EU-TRAIN European Training for Student Teachers in Science ( CP F) Comenius 2.2.A. Liikkuvuuskertomus

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1 EU-TRAIN European Training for Student Teachers in Science ( CP F) Comenius 2.2.A Liikkuvuuskertomus FT Jarkko Lampiselkä, EU TRAIN hankeen johtaja Helsingin yliopisto on yhdessä Jyväskylän, Plovdivin, Torunin ja Tarton yliopistojen kanssa pitänyt yllä aineenopettajakoulutuksen opetusharjoittelun arviointi- ja kehittämishanketta vuodesta 2005 alkaen, jonka tavoitteena on valmistaa ohjeet opetusharjoittelun yhtenäistämiseksi hankkeeseen osallistuvissa maissa. Toiminnan tavoitteena on vertailla, arvioida ja kehittää koulutusta hankkeeseen valituissa yliopistojen laitoksissa. Toiminta käsittää kaksi opiskelijavaihtovaihetta, jotka toteutettiin kevätlukukausilla 2007 ja Tässä raportissa tarkastellaan näistä jälkimmäisenä mainittua. Hankkeessa mukana olevien yliopistojen laitosten osalta toista liikkuvuutta koskevat kokoontumiset järjestettiin Tartossa Virossa ja Plovdivissa Bulgariassa Kokouksissa käytiin läpi kevään 2007 opiskelijavaihdon onnistumista, kerätyn aineiston tarkoituksenmukaisuutta ja suunniteltiin kevään 2008 opiskelijavaihto-ohjelmaa. Plovdivin yliopistolla järjestetyssä kokouksessa päätettiin, että opiskelijavaihdot ajoitetaan lukuvuonna oheisen vaihtosuunnitelman mukaisesti. Sending institution Host institution Approx.starting date Duration Number of students Helsinki Plovdiv 29 th Feb, weeks 2 Torun 29 th Feb, weeks 2 Jyväskylä Plovdiv 29 th Feb, weeks 2 Torun 29 th Feb, weeks 2 Plovdiv Helsinki 29 th Feb, weeks 2 Jyväskylä 29 th Feb, weeks 2 Torun Plovdiv 29 th Feb, weeks 2 Jyväskylä 29 th Feb, weeks 2 Tartu Jyväskylä 29 th Feb, weeks 2 Tavoitteena oli saada Tarton yliopistosta kaksi ja muista neljä opiskelijaa vaihtoon. Yliopistojen lisäksi hankkeeseen osallistuvat partnerimaissa paikalliset toisen asteen oppilaitokset, kuten Helsingin Normaalilyseo ja Jyväskylän Normaalikoulu. Hankeen verkkosivuilta selviää tarkemmin, mitkä yliopistot ja koulut toimivat hankkeessa mukana ja ketkä toimivat yhteyshenkiöinä. Opiskelijavaihdon tavoite Vierailujen tavoitteena on lisätä ymmärrystä eri maiden yliopistojen opetusharjoittelun rakenteista ja prosesseista opetuksen laadun ja vaikuttavuuden parantamiseksi. Tavoitteen saavuttamiseksi analysoitiin ja vertailtiin opetuksen järjestelyjä, menetelmiä, oppikirjoja,

