ETUCE Policy Paper en Web

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Teacher Education in EuropeAn ETUCE Policy Paper

ETUCE - EUROPEAN TRADE UNION COMMITTEE FOR ECSEE - COMITE SYNDICAL EUROPEEN DE LE

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Teacher Education in Europe An ETUCE Policy Paper

Teacher Education in EuropeAn ETUCE Policy Paper

ETUCE - EUROPEAN TRADE UNION COMMITTEE FOR EDUCATIONCSEE - COMITE SYNDICAL EUROPEEN DE LEDUCATION

Adopted by the Executive Board on14th April 2008


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ETUCE - EUROPEAN TRADE UNION COMMITTEE FOR EDUCATIONCSEE - COMITE SYNDICAL EUROPEEN DE LEDUCATION4

Table o Content

Foreword 5

Chapter 1: Executive Summary 7Chapter 2: A policy or teacher education in Europe 11

An evolving policy 12Recruitment and retention o teachers 13Qualications and competences 14Continuous proessional development 15Teacher education or all 15The relationship and balance between higher educationinstitutions and schools 16

Textbox A: EU policy development on teacher education 17

Textbox B: The OECD and teacher education in the EU 18

Chapter 3: Initial teacher education 19

3.0 General purposes 20

The quality o teacher education 20Teacher Education at Masters level 20Institutional ramework and duration 23Theory and practice 23

Textbox C: The relation between theory and practice inresearch-based teacher education in Finland 24

Relationships between initial teacher educationinstitutes and schools 25Teacher education and ICT 25Teachers ownership o the quality o teacher education 25Teacher education and the Bologna process 26Identiying a prole o teacher competences and

qualications 26Teacher education and the Education and Training2010 process 27

3.1 Teachers in Early Childhood Education 28

Raising the status o ECE teachers 28 A qualied proession 28Continuous proessional development 29Gender issues 29

3.2 VET teachers and trainers 29

Proessional identity 29Silent knowledge 29Quality in VET 30

Textbox D: New entry pathways to teacher education in higher

education for prospective VET teachers in Austria 30

3.3 Teachers in Special Needs Education 31

Special needs education in initial teacher education 31Specialist training in special needs education 32Cooperation between classroom teachers and specialistteachers 32

Chapter 4: Teacher educators

The role and prole o teacher educators in initi

teacher education Qualications and competences o educators in initeducation Working environment o initial teacher education Mentors in the induction phase Educators o in-service training and proessiondevelopment Proessional development and working conditions teacher educators

Chapter 5: Recruitment and retention o teachers

The status o teachers Teacher education at Masters level Working conditions Working environment

Chapter 6: Continuous proessional development

A lielong learning perspective Continuous proessional development the status quo Continuous proessional development ETUCE Policy 4Induction phase

Textbox E: Teachers continuous professional developme guaranteed by the national collective agreement in teducation sector in Bulgaria

Mentors

Textbox F: Guaranteed provision of a full years painduction to all teachers graduating from initial teacheducation in Scotland

Teacher mobility

Chapter 7: Teacher education and society today tomorrow

Teachers in society A changing environment Changing amily patterns People with diferent abilities The drive towards a knowledge society Social actors Economy and technology Meeting societal expectations Compulsory education and lielong learning New curricula or teacher education Equity in learning

Integrating education Interactive education Education or diversity Diversity within teacher education Words in action

Reerences


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Foreword

In 2004, the ETUCE launched the Campaign Europe Needs Teachers!This Campaign has served as an excellent platorm or the ETUCE todraw attention to teacher education at EU level by recommendingthree main priority areas o action:

Improving initial teacher education to ensure high-qualitypedagogical and proessional training o new teachers;

Recruiting and retaining a sucient supply o qualied teachers

in order to maintain and improve the quality o the teachingproession; Ensuring that proessional development is an entitlement or

teachers and that it is integrated into the teaching proession.

