Becoming a Finnish Teacher

One can be a great teacher even without any certificates, but the certificates guarantee a certain level of knowledge of all the teachers about pedagogics, human development, human learning, learning psychology, etc. Since I plan to teach at the University of Applied sciences, I have especially paid attention to relevant parts of education law. It says that: “The mission of the University of Applied Sciences is to provide higher education based on the requirements of working life and its development, as well as research, artistic and cultural backgrounds, and to support the student's professional growth.” Additionally, the University of Applied Sciences (later UAS) needs to do research, which helps working life, territorial development, and lifelong learning. The UAS in Finland is a non-profit organization.  It operates closely with working life and other universities. One needs to get a license to establish a UAS in Finland. The license “determine which degrees and associated ti...

According to the Ministry of Education in Finland (2017), the Finnish strengths of the Finnish educational system is the ability to successfully combine high-quality teaching with efficiency and equality. Finland is such a small country that we have long recognized how important it is to recognize and utilize the talents of all of the citizens. Maybe be due to this fact Finnish people appreciate and value education and science. We think that know-how is the core of Finnish society. According to the Ministry of Education Finland is a that stresses the importance of creativity in teaching and learning. To sum up, the key to success has been creativity, equality, and efficiency. The idea of equal opportunities is at the core of Finnish society. Even the most radical right politicians think that education should free for all in Finland. This is something everyone seems to agree. That said, there are big disagreements on the content of the education and how it should be organized. People ...

Research in developmental psychology has a tradition of just over 100 years. The first work on the subject was "The soul of a child" written by the German physiologist William Preyer (Ruoppila 1995). Children's intelligence and cognitive development were initially studied mainly through questionnaires. The aim was to correct and prevent developmental delays. Big names in developmental psychology include Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, Jean Piaget, Lev S. Vygotski and Erik. H. Erikson. Key concepts in developmental psychology include biological maturation theories, environmental learning theory, constructivist theories, and cultural development theories (Cole & Cole 1993). Essential research questions include the continuity or discontinuity of development, the question of what makes a person develop, how much the environment affects, how much genes affect, and how individual differences are formed. A related discipline is Social Psychology (Korkiakangas 1995). It typ...

The technological advancements transform our society at such a rapid pace, that it is difficult to foresee what kind of knowledge and skills the future adults need. It seems clear, however, that teaching and learning needs to adapt to fulfill those (yet unknown needs). According to Linturi (2014), this means that teaching and learning will be personalized, and it will be more focused on teaching skills than transferring knowledge. The responsibility of learning will be transferred from the teacher to the learner. Since society is more and more socially constructed it is essential to learn co-operation and working in groups.  When considering these changes in the light of different human perceptions we notice that there are some challenges to consider (in red color in the figures above and below). There is no big change in the light of human perceptions on whether the students are taught skills or knowledge. The present system is easy to apply ( Behavioristic, Freudian, K...

Our society transforms rapidly due to technological changes and changes in ways we connect and communicate with each other. No-one knows what kind of skills is needed in future society. In my opinion, one thing is certain: The future adults and teenagers need thinking skills as much as we do, or even more. How then, can we teach people thinking skills? Marja Hannula (2016)   has done an interesting Pro Gradu research for the University of Tampere on teaching kids thinking skills in elementary school. The idea is that if we teach kids philosophy, they learn to think independently, interact with each other and argue their case. Furthermore, they learn to understand ethics, consider options, ponder important questions, understand others’ thinking, form the relevant questions, reflect and correct their ways of thinking and behaving (Gregory 2010, 11.)  In her research, she explores how thinking skills are taught in elementary schools in Finland. To be more specific ...

In AMC's popular television series of The Walking Dead, the world as we know it has ended. Some virus has turned the dead into flesh-eating mindless creatures, and there are many more dead than living people. In this world, all the institutions have collapsed; there is no society, media, police, army, or any organized society outside small groups of people. Even though this is a fictional world, a somewhat similar collapse of civilization is possible due to climate change, epidemics, or major catastrophes. Therefore, it is interesting to ponder what the characters in The Walking Dead related to organizing education and what they maybe should have done.  The first days after the collapse are all about surviving. People start to teach each other practical survival skills (like fishing) and self-defense tactics when time passes. They have pretty organized shooting lessons, and they give each other advice on how to combat zombies. There is a heated debate on whether children should lea...

