6.10. 2021 Reflection, review and peer feedback

Pedagogical Competence I

Session Planning: Strategies, Teamwork & Reflection

Want to tweak your lesson planning? Keep these tips in mind.

‘Teaching is the highest form of understanding.’ –Aristotle

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Before beginning lesson preparation, it is critical to understand the Finnish educational system. Finland has its own national goals and objectives, institutional framework, and teacher autonomy. As a result, I have summarized the Finnish educational system from primary to secondary school. After that, I go through the lesson plan for higher education institutions such as universities and universities of applied sciences. To effectively administer the session, I was assigned to the 5th group of this ProPeda 2021-2022, which we nicknamed "Blueberry." In addition, I examine the other four groups' teamwork and AC sessions. Finally, as a professional teacher at the University of Applied Sciences, I reflect on my personal experience with lesson preparation that will be beneficial in the future.

Finnish Education System

Finland values teacher autonomy over controlled order, accountability over accountability, student learning over testing, and a variety of educational systems over a single standardized procedure. However, the instructor monitors the students subjectively rather than quantitatively throughout the year.

The main principles of Finnish higher education policy

Numerous worldwide rankings demonstrate that Finland, a welfare state located in the Nordic region, has effectively developed into a knowledge society that is on par with the best in the world. The principles of quality, efficiency, equity, and internationalization underpin the majority of Finland's educational reforms and policies.

Finnish universities: two sectors, different approaches

Finland's higher education is dual-track. It's split into two sectors with different profiles. 14 universities perform fundamental research and offer undergraduate and postgraduate education (only universities can issue doctoral degrees), while 23 UAS focus on professional higher education and research and development with a more practical approach. Universities cover all academic areas, while UAS have only eight (Business and Administration, Culture, Health Care and Social Services, Natural Resources, Seafaring, Sports, Technology, Tourism and Catering). Finnish HEIs offer more than 400 English-taught courses and degrees.

Finland's universities are public or private foundations. With FINEEC's help, they evaluate their own operations and results (the Finnish Education Evaluation Center). Universities are government-funded but must also raise external funds. State support for UAS includes unit-cost-based core funding, project funding, and performance-based funding [6].

Finnish universities prioritize research and innovation. A college degree helps build a career's basis. Finnish students are extremely motivated to study thanks to their fundamental education and comprehensive selection criteria, including national entrance examinations and international test scores. Finnish law allows them to influence school quality, unlike most countries [6].

Equality as a key principle

Equal access to high-quality education and training is a fundamental premise of Finnish education. The government emphasizes equal educational opportunities for all inhabitants, creating a vast institutional network and providing free education, student financial help, and flexible pathways to higher education. In Finland, study grants and loans are well-developed. Full-time study at Finnish HEIs is subsidized. Universities use educational advising and counseling to optimize student potential. Special needs, language minorities, and migrant pupils are supported.

This strategy aims to make Finland more accessible and international by 2025. New strategy goals are:

• to familiarize all higher education students with international, multicultural operating environments and to help them understand diversity, global challenges, and sustainable society principles;

• to promote a smoother integration of foreign students, researchers, and other staff into a truly international education and research Finnish community;

• to remove any obstacles to education exports taking into account the challenges related to the versatility of education;

Higher education lesson preparation

As a future UAS instructor, I see that good lesson preparation is essential for teaching and planning, even though it requires time and effort. It implies that a new teacher should place a greater emphasis on lesson planning. However, I must verify the UAS statutes and rules about teaching arrangements, such as a curriculum, supplemental provisions, disruption, threatening, and violence, as well as general law. A strategy, on the other hand, could not be as successful and efficient if delivery mechanisms and classroom management aren't up to pace. This means that I should constantly assess myself, students, or guiding instructors to reconstruct my style, positive and ethical practices, such as a positive classroom, clear instructions, student attention, proper pace, lesson evaluation, and a strong teacher-student connection. I obtain official papers and regulations from UAS's website and administration, which determine the program structure and course description under the UAS Act (i.e., 932/2014).

Group-5 “Blueberry”: Our teamwork and my teaching

Normalizing the work routine is usually difficult in the first phase. As a result of the inquiry, communication, scheduling, work allocation, work compilation, and decision-making, we have numerous challenges in the group's decision-making. First, with the permission of all members, we decided to meet in our teams' group. After that, we use the Google Drive program for real-time data sharing, despite some initial difficulties. Because OUAS includes connectivism theory in professional teacher training, we utilized both software.