2 opetussuunnitelmia ja tuloksia. Erityishuomiota kiinnitettiin aineenopettajien koulutukseen ja siinä etenkin opetusharjoittelun toteuttamiseen, harjoittelun ohjaamiseen ja harjoittelijoiden ammatillisen kasvun tukemiseen. Näiden lisäksi vierailujen tavoitteena oli tutustua yleisesti myös kemian ja fysiikan aineenopettajien koulutukseen aineenopettajien tutkinnon rakenteeseen ainedidaktisiin kursseihin ainedidaktiseen opetusmateriaaliin laboratorio-opetukseen perus-, lukio- ja korkea-asteen oppikirjoihin aineenopettajien opinnäytetöiden rakenteeseen ja sisältöön Vierailun toteutus Opiskelijavaihdot ajoitettiin suunnitelman mukaisesti helmi-maaliskuulle 2008 ja kestivät kolme viikkoa. Jyväskylästä ja Helsingistä ei löytynyt opiskelijoita, jotka olisivat halunneet lähteä suorittamaan opetusharjoittelua Puolaan, joten näistä molemmista lähettiin vain kaksi harjoittelijaa Plovdivin yliopistoon Bulgariaan. Opiskelijavaihto Helsingistä Plovdiviin Haastatteluiden perusteella Bulgariaan suuntautuvaan opiskelijavaihtoon lähtivät opiskelijat Markus Huhtamäki ja Noora Syrjäläinen. Yhteistyökouluina olivat Plovdiv Language School ja Mathematic High School "Academik Kiril Popov". Opiskelijoiden kertomusten mukaan harjoittelu toteutti sille asetetut tavoitteet erittäin hyvin ja hankkeen näkökulmasta saatiin monipuolista ja yksityiskohtaista tietoa kouluopetuksen arkipäivästä ja opetusharjoittelun tavoitteista ja sisällöistä Bulgariassa. Tarkempi kuvaus harjoittelun toteutumisesta on liitteissä 1 ja 2. Opiskelijavaihto Plovdivista Helsinginkin Bulgariasta Helsinkiin suuntautuvaan vaihtoon oli valittu kemian pääaineopiskelijat Vasilia Miteva ja Stanimir Manolov. Yhteistyökouluna oli Helsingin Normaalilyseo. Bulgariasta Jyväskylän normaalikouluun oli valittu fysiikan pääaineopiskelijat Elena Demirova ja Gina Minkova. Kaikki neljä saapuivat Suomeen jo Koska Jyväskylässä oli silloin hiihtoloma, kaikki neljä osallistuivat ensimmäisen viikon aikana samaan harjoitteluohjelmaan Helsingissä. Opiskelijoiden kertomusten mukaan suomalainen kouluyhteisö ja opetusharjoittelu havaittiin innostavaksi ja oppimiselle hedelmälliseksi ympäristöksi. Samalla opiskelijavaihto auttoi havaitsemaan puutteita ja kehittämisen kohteita Bulgarialaisessa opetusharjoittelussa. Tarkempi kuvaus harjoittelun toteutumisesta liitteissä 3 6. Vierailujen merkitys Vierailu mahdollisti Suomen ja Bulgarian aineenopettajakoulutuksen vertailun ja uusien toimintamallien kehittämisen sekä opettajankoulutuksen että EU TRAIN hankkeen tarkoituksia varten. Opiskelijavaihtojen aikana ehdittiin tutustua tarkemmin kemian ja fysiikan aineenopettajakoulutuksen didaktisiin ja pedagogisiin ratkaisuihin, mihin esimerkiksi seminaarien, konferenssien tai kokousten yhteydessä ei yleensä ole juurikaan aikaa tai mahdollisuuksia. Vierailut mahdollistivat myös konkreetin tutustumisen laboratorioihin, luentoihin ja oppitunteihin. Lisäksi vierailun aikana voitiin ja voidaan hankkia paikallisten

3 asiantuntijoiden opastuksella perus-, lukio- ja aineenopettajakoulutuksen materiaalia, johon muuten olisi vain rajalliset mahdollisuudet. Lähteet Lisätietoa hankkeesta löytyy Helsingin yliopiston verkkosivulta osoitteesta:

4 Liite 1 Noora Syrjäläinen EU TRAIN University of Helsinki University of Plovdiv Comparing the teacher training between Bulgaria and Finland I took part in teacher s practical training in chemistry at the Mathematics High School in Plovdiv during 02/03/ /03/2008. The main goal of this EU TRAIN mobility program was to compare the training of science teachers in Finland and Bulgaria. I was supposed to identify the common parts of the contents of school teaching practices and ways to perform them. I tried to find the best practices and to identify common needs of trainees and trainers in both countries. I followed and observed chemistry lessons to familiarise myself with the practical part of the Bulgarian teacher education system, school life and the work of teachers in Bulgaria. I taught one chemistry lesson in English. I also had some chances to follow the physics lessons given by the practise teacher and the physics teacher students and to participate in preparation of the lessons. The exchange students had few meetings with the Bulgarian teacher students. We had a conversation with Bulgarian, Polish and Finnish students about the teacher training programs in Finland, Poland and Bulgaria. The main areas that I compared with the Bulgarian science teacher students are introduced in table 1. Table 1. Experiences of the Bulgarian teacher students compared to my own experiences. Bulgarian students My experiences of the Finnish teacher student education system Lessons given in the practise about 50 (40 minute lessons) in the applied practise (45 minute lessons) Lessons followed and About 70 (40 minute lessons) 80 (45 minute lessons) observed Time taken for the 5-10 hours 3-4 hours preparation of one practice lesson The most difficult part of the practise Giving the first lesson Giving the first lesson and reflecting myself and my skills as a teacher with The most useful part of the practise Development of interaction and communication skills with the students honesty and open-mind Constructive feedback and guidance given by the teachers of the training schools

5 The best part of the practise Good feeling after a successful lesson Feeling more secure after every given lesson Thing that students would like to change in the practise More didactics and learning the teaching methods before the actual training period, more English writing the portfolio and some of the theoretical studies were not included well enough in the other parts of the teacher studies Support and direction enough enough Another teacher duties and responsibilities included in the practise None or very little participation in the planning of the exams Planning of the exams, supervision of the breaks, participation of the teacher meetings etc. The teaching methods used by the Bulgarian teachers were quite different than the methods used in Finnish science teaching. In Finland the experimental work has a big role in science teaching. In Bulgaria the methods are more teacher-centered than in Finland where the students are tried to set in the center of teaching. I believe the biggest reason for this is the financial support. The Bulgarian Teachers don t have as good possibilities to use experimental and student-centered methods in science lessons than the teachers in Finland have. If I would change something in this mobility program I would organise even more meetings with the exchange students and the teachers students of the host institution. In my opinion the main benefit for the host institution was to hear how the teacher training in Finland is organised. Bulgaria has recently joined in the EU, and I believe the country will have many possibilities to improve their education system in the future. Finland can give some examples for that. Bulgaria should, in my opinion, include in the teacher studies more reflective and independent evaluation done by the teacher students. More experimental work should be included in the Bulgarian science teaching. Also, the learning of thinking skills in science teaching should be considered more. I was impressed by the efficiency and the authority of the Bulgarian science teachers. It seemed that the students really respected the teachers and let them do their work in peace. In my experience, sometimes in Finland the students don t behave well enough in the class, and there is no peace in the class for either the students nor the teacher to concentrate in the work they are doing. The students in Bulgaria seemed more eager to learn new things than the Finnish students.

6 Markus Huhtamäki Report from student exchange Liite 2 Teacher training in Bulgaria The candidate of physics in Bulgaria that leads to be a physics teacher consists of physics studies and of pedagogical studies. The pedagogical studies divide in to general pedagogics, subject didactics and practices. The general pedagogics consist of 30 lessons on pedagogy, 30 lessons on psychology and 15 lessons on audiovisual presentation. The subject didactics consist of 60 lectures of didactics, 60 lectures of laboratory work and 15 lectures on problem solving. The practices are divided in to three parts, and they all total up to 50 given lessons and 60 observed. If we estimate the workload of the pedagogical studies it would be in the region of 27 ECTS. I have been told that the workload in physics studies is about 150 ECTS. That sums up to 177 ECTS, which is a good workload of three or maybe four years. I didn't have the chance to follow any of the general pedagogical lectures, and from the subject didactics I only got the change to follow one the problem solving lessons. The problem solving lesson was a very teacher oriented one. It consisted of solving about three to four problems on the blackboard. The only person who wrote on the blackboard was the teacher herself. The students were only activated with trivial questions about the problem. Very much attention was paid in the specifical manner of presenting the solving of the problem and to the drawings. The subject didactics, according to the curriculum, is meant to give theoretical tools for teacher trainees. Before the practices the students are given a sheet of instructions on how to teach different types of things in physics, for example quantity or phenomenom. These instructions are used as a guideline in preparing own lessons and evaluating observed lessons. The feedback of given lessons or the discussion about obseved lessons were decomposed into very specific aspects. For example the teacher of didactics might inquiry something like: "How to start a lesson" or "How did the teacher/trainee use this instrument". These discussions were always held between the students and the teacher of didactics. The basic teachers whom were selected to give these model lessons were handpicked by the teacher of didactics, and the students follow only their lessons. The lesson plans were to be planned very carefully, and everything about the questions, the blackboard planand other things should be included in the lesson plan. Altogether, the bulgarian teacher training seemed very strict with no room for the student to find his/her own strenghts and weaknesses. They were only shown the best possible examples of for example teachers, problem solvings, and therefore there was no discussion of what other ways would be possible. The students never seemed to be actively bringing forth their own opinions, but rather repeating what they had already learned from some authority. The rules of teaching were all given, and not understood through discussion.

