Educating Professional Teachers in Finland through the Continuous Improvement of Teacher Education Programmes

Abstract

The chapter analyses teacher professionalism and how professional teachers are educated in Finland and will be educated in future. Second, successes and challenges in the Finnish educational context and the role of teachers in education are discussed. The third section examines shortly primary and secondary teacher education at the University of Helsinki as an example of a teacher education programme in Finland. The main topic concerns how Finnish teacher education is aimed to be improved through broad-based collaboration. The Minister of Education nominated 100 experts from universities, the ministry, the teachers’ union, student unions and municipal union to a Finnish Teacher Education Forum and asked them to analyse research outcomes related to teacher education, to identify best practices based on teacher education strategies and policy documents in other countries, organise a national brainstorming process related to the renewal of teacher education and, finally, prepare a Development Programme for Teachers’ Pre- and In-service Education (life-long professional development) in Finland. Furthermore, the forum was asked to identify key actions to undertake to improve teacher education and support the implementation of the development programme, and also to create the conditions through financing pilot projects and organising meetings for the renewal of Finnish teacher education through professional development projects.