In June 2006, the ETUCE established a working group with the pur-pose o reviewing the ETUCE publication on teacher education rom1994. In the light o developments in teacher education policies atinternational level notably at EU level and the reorms under-taken in teacher education programmes in many EU countries since1994, the ETUCE elt that a review o its policy on teacher educationwas needed. The intergovernmental process or creating a European

Higher Education Area (the Bologna Process), which was initiated in1999, now counts 46 participating countries and is likely to have asignicant impact on teacher education. The EU Education & Train-ing 2010 process has addressed the issue o teacher education romthe outset. The words o Mr Jan Figel, European Commissioner orEducation, at the ETUCE Hearing on Teacher Education in January2005, testiy to the commitment o the Commission to improvingthe quality o teacher education: Europe needs highly qualiedand motivated teachers. And we can only achieve this i we investin teacher education. So ar this commitment has resulted in aEuropean Commission Communication in August 2007 on Improvingthe Quality o Teacher Education and in subsequent Conclusions rom

the Council o Education Ministers in November 2007. The ETUCEhas participated in developing this work as part o expert groupswithin the Commission.

This policy paper presents the ETUCEs vision o teacher education inthe 21st century. The rst chapter comprises an executive summary,chapter 2 sets out the political background and reasons or which

the ETUCE needs to develop a new policy on teacher educationtoday, while chapters three to six deal in detail with, respectively,initial teacher education, teacher educators, recruitment and reten-tion o teachers, and the continuous proessional development oteachers. Finally, chapter 7 addresses the specic challenges acingteachers in the multicultural and knowledge-based society o today.

In March 2008, a major conerence was held in Bled, Slovenia, which

was dedicated to the discussion o the drat policy paper on teachereducation. The conerence brought together 80 representatives rom27 European countries, ensuring that the content o the policy paperis the result o a broad consensus among teachers union representa-tives across Europe.

In presenting this policy paper, it is my pleasure to thank themembers o the ETUCE Teacher Education Working Group or theimpressive and dicult task they completed in developing thispaper: Paul Bennett, UCU UK, Maria Braganca, FNE Portugal, OdileCordelier, SNES France, Charlotte Engel, DLF Denmark, MarjattaMelto, OAJ Finland, Jorunn Dahl Norgrd, UEN Norway, and Rudy

Van Renterghem, COC Belgium. Special thanks go also to AnnemarieFalktot rom the secretariat or her continuous hard work at keep-ing all the issues together.

Brussels, 7 April 2008

Martin RmerGeneral Secretary

Foreword


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Executive SummaryChapter 1 1


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This ETUCE Policy Paper sets out the ETUCEs vision o teacher edu-cation in todays society. It emphasises the intrinsic link betweena high quality o initial teacher education, the quality o educa-tion provided to children and young persons at all levels o theeducation sector, and the attractiveness and status o the teachingproession itsel. Research shows that teacher quality is the mostimportant within-school actor infuencing students perormance.This policy paper sets out detailed recommendations on how wecan ensure that the quality o teaching is high and that teachers areprepared to respond to the signicant challenges acing educationand training systems in the EU today.

In order to ull the requirements placed on teachers today, it is

the ETUCEs rm belie that the objective should be that all teach-ers are educated to Masters level. The demands that teachersace today in terms o in-depth subject knowledge, advancedpedagogical skills, refective practice and ability to adapt teach-ing to the needs o each individual as well as to the needs o thegroup o learners as a whole, require that teachers are highlyeducated and equipped with the ability to integrate knowledgeand handle complexity at the level which characterises studies atthe Masters level.

In summary, the ETUCE advocates an initial teacher educationat Masters level which:

Providesin-depthqualicationsinallrelevantsubjects,

including in pedagogical practice and in teaching transversalcompetences

Isresearch-based,hashighacademicstandardsandatthesame

time is rooted in the everyday reality o schools Includesasignicantresearchcomponentandproduces

refective practitioners Givesteacherstheskillsneededtoexertahighdegreeof

proessional autonomy and judgment in order to enable themto adapt their teaching to the needs o the individual group olearners and the individual child or young person

Oerstherightcombinationbetweentheoryandpedagogicalpractice and benets rom partnerships between teachereducation institutes and schools

Encouragesmobilityofteacherswithinthedierentlevels

and sectors o the education system, provided that adequatere-qualication is acquired.

The ETUCE also argues that more attention should be paid to therole and prole o teacher educators, in particular by:

Recruitingasucientnumberofteachereducatorswhopo

at least a Masters Degree and preerably a Doctoral Degreein education or another subject closely related to teachingand who at the same time have practical experience o theclassroom reality

Ensuringagoodworkingenvironmentandgoodworking

conditions or teacher educators, including: a reasonableteacher/student ratio; opportunities or cooperation amongteacher educators locally, nationally and internationally;research acilities within the teacher education institution;

opportunities or mobility; access to modern teachingequipment; competitive salary schemes; access to continuoproessional development

Strengtheningtheroleofinitialteachereducationinstitute

providing continuous proessional development programmor all teachers.