7 This is a very efficient system and produces certain kinds of teachers very fast. But the teachers don't get any chance of really understanding the teching philosophies in a more profound level, and therefore they are only stuck with some specific rules of teaching. But a better system would need more funds and time. What I would like to bring from Bulgaria to Finland? I have always liked the efficiency of the bulgarian teachers. The lessons start immediately after the bell rings and every minute is used efficiently. Also the grip that the teachers have on their students is admirable. The discipline is somewhat strict, but still the atmosphere in the classroom is good. What I would like to bring from Finland to Bulgaria? I would like to see the bulgarians leave behind the strict manner of teaching things. The teaching of tacher trainees should be seen in somewhat a growing experience for the trainees where they learn about themselves and adopt the general teaching philosophies that are useful in all circumstances in the classroom instead of specific didactical aspects. There should be more discussion in the teacher training, and more chances for the trainees to implement their own ideas. They should be allowed to experiment with their ideas during the practices, because that is the best time for it. In the teacher training the lecturers shouldn't be afraid of letting even some of the poorer students come to the blackboard and try, because every student can learn from their and others' mistakes. That would also give them experience in performing. And they should follow many other teachers than their basic teacher to give them a broader perspective. Even teachers that aren't that good, because there is a lot to learn from them too. Suggestions for the future The idea of participating as a normal student in the practice of a foreign country should be abandoned. This doesn't give any useful results considering the goals of the project. The foreign students always get a special treatment. The only proper way to gather information about a foreign teaching system is to observe authentic teacher training situations: lectures, feedback sessions etc. The exhange students should get the access to as many as possible different courses in the teacher training. For example, I've been to Bulgaria now two times and I have no idea how they teach their psychology, pedagogics and parts of the subject didactics. And the time of the exchange should vary so that in different years there would be different courses running. The sending institution should carefully plan from what they want their students to gather information about every exchange period. There is absolutely no point in just repeating the same schedule at the same time of year again and again.

8 Liite 3 My name is Stanimir Manolov. I took part of project EU TRAIN - European Training for Student Teachers of Science. The exchange time was , Helsinki, Finland in Training school # 1. Our mentor was MSc Seija Valtonen. I had possibilities: - to see a system that differs from ours; - to sink of unusual middle of education;?? - to get to know and exchange opinions and ideas with Finnish colleagues; - to get to know Finnish methods of educations in field of chemistry; - to see and compare the pupils there with our pupils; - to touch the Finnish culture; and so on. Our general aim was to get acquainted with the education of future teachers and to find out similarities and differences, positive and the negative things of the systems. My impressions of the visit are positive only. My first reaction when I saw the classrooms of chemistry was - I want to become a teacher here!!! There is everything for normal teaching in Finnish schools. One of the biggest pluses is that trainees have more of one mentor during the training period. They can see different methods and approaches, think out and choose the best one. They can invent their own teaching methods, they have the needed freedom, and they have a free hand. Because of practical demonstrations lessons in Finland are more interesting. Our lessons are mostly theoretical. This fact makes them so dull and monotonous. A very interesting thing is that a module called Student as a researcher is a part of teacher students syllabus. They investigate pupils knowledge with educational tools. We should take this in our system, too. Trainees study two or three subjects, for example chemistry, physics and mathematics in Finland. If their main subject is mathematics, they do not know chemistry very well. They can do mistakes with the chemical materials, but they say that bigger mistake is if they have wrong approach to the pupils. But the pupils there make lot of questions and if the teacher can t answer, it is bad, I think. If a trainee did not know the answer, s/he said I don t know. I will look after and next time I will pass this information to you. The preparation is very important!!! But if a teacher, especially a young one, does not know the answers of a question, he will loose his/her authority, respect. Then it may be difficult to build a career. That s why the preparation is very important! The differences between the Finnish and Bulgarian systems are many. Both systems have their own positive and negative parts, more of which are positive.

