Nice conference with my advisor Kalle Juuti.
We talked many different things.
We talked many different things.
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| Professor Kalle Juuti Photo Credit: University of Helsinki |
He suggested that I should meet with Jari Lavonen. He is
the “systematic father” of education in Finland. He has the knowledge of everything
that has to do with teacher education, both in Finland and abroad.
Curriculum is designed with the principal and it lasts the whole year. It includes a long term professional development plan for each individual teacher. The principal has to monitor this.
Student teachers must plan the lessons and tests together in
groups. They discuss the pros and cons on each subject. This can take hours. The
teachers also need to discuss the lesson plans with a mentor before they can
teach. Other trainees can also also be in a conference to discuss someone else’s
teaching. Trainees also need to observe other trainees in the classroom, 30
times during the last year of education.
I have been following professional development opportunities and I explained some of them to him. Many teachers attend these opportunities, but because there is no mandatory attendance, only the once that are self-motivated will do it.
2.
Kalle thinks there should be a universal long
term professional development plan that is agreed with the principal and the
teacher. It can be anything that relates to his/her teachings, I will be
individualized. Some schools do it. But, there is extra work for the principal,
so not many schools are involved with it.
All the schools are mandated to have two professional development events
a year. They function pretty much the
same way as in US. Someone comes to schools
and gives a presentation and everyone is bored and wants to go home. This new personalized plan would be a big
step for teachers and students.
3.
Student teaching. I talked about my experience. I was very impressed
with the program but I expressed my opinion about the feedback the master
teacher gives for teachers. I think that
the evaluations are too easy. I would
have expressed my observations immediately. But it is the opposite here. At the
beginning the trainees are asked about their feelings, how do you think it
went. Even there were negative aspects
of teaching, the master teacher wanted the trainee to figure it out. If they cannot, then the master teacher finds
ways to approach the problem by asking questions. The philosophy is that there
is no negative feedback. It makes
sense. You have just given a lesson and
you did your best, the negative feedback would make you feel bad and
inferior. All the feedback should be positively
constructive.
My opinion: More about teacher training. In addition to student teaching in Normaalilyseo, the teachers need to have experience in teaching other schools than just the training schools. This was also the opinion of many of the teacher trainees.