With a view to recruiting and retaining a sufcient numbequalied teachers, the ETUCE calls or:

Increasedeortstoraisethestatusofteachers,inparticularb

strengthening/preserving teachersproessional autonomy; increa

condence in the teaching proession; ensuring that the authoriresponsible or education have the necessary competences; passon a positive message about the teaching proession.

Animprovementinteachersworkingconditionsandworking

environment, in particular by: encouraging all teacherorganisations to develop strategies to improve teachers workconditions; calling on employers to secure a good start ornew teachers and improve arrangements or senior teachers;providing teachers with guaranteed development possibilitieincluding continuous proessional development and urthereducation; ensuring attractive proessional pay levels and careprogression or all teachers including ensuring that a teachers

pay level corresponds to the length o their education and tocomparable proessional career developments in society; ensuthat teachers enjoy a good physical and psychological workinenvironment, support rom management and respect or the o teacher; ensuring that working time corresponds to demanand resources; ensuring that teachers have an infuence on anparticipateindecisionsthataecttheirworkingconditions.


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Governments,employers,teachereducationinstitutions

and teachers through their trade unions to be involved in

comprehensive workorce planning to ensure that the supply oteachers is maintained.

High-quality continuous proessional development mustbe an integral part o proessional lie or all teachers, not abolt-on extra:

Sucienttimeshouldbeprovidedtoteachersforguaranteed

proessional development. Eachpartmustrecogniseitsresponsibilities:teachersmust

recognise the importance o acquiring new knowledge; authorities/

employers must ensure that CPD is an entitlement or teachers. CPDshouldbecoverednanciallybyemployers:nonancialcosts should beall individual teachers as a result o a need toundertake compulsory CPD.

Fullyqualiedsubstituteteachersmustbeavailabletotake

over classes when teachers are away or CPD, i it has not beenplanned in such a way as not to interere with a teacherstimetable.

ExperienceandknowledgegainedthroughCPDshouldbe

ocially acknowledged and given appropriate credit, accordingto content and level.

Anyevaluationorappraisalsystemshouldbebasedontrust

and on the acceptance and cooperation o teachers. Therelationshipbetweenresearchandschoolsandothereducational centres must be reinorced, including possibilitiesor teachers to take part in research projects, and partnershipsbetween teacher education institutions and schools must bestrengthened.

Possibilitiesformobilityshouldbeexpanded;thoughitmustbe

voluntary, mobility should be seen as an integral part o CPD. TheroleofteacherunionsinCPDshouldbestrengthened.

The ETUCE highlights that the induction phase, o at least oneyears duration, must involve systematic guidance and support or

newly qualied teachers and must be both a right and an obliga-tion or the newly qualied teacher. For the newly qualied teacher,the induction phase must include:

areducedteachingtimetablewithnocorrespondingdecrease

in remuneration; attendingamandatoryguidanceprogramme;

accesstoappropriatesupportresources;

opportunitiestorelatetheorytopracticeinasystematicway;

supportfrommentorsandothercolleagues;

Mentors in initial training and in the induction phase shouldbe ully qualied and experienced specialist teachers. Employersmust provide the means by which the mentors skills and proes-sional characteristics can be established, adequately assessed andenhanced, in particular through ensuring that:

appropriateincentivesareavailableinordertorecruitandretain

qualied mentors; allmentorsareoeredasalaryand/ortimeallowancethat

corresponds to the workload arising rom the demands andresponsibilities o their role; mentorshavetherightandobligationtoengageincontinuous

proessional development; allexperienceandknowledgegainedthroughcontinuous

proessional development is acknowledged.

The nal chapter o this policy paper places teacher education intothe broad social and economic context in which teachers and theeducation system must work. The ETUCE emphasises that teachersand their unions are important actors in society and contribute toshaping social attitudes and policies. It is important or teachers

to carry the consciousness o this pro-active social role with themin their day-to-day proessional work. The nal chapter thus seeksto refect on a number o the societal issues which teachers mustengage in today, including the emerging knowledge society andits impact on equity in education; the growing cultural diversity insociety and promoting equal opportunities or all learners regard-less o social, economic, cultural, ethnic and racial background orsexual orientation.

