Reflections and Reviews

In Finland, there are multiple laws developed over time through amendments guiding the training and behaviour of multiple stakeholders including teachers. Different laws in the form of Acts direct the actions of educators at different educational levels.  At country level, Ministry of Education and Culture provides the details on these Acts. While the above laws and Acts are in Finnish language, their English translations are available. (Click the highlighted text below to see the English translations) There are four major Acts: 1.        Act on Early Childhood Education and Care (540/2018) deals with the early childhood education 2.        Act on Basic Education Act 628/1998 and Act on General Upper Secondary Education (714/2018) which deal with the pre-primary, primary and upper secondary compulsory education 3.        Act on Vocational Education and Training (531/2017) (VET) which the university of applied sciences 4.        Universities Act 558/2009 which deals with and Resear

  Teachers, as a key component in the development of future generations, are an integral part of society, and their work necessitates the highest level of ethical principles. The Comenius' Oath is an ethical guideline that supports teachers' work while also reminding them that ethics are at the heart of the teaching profession. The oath is analogous to the Hippocratic Oath for doctors and the Archimedean Oath for engineers. The English translation of this oath is provided by the Trade Union of Education (oaj.fi). (Click here to see the full text) . Whether it's the teacher-student relationship, pluralism, or a teacher's relationship with their work, all teaching is based on ethics. Dignity entails regard for humanity. Teachers must treat all students with dignity and respect, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, gender diversity, appearance, age, religion, social standing, origin, opinions, abilities, or achievements. One of the core values in teachers' b

 After the assessment and feedback on our blog posts from our peers, we delved into the same topic from a vocational and higher education perspective. The webinar on 2.11.2022 was more academically structured and provided us the opportunity to learn around the topical areas such as the link between learning theories and assessment methods, how different assessment methods work, what is the role of guidelines regulating education in assessment and feedback and lastly to develop an understanding around the goals and intended outcomes of assessment and feedback. Even though the discussion sessions followed a different flow in terms of topics discussed, for this post, I would reflect on first the guidelines, followed by the role of theories and then move on to discuss the common assessment and feedback methods and then the goals and intended outcomes of assessment and feedback. Reflection on Discussed Topics During the regulation discussion, we spent a significant amount of time learni

Research Policy The goal of Finland's higher education policy is to build higher education institutions that are internationally competitive while also responding flexibly to regional requirements. The achievements of these educational policy goals rely heavily on the research activities conducted in the vocational and higher education institutions. Such research activities are guided by the Finnish Science policy. The goal of science policy is to ensure that research organizations can do research in a manner and to a standard that is typical of highly competitive worldwide science communities. Science policy also contributes to the easy availability of researched information for widespread application in society. It is becoming a global trend to leverage digital and open approach methodologies to generate high-quality research more quickly and efficiently. Finland is actively involved in these developments. Further, the goal of science policy is to raise the international standard

PART1: Reflections on Feedback Session After the previous blog posts, we in our cohort had a feedback session. During this feedback session, we had the opportunity to both receive feedback from and provide feedback to two of the cohort members. In this post I would discuss and try to answer the questions which were raised during the feedback provided to me. I categorised the comments from my fellows into three categories: 1.       What was good 2.       What could be improved 3.       what was missing What was good From a reader perspective, my colleagues were of the view that my writing was good even though complex at times. They appreciated the in-depth knowledge and the interrelation of different topics discussed in the previous sessions. They also appreciated the proper usage of the references. What could be Improved The writing became too complex at times and therefore they recommend that I shall use headings to further refine and communicate the ideas. Also, even