A Collaborative Design for a Finnish Teacher Education Development Programme

This paper describes a collaborative design for the Finnish Teacher Education Development Programme in a decentralised education system where teachers, schools, municipalities and universities have high autonomy. The development programme was designed by 70 experts from the universities and stakeholders. The research outcomes related to teacher education were described, and brainstorming related to the renewal of teacher education was organised at the national level. Brainstorming was aiming to capture opinions of teacher educators and teachers. Moreover, several meetings were organised all over the country. The development programme set out three strategic competence goals for teachers’ pre- and in-service education and continuous life-long professional learning: a broad and solid knowledge base; competences for generating novel ideas and educational innovations; and competences for developing teachers’ own expertise as well as and their schools. Furthermore, the development programme included six concrete strategic guidelines, which helped determine the direction for the development of teacher education.