Although the policy paper dedicates separate sub-chapters todescribethespecicitiesofteacherndeducationfordierent

categories o teachers, e.g. early childhood teachers and VET teach-

ers, the recommendations presented in the policy paper as a wholeconcern all categories o teachers.

Chapter 1: Executive Summary


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A policy or teacher

education in Europe

Chapter 2 2


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An evolving policy

Teacher education is the bedrock o the education system. Thisassertion, made in the ETUCE publication Teacher Education inEurope in 1994, remains true today. A high quality teacher educa-tion is essential or the quality and relevance o education at alllevels, and to the high status o the teaching proession itsel. Forthese reasons, the teachers trade union movement has a strongcontinuing interest in teacher education. Our longstanding interestand concern has now been picked up by the key European and in-ternational policy structures: or example, the European Union andthe OECD are now actively working to address the agenda whichthe teachers unions have identied (see Boxes A and B on EU and

OECD developments). They oten agree on the problems we ace,but not always on the solutions. In addition, recent over-archingEU or pan-European developments like the Lisbon Strategy or theBologna Process are likely to have a signicant impact on teachereducation. The ETUCE thereore believes that it is timely or us nowto publish our vision o teacher education or the 21st century.

In the 14 years since the preparation o our earlier statement, anumber o major trends in the classroom and in the school com-munity have reinorced the importance o teacher education. Theinormation technology revolution has taken a central role in theclassroom and has transormed aspects o the curriculum. Globali-

sation and awareness o global issues, as well as the developmento policy within the EU itsel, now play a more signicant part inschool lie. Schools are now expected to address in a more directway, a wide range o social issues including living in multi-culturalsocieties,issuesofgenderandsexuality,aswellasthedierent

learning opportunities opened up by IT. The learning process itselaces radical new approaches and infuences.

Children themselves make even higher demands o education, andare developing more autonomous skills. Pressures are growingrom children and their parents to maximise their educationalpotential, with a greater proportion than ever now aspiring to

higher education. National governments and European institutionsnow recognise a highly educated population as a key determi-nant o economic success and sustainability. In some countries,governments or other public authorities are making new demandsor perormance measurement or ranking in education, which arenot only giving teachers new tasks but also adding to the stresso the teachers job. These growing societal pressures all place

new demands on teachers. The new demands or access to higheducation, which are bringing greater numbers and diversity ostudent population, also have had a dramatic and challenging ipact on teaching and academic lie within higher education itse

All these phenomena are refected in the shit o mainstreameducation rom the margins to the centre o the European agenin the last 15 years. The Lisbon Strategy or a Europe o Knowleddepends on the role o education and o teachers or its success-ul achievement, and is just part o the European Unions steadiincreasing interest in education. The EU is a player in the BolognProcess, an inter-ministerial process covering 46 countries worktowards a coherent model o European higher education transce

ing the boundaries o the EU and moving much more rapidly byinter-governmental agreement than the EU was able to do.

The ETUCE itsel is now working with the European Union institutions to address a ar wider range o educational issues in greatdepth, than ever beore. Teacher education and supply is perhapthe most important and infuential o those issues. It is also an iwith the capacity to uniy the teaching proession and strengthits sense o common purpose. This publication sets out to reviewETUCEs policy on teacher education or the 21st century, takingaccount o the trends identied above.

A key concept in teacher education is that o the teacher as a higstatus proessional: qualied to higher education level, with arecognised range o proessional competences, able to exercisea signicant degree o proessional autonomy and judgement,and expected both to take responsibility or their own continuoproessional development and to contribute to the proession aa whole and the development o educational policy and practicInitial teacher education and induction must be expected to layoundations or this rounded high status career.

A high quality teacher education based on an integrated systemo initial education, induction and continuous proessional

development is needed more than ever, to address the ongoingdemands on teachers, and the increasing pace o change and onew demands they will ace during their proessional lietimes.A rm initial oundation is essential to equip new teachers withthe knowledge, competences, skills, attitudes, awareness and cdence required to teach, to be pro-active and to manage changas proessionals in a rapidly evolving environment. We would ec


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the emphasis which the 1994 publication gave to the need to buildcontinuous proessional development into all teachers careers romthe outset, to ensure they can meet the continuing proessionalchallenges they ace. It is reasonable to assume that the challengesand changes to be met by new teachers entering the proessiontoday will be at least as great as those the current generation haveaced. We need to equip our teachers to ull their role as leadersand role models in a society in radical transition.

