No abstract

The changing society sets teacher training, its learning environments and teacher's challenges, which require transforming the operational cultures and broadening the ways, that learning environments are seen and understood. Change in the operational culture requires, above all, the teachers to function and network in new ways to achieve a new kind of understanding and internalization of learning environments and pedagogy. Pedagogical development is primarily important as the concepts of learning, essential information, education and world are rapidly changing. Study modules that are based on new kinds of pedagogical models increase the accessibility of university studies and give individuals better possibilities for lifelong learning. Class teachers' adult education is developing learning environments with emphasis on elearning. Adult students' life situations pose challenges to full-time attendance, and this has been seen as a possibility to develop class teacher educators' pedagogical abilities in planning, developing, and using transformational e-learning methods and new pedagogical models. The 25 years of class teachers' adult education has been based on the students' physical attendance. Now, taking into consideration the students' needs and hopes, we are developing 'distance attendance' alternatives for physical attendance.In this article we describe a blended learning study module that was carried out in class teachers' adult education. It offered the students versatile, unique, individual and communal possibilities to fully study in authentic contextual environments, exploiting virtual tools. The goal of the planning of this module was to create a learning environment that would give a student an optimal learning experience (Creative Work Flows for Learning) in versatile, authentic, e-learning environments. In the study, the ubiquitous learning model was tried out in a 6 credits' study module for class teachers' adult education that was based on the principles of transformational pedagogy (OED). The module was carried out in flexible and versatile learning environments based on transformational pedagogy, where knowledge also included command of the 21st century teaching skills 21. [27] The theoretical framework of the study module followed the model of contextualpedagogical model [22]. The study module, that was based on a strong pedagogical ground, offered the students a possibility to not only choose a suitable time for studying, but also to acquire transversal competences which are linked to transformational pedagogy, as a part of an authentic learning experience.

Success in an increasingly globalized world sets requirements for versatile communication skills and understanding about other cultures. One of the keys to success is versatile language skills, on which the European Commission spoke out as early as in 1995, recommending that every European citizen should learn two foreign languages in addition to their mother tongue. Now, more than twenty years later, the launch of early foreign language teaching that is to begin in the first grade in Finland, in January 2020, is a significant step towards this goal. Studies show that early foreign language learning needs to be carefully carried out in order to achieve positive effects and the effects that have been set for it in the national language program and curriculum. The age when language teaching is started is, however, just one of many variables that are seen to be relevant to the development of foreign language skills in the framework of early foreign language teaching and learning. As early foreign language teaching is a very recent area of teaching in Finland, the policy-makers and teachers play a significant role in creating new kind of learning environments, operating culture and pedagogy for foreign language learning. This article discusses early foreign language learning landscape in the context of early foreign language learning theory, initial education pedagogy as well as functional foreign language learning. The cornerstone of this study is the Contextual Pedagogical approach to Learning, which creates a bridge between the theory and practice of early foreign language learning, creating an inspiring and stimulating basis for later language learning.

In recent years, educators and policy makers have been focusing on student achievement and well-being. After the great Pisa -success and glory, Finnish researchers have risen up discussion about future skills, school activity and motivation -fields where Finnish students haven't indicated so well. Quickly changing 21 st century challenges teachers to see life outside the school and recognize not only the core subjects but also the key skills needed outside there. When transferring from traditional to transformational education, one has to imagine new ways to think about teaching and learning.The research project, introduced in this article, focuses on transformational pedagogic and the questions of assessment in the learning process. The aim of the research is to identify modern ways to develop teaching and learning to create individual learning paths and to give each child equal learning possibilities in 21 st century learning environments.The ongoing research project highlights the questions of evaluation and assessment as tools for each child to find individual ways to learn and achieve learning goals at his best. According to Meriläinen and Piispanen (2013) the assessment is seen as one of the key factors when moving teaching and learning from traditional to more transformational settings.The classroom intervention is based on the Contextual Pedagogical approach to Learning (CPAL) as a framework of teacher´s 21 st Century Civil Skills Pedagogical Content Knowledge ((Meriläinen & Piispanen, 2012. This design research shows that working in CPAL framework supports learning, where everyone will succeed, through individual learning paths, in primary school contexts.

This article describes a project called "The art based methods in developing transversal competence" funded by The Finnish National Board of Education. The article is based on the hermeneutic phenomenological approach in action research. The project developed learning environments as well as project-based learning with emphasis on the art-based methods and transversal competence approach to learning. The aim was to develop unique and communal well-being in learning. The project offered tools to strengthen teachers' professional skills to use expressive, art-based methods in different curriculum-based projects. The professional in-service training project included five contact days in six weeks divided into three periods. The expressive art work process followed the model of the expressive art work. The whole process followed the hermeneutical circle as well as the phenomenological method: expressions, reflections and sharing linked all together as a part of authentic learning experience in the context of the Finnish National Core Curriculum (2014). One of the main outcomes was that the use of the art-based methods in transversal competence increases ubiquitous well-being among teachers and pupils. Research material is based on students' diaries, experiences and anonymous feedback.