers, one from Finland and three from Greece, and two science education experts from Finland in order to discuss and analyze pedagogical decisions and choices when the learning space is enriched with social networking environments, and digital and mobile technologies. Our research interest departs from concerns that technological pervasiveness generates and an observed suspension of belief in science. This suspension seems to be rooted in the risks that post-industrial societies are facing nowadays. By examining the study participants’ experiences, we aim to trace the intersection of science and technology with pedagogy and, in this way, to gain an insight into the possible futures of science education. The qualitative analysis of the data indicates instances of both deductive and inductive logic that show up through views of science as way of thinking and as method. The analysis of participants’ speech also reveals recurrent underlying conceptions of science and related issues.

The Pedagogical Functions of Arts and Cultural-Heritage Education with in Online Art Galleries and Musuems

Digital museums and arts galleries have become popular in museum education and management. Museum and arts galleries website is one of the most effective and efficient ways. Google, a corporation specializing in Internet-related services and projects, not only puts high-resolution arts images online, but also uses augmented-reality in digital art gallery. The Google Art Project, Google’s production, provides users a platform in appreciating and learning arts. With the virtual reality, recently after Google Art Project, more and more countries released their own museum and arts gallery websites, like British Paining in BBC, and FINNA in Finland. Pedagogical function in these websites is one of the most important functions. In this paper, we use Google Art Project and FINNA as the case studies to investigate what kinds of pedagogical functions exist in these websites. Finally, this paper will give the recommendation to digital museums and websites development, especially the pedagogical functions developmen...