Browsing by Author "Saari, Tiia"

Universities are fairly autonomic with their curriculums. When planning curriculums universities try to emphasize their own historical traditions and special talents of their staff members. Universities that organize teacher education have co-operated as a part of the Bologna process, a series of meetings designed to ensure comparability of standards in higher education. In 2003–2006 there was a project, "the National-Level Coordination of Degree Programme Development in Teacher Education and the Science of Education", called Vokke. The purpose of the project was to create the recommendations how studies should split in teacher education in Finland. In this study the goal is to clarify the differences and similarities in class teacher studies in science of education in different universities. This qualitative study researches written curriculums of the class teacher education in Finnish universities in academic year 2014–2015. Curriculums were analyzed by using content analysis. Research data included curriculums from universities of Helsinki, Eastern Finland, Jyväskylä, Oulu, Lapland, Turku and Tampere. The focus was in major in the science of education. Research revealed that the basic studies were pretty similar in all universities and included mainly classic fields of the science of education. The subject studies and the advanced studies in educational sciences had more differences, especially in the structures, ECTS and names of theses were different. Research methodologies were also different. University of Tampere was more profiled than others as class teacher students had no clear major there. Research also revealed that there were many similarities in the class teacher education curriculums. Subject studies and advanced studies in the educational sciences included courses in teaching, education and teachers' pedagogical thinking. Timing of courses with similar content changed depending on the university. Because the goal of the class teacher education is teacher movability and equal chances for further post-degree education, curriculums of class teacher education should be standardized.