Due to a lack of communication, prior relationships, or understanding among the students, I believe that the virtual setting makes it difficult to resolve many difficulties. As a result, smaller group sizes, such as three people, might be a suitable solution. The school may take the initiative and give some guidelines ahead of time.

On the other hand, I have encountered several issues that might develop in the future in a virtual cooperative work environment. However, I quickly discovered that important papers such as government decrees, national core curriculum, goals and objectives, local government development plans, programs, and course structures influence lesson planning. Furthermore, I am aware that I may obtain all of the necessary information from the institution's website and appropriate administrative personnel.

I assessed my teaching in the online sessions, and the results revealed that it was not ideal because I did not create all of the slides myself. Second, I was unable to address such concerns further with our team members. Furthermore, I discover that previous instructions are required in a multicultural classroom setting.

Group 3’s work and teaching

The student-centered approach, customization, and competency-based system are explained by group 3. They demonstrated that vocational education is mostly focused on students. For a teacher, the most important lesson is to comprehend the demands of the pupils and give the best answer possible. Finally, their presentation was well-organized and well-thought-out to demonstrate how an educator may use constructivist theory to apply inquiry-based learning techniques. However, while collaboration was good in terms of slide preparation, they lacked in terms of cooperative teaching owing to the prior mutual discussion. Furthermore, their teaching style was primarily superficial.

Group 1 "EASY"s group work and teaching

In the classroom, the group EASY's offered vast knowledge to improve competencies and learning. They demonstrated, for example, that instruction had no influence on students' learning since students learn through contact, information exchange, and practices that might be either stated or nonspecific processes. They said that in a multicultural classroom, teachers should respect various cultural values to create a pleasant learning environment. They addressed how instructors and students should both be aware of technical difficulties in advance, given the technology background. Furthermore, despite the topic's length, they clearly defined the study questions. This is why there were so many slides. Furthermore, the language is lively and accurate, but the images are difficult to comprehend. The members of the organization were highly knowledgeable about the topics.

Reflections on lesson planning from my perspective

To construct a lesson plan, I realized that I had to learn a lot about the UAS's needed paperwork and rules. In addition, I obtain the necessary information and resources. Furthermore, I understand that vocational school considers primarily inquiry or problem-based approaches based on constructivism theory, even though there are many theories in competence-based learning such as cognitivism, behaviorism, and connectivism. Finally, I've realized that I'm not a teacher; rather, I'm a facilitator and manager who helps students learn in a safe atmosphere. Everyone learns via their own experiences in social growth. Furthermore, because learning is a process, practice, and student's work, it is not a tangible object that can be transferred from instructor to student.

I must research current resources, learning goals, projected course results, and student information to prepare lessons. Progressive education may increase learning by using deep learning techniques, participatory and collaborative, argumentative small group discussions, cooperative learning, one-minute paper problem solution, peer evaluation, and student incentive. I also studied how to engage students in the classroom using the VARK approach (visual, auditory, reading and writing, and kinesthetic). In conclusion, I believe that blended education is the best approach to enhance learning since constructivism alignment is required when considering connectivism, cognitivism, and behaviorism, as no theory is absolute.

References

1. Online University of Finland (2019), The secrets of Finland’s education success and the Finnish way to teach, link: https://ouof.org.

2. Universities Act (558/2009, amendments up to 644/2016) translated available at https://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2009/en20090558_20160644.pdf.

3. Universities of Applied Sciences Act (32/2014) translated available at https://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2014/en20140932_20160563.pdf.

4. Kupianinen, S, Hautamäki J, Karjalainen T (2009), The Finnish educational systems, Online. Available at https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/75640/opm46.pdf

5. Lesson Planning, links https://cte.smu.edu.sg/approach-teaching/integrated-design/lesson-planning

6. Finnish education in a nutshell. [Online] Available URL: http://www.oph.fi/download/146428_Finnish_Education_in_a_Nutshell.pdf [Accessed May 21, 2018]

7. StudyPortals. Bachelors. Study in Finland. [Online] Available URL: https://www.bachelorsportal.com/countries/9/finland.html [Accessed May 22, 2018]