There are numerous differences between the two countries teacher educations systems. A successful educational reform implemented in the Finnish teacher education might not enhance the quality of the Norwegian teacher education. However, there are still lessons to be learned from the way Finland has developed a high quality teacher education. In this chapter the conclusions about what Norway can learn form Finland will be described. At the end of this chapter some thoughts about further research will be presented.
The structure of the Finnish teacher education with more than two teacher tracks gives a logical approach for the students to specialize in grade levels and subjects of the compulsory school. This is a proficient method for meeting the societies’ needs for special knowledge and something that Norway can learn from. The Finnish teacher education system also gives the students more confidence in the subjects of teaching. Therefore, it might be helpful for the teacher students in Norway to have additional educational subjects as in Finland. This could contribute to the students enhancing their teaching skills. The Norwegian teacher education has been criticized for lack of research; therefore it is possible to learn from the way research has been integrated in the teacher education in Finland. This can be achieved by including research subjects in the education or by making the education a Master’s degree, or both.
In addition, it is possible to conclude that Norway can gain knowledge and learn from the recruitment and selection process of teacher students in Finland. Finland has a recruitment and selection process that ensures the nation’s best secondary school graduates and most probably highly motivated students. It should be considered that if the Norwegian teacher education does not recruit talented students it is difficult to understand how the education can develop, providing talented and skilful teachers. Therefore, it seems that the Norwegian teacher education would benefit from developing a recruitment and selection process that selects the most talented and motivated students, as they do in Finland.
Additionally, it might be stated that Norway can learn from they way Finland has handled the pressure for educational reforms as a result of globalization. Many countries have implemented reforms, changing practice, while Finland has maintained a traditional teacher role and not implemented common educational reforms.
7.1 Further research
This thesis has pointed out areas that are important for further research. It is essential for Norway to develop the teacher education and policies for the education, based on research.
In this section the areas that need development will be discussed and described.
One area of further research would be to examine the differences in motivation of the students in these two countries. This could be accomplished by developing questionnaires for the first year students for usage in both countries. It would be of interest to have information about the reasons for the students’ career choice, how they identify themselves as teacher students, and their expectations for the education. Since there is a difference in the teacher role in the two countries, it would be interesting to conduct research on what methods the teachers use in the two countries. This could be achieved by observing teaching in the compulsory school in the two countries. While different teacher roles give different methods of teaching, it would be interesting to evaluate methods that provide the pupils with the best learning environment. This could be conducted by doing research using two classes in the two countries. One class would have the method used in Norway, the other the methods used in Finland, carried out in both countries. This could provide information about whether the different methods used in the two countries influence the outcome of learning, and thereby influencing the results of international tests.
However, the most interesting theme for further research would be a more detailed comparison of the curriculum of the two countries teacher educations. This would provide an enhanced understanding of the differences of the two education systems and the implications of the curriculum. This should include gathering of data from several teaching institutions in the two countries. Information that considered being of interest for this type of research:
• How many credits does each subject have? This should contain information about how many hours of teaching in the subjects, what type of teaching, and the amount of pages in the syllabus. Further, at which level of the education are the subjects?
• Freedom of choice, how many subjects can the students choose and at which level.
This should contain information about the amount of hours of teaching in the subjects, what type of teaching and the amount of pages in the syllabus.
• Which type of exam is used and what is the time span of the exam?
• Practice: how is the practice managed, the length, and at which level. This should include information about how many weeks the student are in practice, ECTS credits and who is responsible for guiding and grading the teacher students. It is necessary to have comparable data.
• How is theory and practice integrated? This means how the teacher institutions integrate theory and practice, for example if they use seminars after practice to ensure that theory and practice is integrated.
• The grades in the education. Including information about the grades of the students when entering the education and what are the grades of the students when they complete the education.
• How are the goals for the two teacher educations defined? How are the goals for the subjects in the two educations defined?
In order to be a valid study it is necessary to conduct the research in several teacher institutions in the two countries. If possible, it would be interesting to use three universities in Finland and three colleges in Norway as the focus in the study. This would provide a representative insight to the two countries teacher educations. To complete the research it would be interesting to ask newly educated teachers how they perceive the strong and less strong elements of their education. Here it would be possible to obtain information about what the teachers think lack in their education and how well the education prepared them for teaching. This could provide data about the quality of the curriculum of the two teacher educations. Further, it would lay an informative foundation for the development of the teacher education in Norway.
This study type of research should be accompanied with research about the quality of the students that are admitted to the teacher education in Finland and Norway. Without this type of research it is not possible to make conclusion about the quality of the two educations.