How self-esteem is connected to learning If students have good self-esteem, they learn better (Toivakka & Maasola 2011). This seems logical. If people have good self-esteem, they feel that they are capable of learning, and more importantly they are capable to utilize the things they have learned. This leads to curiosity, motivation and feelings of self-confidence.  Self-esteem is something that develops when we are with others. People observe others, compare themselves with others and learn how they are similar or different to others (Wenger 1998, Hakkarainen, Honka & Lipponen 2004). The signals we receive from others shape the way we see ourselves, what is expected from us and how worthy we feel we are ( Lonka 2014a,  Isokorpi 2008 ). Identity and self-esteem are further shaped by ideal self, which is the image we wish to achieve.  The picture below represents the different elements shaping the student’s self-esteem. The other students give feedback ...

I took many personality tests in order to reflect my own strengths and weaknesses as a teacher. it was pretty interesting to do those. Some of the tests were rather naïve and easy to predict. For example: are you an introvert? – Yes. Result: You are an introvert. There was nothing interesting about those. However, one tests surprised me completely. Not because the results were something new, but the accuracy how it described my inner thoughts and ways of thinking was quite fishy. Here is the link to 16 personalities – tes t.  My results reveled that I am an Architect. This seems to be quite intolerable personality to hang around with. “ It can be lonely at the top. Being one of the rarest personality types and being among the most capable people, Architects know this all too well. They make up just two percent of the population, and women with this personality type are especially rare, forming only 0.8%. It can be difficult for Architects to find people who can keep u...

It is pretty good idea to do a skills mapping test in the beginning of the studies. I see all the areas that I will (hopefully) develop during the studies. These are divided into themes:  Basic pedagogics: I notice that I lack a lot of knowledge about “central principles of pedagogics”, education politics and knowledge about the phases in human development. I am rather skilled in understanding education as one of core tasks of the society, though.  Teaching, guiding and evaluating: Since I have studied so much before, many practices are quite familiar. For example I know that it is essential to stick to the educational plan and the personal skills and former studies affect the personalizing the studies. I am not sure if I can recognize the talents of the students and I very interested learning more about that. I am pretty impressed that one of the goals is to learn “how to recognize personal needs in order to strengthen development of identity and self-image”. ...

There are plenty of digital applications that can be used for teaching or studying in small groups. Since all these applications (except Skype) are new for me, they seem complicated at first. However, once tested it is clear that these save time and energy, when I do not have to leave my home office.  We tested  Zoom  meeting place at school in the second day. It seems pretty simple and an excellent tool for giving lectures. I have used Cisco Webex before which seemed simpler, but I guess Zoom was ok.  For video sharing  Youtube  seems the obvious choice. I have been testing video making before; there are (in Finnish) videos about how voters behaviour is affected by the colour of candidates shirt  ,  what kind of slogan the candidate uses ,  how to use Twitter and Facebook in when running for office   and how to organize an efficient election event  .  For document sharing and co-working we have been using  Goog...

This blog is about reflecting my studies of pedagogics 1.8.2019-30.11.2020 in Hämeenlinna Ammattikorkeakoulu (in southern Finland) and combining the pedagogics studies with my former research. I have studied human behaviour and especially the subtle underlying psychological mechanisms of decision-making. My dissertation about the “Consumer Media Choice – Towards a Comprehensive Model” is under review. I hope to defend it next spring.  As studying to be a Finnish Teacher for adults and teenagers I am especially interested in barriers to learning, role of expectations in learning (and expectations management) and self-rewards systems.   These themes are connected to my former research about barriers to buying (or deciding), expectations management in marketing and identity related consumption motives.  Furthermore, I am extremely interested in Future Studies and I have published few papers related to future of consumption, media choices and voter decision ma...