IT and internationalisation are two aspects of great importance that require further development in the Swedish teacher education.The University of Skövde will make additional investments in ‘the Hong Kong project’ in autumn 2009.
International studies provide knowledge about the complexity of the teaching profession
Now there is a new course at the University of Skövde for teacher students wishing to study the complexity of the teaching profession in Sweden compared to another country. Seven students attended the first course and have just come home after studies in Hong Kong.
- They finish their education here at the University with the course, Pedagogical processes in an intercultural perspective, but must also do their degrees in the form of a Learning Study on their training schools, says Gerd Gustafsson, who together with Johan Lidberg is responsible for the course. They were also included in Hong Kong.
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New possibilities with IKT
IKT enables new possibilities for this project. Before the travel to Hong Kong, students and teachers in both Hong Kong and Skövde discussed central topics regarding the teacher education via a facebook group. The project is documented on the website, blog and microblog (Twitter). This way, the staff at the universities are able to participate and get involved in the project. In a longer perspective, it enables more universities and university colleges, not to mention the schools in the region, to participate in this type of experience exchange.
One of the purposes of this method is to use the social web to strengthen the student teachers’ professional development. Another purpose is to increase transparency with regard to the documented learning processes. The teaching is also documented digitally; recordings, photos, videos and texts. This digital documentation, especially the videographic material, enables thorough analyses of the material.
Furthermore, IKT also increases the chances that the project will leave a lasting impression and contribute to the development of the teacher education. In addition, the social web makes continued contact between our universities possible, and the initial physical meeting facilitates contacts in various virtual worlds.
Learning Study
BILD: Docent Ulla Runesson
The Swedish model for Learning Study has its origins in Japan and Lesson Study. The difference is that Learning Study focuses not on the lesson, but on the teaching. Learning Study is one of the profiles that are being developed in the University of Skövde teacher education, where docent Ulla Runesson works as researcher.
There are a large number of available studies on the subject. Most of these were conducted outside Sweden. By studying these reports, internationalisation becomes a natural part of the education.The Learning Study model has been developed by researchers at the University of Hong Kong, Professor Ference Marton and Docent Ulla Runesson at the University of Gothenburg.
The research findings from these universities become part of the teacher education in Skövde, as they form the basis of the dissertation. The courses also feature classes where the variation theory is used as point of reference.
Some of the questions that teachers are working with are:
■ What is the best way to teach difficult topics?}
■ Which aspects of the education determine whether pupils learn or not?
■ What does it mean to know something that we want our pupils to learn?
Learning Study is a model that changes the way teachers think about their teaching. In the long term, Learning Study also leads to school development.
Learning Study can be summarised in the following five points:
■ The goal is to improve the learning of pupils.
■ Focus is on the knowledge and abilities that pupils are to develop.
■ Teamwork among teachers serves as the point of reference.
■ Pedagogical development takes place directly in the class room.
■ Learning Study has a theoretical basis.
Conscious education makes a difference
Something happens when teachers work in-depth on a specific part of the material. They have group discussions about the core purpose of the teacher’s profession; to teach in the best way. They discuss which parts of the education determine whether pupils learn or not. They get to see their colleagues teach the same subject, and the lessons are also filmed.
Afterwards, the teachers analyse the film and check the pupils’ knowledge development from pre-test to post-test.What could the pupils have learned from the lesson? What does it mean to know the learning object? Evaluations show that even if teachers only expand their knowledge of a small specific aspect, it will still have a large spillover effect on the rest of their teaching.
Our goal is for both students and teacher trainers to form a collaboration with these universities and university colleges, especially within the teaching of mathematics and science. A Learning Study cycle has an action research profile, and has been shown that such models gain ground in the practical field more easily than other research approaches. The teacher education bridges the gap between theory and practice, and through Learning Study, it can stimulate the school development at the University of Skövde and at our VFU schools in Skaraborg.
Teachers who work with Learning Study (LS) become more aware of the importance of how the teaching content is handled. They focus on the best way to teach difficult topics. It is not primarily about methods and teaching material, but about the small, essential emphasis on the content, which is of decisive importance for the pupils to learn the indented information.
LS provides a research theoretical approach to the own teaching. Active teachers do research on their own teaching under the guidance of a researcher and with instructions from an LS-trained teacher. By having active teachers attend classes in LS, working groups are able to instruct each other from different schools, which can contribute to school development in the teaching.
During their education, students have access to studies at universities and in schools. The University of Skövde aims to integrate theory and practice in an early stage of the education, in order for students to be able to problematise a complex reality in different ways.
The municipalities in the region have an agreement with the University of Skövde in which a mutual commitment to school development is drawn up. arbete.The students are seen as an important part of this work.