9 Liite 4 Memorandum of trainees meeting in Helsinki on the 16 th of March 2008 My name is Elena Demirova from Bulgaria. I am a student at Plovdiv University, this is the fourth year of my studies on Physics and Mathematics. When graduated I will be a teacher of both subjects. I took part in an exchange program in Finland for tree weeks ( ). The main purpose of the visit was to get to know how teacher training practice is organized in Finland. My purpose was to see and find different ways of teacher training to help the future teachers in Bulgaria. I was a week in Helsinki and two weeks in Jyväskylä. Seija Valtonen was my mentor in Helsinki and Pekka Parkkinen in Jyväskylä. I and my colleges observed and gave lessons, preparation and feedback discussions and other things including teacher training in Finland. We found differences in curricula, methods of teaching, among other things. The most important differences are the following ones: Trainees have to teach and observe lessons both in autumn and spring terms in Finland. They have five months to observe and try to find there own way to teach. The number of the observed lessons is the same as the number of the training lessons. A trainee has usually no more than one training lesson per day. There are free days to observe and prepare lessons and take part in other activities like lectures given by mentors. There are calculation, exercises, experiments and even test in one lesson. All the time teacher students are encouraged by their mentor to get more motivation in their work and they can ask for help if they need. In Bulgaria the practice is the last period of our teacher education, it takes one month. We have to teach 8 lessons per week. That means that we have to prepare 1 or 2 new lessons per day, for two different age-groups. During this month we can see the real life at school as a teacher, but it is really stressful. Unfortunately, we don t get enough encouragement or motivation. Maybe some problems arise and after this month there are students who do not want to be teachers. In Finland trainees usually have four different mentors during their training periods. Trainees can see different kinds of teaching, discussing and working with pupils. A mentor helps a teacher student to become a reflective teacher in feedbacks and isn t looking only for mistakes. The main purpose is to teach the trainee to show the pupils in each part of the lesson where the physics can be found. When a trainee makes mistakes the mentor can decide how to tell about it. During a lesson, a mentor prefers to look what pupils are doing and may correct the trainee if it is a rude mistake

10 When there are pupils who don t want to study and don t behave well in the classroom, the mentor tells how speak at first with the class. We have only one mentor during the training period in Bulgaria. For him or her, the most important in our work is the blackboard. We have to write on it with different colors of chalks. Usually the trainee has to buy them. If it is possible we would not wash the blackboard during a lesson. It is good that our plan of the lesson is in front of pupils even if they have written it already in their notebooks. We have no time when we can find our own methods of teaching. The equipments at schools are not good and we don t have enough materials to show the pupils how things happen in real life. There are mentors who tell us that it is very important to make experiments during a lesson. So, if we want our lesson to be prefect, we have to borrow the needed equipment from the University, but it is not possible always. We don t have projectors in classrooms in Bulgaria. When we want to work with a book or to write a list of questions, a trainee has to pay for copies. We don t have this useful service at schools. Most of the lessons which we have observed in Finland were like a discussion. There were exercises and experiments in every lesson. Maybe in this way the pupils can learn to solve problems better. Lessons are teaching discussions and teaches want their pupils to take part in it making questions. In Finland every pupil has to have homework. It is good to do one s homework because the marks are given not only for the tests but for all the process of learning, all activities also. We saw a lot of posters in classrooms and each of them were made by pupils. It is a good way of teaching. In Bulgaria almost all the lessons are like a lecture. A teacher is speaking most of the time Teachers are a little bit more independent in Finland than in Bulgaria. They have also curricula there but - like we saw it it is more important to find if pupils have questions concerning the previous lesson, not only to continue teaching lessons, one after another. An interesting method of teaching is to use little sheets where pupils may write questions without their names. It is like a game where you can find your answer, and a lot of the most important items of the lesson may be taught at the same time. In Bulgaria teachers have to be strict with the curriculum. If you want to become a teacher you usually have to teach two different subjects (like physics and chemistry) and have a master degree in Finland. In Bulgaria, it is very good to be a teacher of two subjects but it isn t obligatory.