There is no doubt that the improvements o teacher educationadvocated or in this policy paper will require signicant increasesin resources. Considering the positive impact it will have on thequality o education and on students achievements, this invest-

ment is clearly worthwhile.

Recruitment andretention o teachers

The importance o teacher education in the context o teachersupply cannot be ignored, which in turn involves broad issuesrelating, or example, to the demography o the proession, politi-cal decisions regarding the size o primary and secondary schoolclasses, and the attractiveness o teaching as a career. In the yearssince the publication o the 1994 statement, the ETUCE has placedconsiderable emphasis on the issues o recruitment and retention,

as teaching has lost ground to other proessions and career paths,and in some countries serious teacher shortages have arisen. TheETUCE has urged the public authorities to address these short-ages, in particular by improving the attractiveness o teachingas a proession, with enhanced status, pay and conditions andimproved career prospects. So ar, too little has been done to avertthe problem, which amounts to a slowly growing crisis in the worstaectedcountries.

At the present time, teacher supply aces a new challenge in anumber o European countries, rom the approaching retirementrom teaching o the baby boomer generation born in the decade

ater World War Two. That generation entered teaching during the1960s ater post-war reconstruction was complete, at a time ogreat optimism and expansionism in education in many countries.At a time when opportunities or entry to mainstream highereducation were more limited than now, in some countries teachereducation was also a way into urther study or many young peoplewho would otherwise have been denied a higher education. In

many countries, battles were ought and won over the rightulplace o teacher education as a part o higher education.

The size o the baby boomer generation, the values it espoused,and the accumulated experience it has built up, have had aproound infuence on education over the last 40 years. Subsequentintakes o teachers have oten aced greater uncertainties, rapidchanges and a questioning o the teachers place in education andsociety. The loss o the baby boomers may be seen as a urther tiltaway rom old certainties and towards a more complex and morechallenging uture.

In the immediate uture, the teaching proession will have to

recruit and retain teachers in most European countries at a higherrate than it has done in recent years i it is to match the numberswho will retire and those who will be lost to other causes. Publicauthorities and schools will need to address the issues that ariserom the loss o a high proportion o their most experiencedteachers, oten with special responsibility or the development anddelivery o the curriculum, continuous proessional development oteachers, or school management.

The ETUCE has also argued that recruitment policy should refectthe ull spectrum o society in terms o gender, class, ethnic originsor belies, sexuality and disability: ater all, schools are microcosms

o society. We have been particularly concerned that in a number ocountries teaching, particularly at the primary level, is becoming anoverwhelmingly emale proession. We believe that more should bedone to attract and retain teachers rom across the social spectrum,particularly men. Governments must be pro-active in promotinginclusive recruitment policies and must remove any barriers, ormalor inormal, to entry to teacher education arising rom racist, sexistor homophobic belies and behaviour.

Teacher education institutions and programmes are key tools or therecruitmentofteachersineect,theshopwindowoftheprofession

or many considering entry to teaching. Their programmes o study

must look relevant, exciting and attractive. They must nd a balancedway o combining theory, knowledge and skills, and supervisedpractice to ensure that entrants to the proession are able to combinethekeyelementsoftheireducationeectivelyintheclassroom.

Also, unlike 40 years ago, teacher education programmes needalso to acknowledge that the skills which teachers acquire equip

Chapter 2: A policy or teacher education in Europe


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them or a number o other proessional careers, and that anumber o prospective teachers will nd their way into thosealternative careers immediately ater qualiying or ater onlya ew years experience o the classroom. Equally, students onprogrammes leading to other proessions may nd themselvesattracted to teaching and cross over onto teacher educationprogrammes. This two-way fuidity is inevitable, and has beenostered by the trend or teacher education students to studyalongside other students in broad-based institutions. It is anotherinter-generational change away rom the certainties and rigidi-ties o a career or lie, and refects the changing patterns o 21stcenturysociety.Entrytoteachingfromquitedierentcareersby

mature entrants ollowing successul practice in another career

path should be encouraged under certain circumstances and pro-vided that adequate re-qualication is achieved and the standardso qualications are maintained. Not only is this a source o highquality teachers, but it strengthens the links between educationand other elds o society and employment. These students tooneed to be encouraged to enter teaching with programmes thatcan accommodate their needs. Developing programmes thatacilitate alternative and more fexible routes into the teachingproession must however not be used by public authorities as anexcuse to reduce investment in teacher education or as easy solu-tions to address immediate crises in recruitment.

