In this research we present how a group of Finnish adult preservice teachers (n=21) incorporated 21 st CS through their methods of working instructional methods in the final practicum in autumn 2013. The research material consists of pre-service teacher's practicum plans, taped lessons and written practicum synthesis. The nature of teaching has changed significantly during the past decades, as a result of which teaching has never been more difficult or more important. This is a challenge also for teacher education programs. The adult teacher education program at Kokkola University Consortium Chydenius focuses on developing 21 st century skills (21 st CS) to enhance the use of technology, to support critical thinking and problem solving, and to enable collaboration and creativity during studies. Our curriculum is designed to produce deep understanding and authentic application of 21 st CS in all practicums. Because Finnish teachers are free to choose their methods, it is important that pre-service teachers are aware of 21 st CS. The current Finnish national curriculum includes some 21 st CS, such as learning through peer interaction, helping students (= pre-service teachers) take responsibility for their learning, and helping them develop strategies for applying skills in novel situations. At the moment, Finland is in the midst of a curriculum reform that includes consideration of adopting 21 st CS more clearly in learning situations. We found that 21 st CS were taken into account in planning learning environments, but how to apply 21 st CS in classroom demanded deeper understanding and abilities of applying these skills in practice.
ABSTRACT---During the last few years the change of the school and how the school should change in the first place to meet the challenges of the future have been discussed a great deal. The talk has begun of the crossdisciplinary competences, referred to also as transversal (generic) competences in the curriculum, and of developing teaching towards the integrated modules called multidisciplinary learning modules in the reformed curriculum of the basic education. The multidisciplinary learning modules promote the reaching of the objectives set for the basic education and in particular, the development of the cross-disciplinary competences. This research was carried out in a Finnish class teachers' adult education programme during a study unit in January 2016. This study unit was a multidisciplinary learning experience, which was planned together and in which the contents of the seven different subjects taught in the comprehensive school were combined. The aim was to gain experiences of integrating the subjects, of planning and implementing learning modules, of meaningfully adapting information and communication technology as well as of collaborative learning. The research also surveys the knowledge of the concepts, which are related to the study unit. The results showed that the multidisciplinary learning module had offered meaningful experiences. The students had mastered well the study unit concepts. Their experiences in relation to the aims were mainly good, versatile and sufficient. Nearly every student intended to implement similar modules in their future work. The main objective of this study unit was to increase the students' understanding and knowledge about the multidisciplinary learning module through experiential learning and to provide them with a surface to reflect on the matters in their future studies.
The goal of the Finnish teacher training is to educate autonomous teachers, who have pedagogical competence and theoretical understanding about using ICT in teaching and learning. In this study, we describe teacher students' pedagogical ICT competence as designers of technology supported learning tasks. The study is based on Hughes' RAT model, which is a framework for assessing technology integration. The theoretical definition of RAT model is technology as a) replacement, b) amplification or c) transformation. To define this there are three systematical dimensions to analyze a particular technology use: Instructional Methods, Student learning processes and Curriculum Goals. The data consist of student groups' learning tasks (N=11). Results indicated that technology supported pedagogy as transformation is challenging for most teacher students. The results of the study state that the learning tasks included all three levels of RAT model integration.
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