11 In Jyväskylä, we saw methods of teaching which we have only read about. Every trainee has to decide what kind of research he (she) is going to do during his (her) teacher practice at school. There were trainees who have chosen to teach two classes with two different books, how to speak lower or higher during the lesson and where exactly, two books and one of them doesn t have calculations, and etc. There is a computer in every classroom in Finland, a multimedia projector, DVD and other equipments, so a trainee may use all or some of them during one lesson. In this way, maybe the lesson is much more interesting for pupils. I mean that sometimes it is a little bit boring just to talk abstract things all the time when you can not show them. In Bulgaria, we have only our blackboard. If we want to do or show something else we have to bring our own computer. These are the most important things which we saw as differences between Bulgaria and Finland. This program was useful for me because my world of teaching is bigger now. Thank you for this chance. Elena Demirova

12 Experiences with Bulgarian teacher students by Aija Kääriä (Finnish teacher student) Liite 5 I taught two times double chemistry lessons (á 45 min) with Bulgarian teacher students. Other sessions were at upper and lower secondary school. It was an interesting and instructive experience, not only because of teaching in English, but also for other issues. After lessons we discussed about them (ours and generally) and teaching in Bulgaria and in Finland. Some differences came up also in beforehand when we planned lessons together. It was interesting to find out that our school systems and teaching methods are quite different. The Bulgarian system sounds more or less like ours (long) time ago. Teaching of chemistry is there still mostly lecturing and teacher orientated. Bulgarian students thought that there is no time to do experiments, because lessons are so short (normally only 40 minutes). Money is also one big problem. Schools don t have instruments or chemicals and so on. Also I think that they, even after this exchange period, prefer more theory than experimental teaching. Lecturing and using blackboard a lot (no computer and video projector or document camera) is best way to teach for them (I felt so, but maybe I misunderstood). Also they thought that Finnish teachers should force pupils to do more homework and study harder. In Finland we are raising children to take care themselves and to be more independent. I felt that Bulgarian students think that it is not a very good idea. Their teachers are maybe stricter for pupils. At least they use more tests. Teachers in Bulgaria check with (surprise) tests that pupils have done their homework. Those tests can be only for one pupil per one time. Of course some teachers can use tests like those in Finland, too. It is possible, because every teacher can use his (her) own methods in Finland. I don t know if the Bulgarians understood completely that in Finland teaching varies a lot, and it is fine. What they saw was only a little example. They couldn t understand all (and even they could get some misunderstandings) because they couldn t understand language. Some notices which they made after observing lessons were not very right. For example, they thought that teachers don t have very good knowledge of the subject they are teaching in Finland, and that s why sometimes teachers give even wrong information to students. Yes, that can be true sometimes, but normally teachers have studied a lot their teaching subject in Finland. This time there was wrong information because teacher simplified information for younger pupils. Bulgarians thought that it was not good idea at all. Like I already wrote, they prefer theory more. I also don t think that Finnish system is the perfect and the only one, but there are lots of good things in our system. I hope that Bulgarian teacher students can use in their future jobs something what they saw and learned (and me, too). Maybe they learned here what is it that they really don t want to do or be it is something very important, too. Aija Kääriä

13 Liite 6 Harjoitteluohjelma