Raimo Nevalainen

Teacher Competences in a Changing School Culture

In order to be successful, the process of educational change requires the teacher to have many pedagogical and professional competences. The teacher’s professional development amounts to encountering change, living with it, and influencing it. Changes require the teacher to be sensitive and ready to anticipate the future.

Educational Change and School Culture

This chapter will examine educational change from the standpoint of curriculum change. It focuses particularly on the implications of the changes for different dimensions of school culture. The study considers the manner in which the changes in the Finnish national curricula for the comprehensive school can be seen in school pedagogy and teachers’ work.

Professional Orientations and Competences of Teachers in a School and Community Context

This study is part of a larger composite of comparative education research projects, in which the impacts of school change processes on school culture and the teaching profession have been examined in a variety of ways.

The Teacher as an Implementer of Curriculum Change

The purpose of this chapter is to describe curriculum change as seen in a small rural school in Finland. The aim is to study the effect of the changes on curriculum policies and pedagogical practices. The examination will utilize previously published empirical research.

Afterword: Empowering Teachers and Students for Active Schools

The global education reform movement is searching for new models for twenty-first century pedagogy. A worldwide agreement exists that learners need to know how to think critically, communicate effectively, and solve problems through negotiation and cooperation (Scott, 2015, p.1). Learners also need support when using new tools for working and familiarizing themselves with various types of information and communication technologies.

Active Learning for Educational Change

Active learning refers to an approach to education built on a pragmatic philosophy of the nature of the learning process. The active learning approach is comprised of a set of loosely connected guiding concepts about teaching and learning. The central unifying notion is based on the idea that thought processes are developed and concepts are constructed as a result of human activity and interaction.

Ecological Approach and Community Education as Promoters of the Social Development of Reform School Students.

ABSTRACT New models of operation are being sought for Finnish reform school education traditionally based on segregation. This article deals with the possibilities of applying the ecological approach and community education to support the socialization of reform school students. The aim is to describe the participation of the students in one Finnish reform school, as well as their expressed need to join in the production system, cultural system, contact system and the decision‐making system of society. This article presents part of a larger project carried out at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland. In the research project a three‐part division in the description into an ideal state, a realistic state and a reform state is utilized. In the reform state recommendations for an ecological application based on the ecological approach and community education are outlined, orienting reform school education to society.