A Finnish model of teacher education informs a South African one: A teaching school as a pedagogical laboratory

Anni Loukomies,Jari Lavonen,Nadine Petersen

doi:10.4102/sajce.v8i1.593

Anni Loukomies, Jari Lavonen + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4102/sajce.v8i1.593

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Abstract

In this study, we examined student teachers’ learning during their teaching placement period in Finland and South Africa. The setting of the inquiry in both countries was a ‘teaching’ school, affiliated to a university teacher education programme. The teaching school is also referred to as an educational innovation that was transferred from the Finnish context to the South African context. Data were collected through an interview protocol. The findings show that the students, like many of their counterparts in different parts of the world, focused on teaching tools and methods as well as classroom management as a gateway to their teaching career. The extended teaching placement period at both the university teaching schools was expected to yield some findings about the intersection of teaching practice and its supporting theories because of the close collaboration of the schools and the universities. Some of the findings satisfied this expectation while other parts did not, confirming that initial teacher education may be regarded as a platform for learning to be teachers, but it has its own limits even in a pedagogical ‘laboratory’. The transfer of the educational innovation was regarded as successful.

Highlights

Studies of initial teacher education (ITE) continue to investigate the apparent elusive connection of theory and practice, with the work of Korthagen et al (2001), Darling-Hammond et al (2005), Cochran-Smith (2006), Cochran-Smith and Zeichner (2005) and Furlong, Cochran-Smith and Brennan (2009), arguing for ways to address this mismatch that students experience during their pre-service education
The students were of the view that topics learnt during the practicum may facilitate their transfer into work life after university. This is best encapsulated in the following quote: ‘What were the pupils’ feelings and what was my feeling? Is there something specific in the culture, in a way there are many aspects? For example, in the physical education lesson we found out that we come from a different culture and value different and the group is used to particular [aspect] and there are many aspects that affect it and one has to work hard to see even half of those aspects that had effect on what the situation became.’ (4a_N)
The qualitative findings attest to much of what we know about ITE and we are left with the question of what the specific role of a university-affiliated school is

Summary

Introduction

The concept of a university teaching school differs somewhat from what is known in the USA currently as professional development schools (PDS) and has more in common with Dewey’s original ‘lab school’ idea and with the notion of ‘normal schools’ or ‘ecoles normales’ as teacher education spaces. It differs in some nuances from the PDS in the USA where schools place to ‘learn theory as inquiry about practice in learning communities’ (Darling-Hammond et al 2005:414). We argue that the Finnish model is an example of such a pre-service teacher education

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Conclusion