A current problem which has grown signicantly in some nationalsystems, is that o the pool o inactive teachers people whohave trained as teachers but who or whatever reason, have letthe proession. Many o these may be working in other proessionsbut others are economically inactive. There is enormous potentialor attracting them back into active work as teachers. However,or these inactive teachers as or other potential practitioners, theright conditions in particular the attractiveness o the schoolenvironment and o teaching as a well rewarded, high status careersupported by appropriate proessional development includingproessional development specically designed to support them asthey re-enter teaching ater a break have to be achieved. It must

be recognised that growing numbers o teachers, as o memberso other occupations, are likely to wish to have available greaterfexibility in their patterns o employment. This will impact on thenumbers o teachers to be recruited and educated.

Throughout Europe, the challenge o teacher supply and retentionhas been met in par t by the recruitment o teachers rom other

countries, including rom outside Europe. There is also a growintendency towards mobility o teachers within Europe. These trehave raised complex practical and ethical issues. These include tneed to protect incoming teachers rom exploitation, measuresintegrate them into host schools and to ensure that their proessional training matches the host systems needs, and the need tprotect their home countries education systems rom the loss ocadres o trained teachers. At its best, the employment o teachrom other countries can create a win-win situation, but thisoutcome needs to be consciously worked or i it is to be achieveIncoming teachers will have particular needs or induction andre-orientation, rom the host countries teacher education systeThe ETUCE asserts that the EU should support the development

o international protocols and agreements which outlaw activerecruitmentfromlessdevelopedcountrieswhileaordingteacopportunities or mutual proessional development through opportunities to work in other countries and cultures.

Finally, head teachers and others in management roles are drawprimarily rom among the teaching orce itsel. We would arguestrongly that this is right and should continue to be the case, oreasons o career progression but also in order to ensure the prosional integrity and collegiality o schools and their managemeBut it means that teacher supply policy must take account o thactor which will take a number o teachers wholly or partly out

ront-line teaching; and also that teacher education and recruitment strategies and curricula must bear in mind that a signicaminority o entrants to teaching will be called upon to take upmanagement positions at a later stage o their careers. The overcalibre o the teaching proession must be sustained to ensure tacadreofstawiththecapacitytogrowintothesemanageme

roles is available.

Qualications and competences

Teaching is a demanding proession requiring a complex matrixknowledge and competences. In most European countries, teac

education qualications are rmly recognised as part o highereducation. The ETUCE strongly supports higher education statusor teacher education qualications and will strongly resist anyattempt to diminish this status. The ETUCE will resist any attemto dilute or shorten courses, or example under the rubric o theBologna Process and its prescribed lengths o degree courses. Wstrongly assert that proessional education at least to Masters


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level in the Bologna system should become the objective or allteachers. Teacher education courses have varied in length, andthis to some extent is determined by a number o educational andsocial circumstances: we do not intend to be prescriptive about thelength o such qualications but it is clear that the total length oinitial study, including subject and proessional studies togetherwith teaching practice, will need to be at least as long as what isrequired or a Masters Degree course.

Inanumberofcountriesarangeofdierentcoursesandprogrammes

o study and practice now lead into a teaching career, in order torefect the needs o an increasingly diverse range o entrants. This iswelcome but we would strongly assert that such welcome fexibility

should not diminish the level o achievement to be reached byentrants beore they can be considered as a qualied teacher.

A key aspect o partnership in teacher education, proessionaldevelopment and the maintenance o a sel-regulating proessionis the existence o statutory and/or publicly recognised proessionalstructures responsible to and accountable primarily to teachers butalso including the voices o other interested parties. The responsi-bility o such a structure or the development and maintenance oproessional standards reduces opportunities or direct intererenceby governments with short term and/or ill-inormed proposals ordirecting the teaching proession.

Teacher education courses need to cover educational theory,pedagogy and classroom techniques, as well as exposure to arange o related disciplines including child psychology and thelaw relating to education. In addition, courses need to properlyintegrate teaching practice in schools, under controlled condi-tions, mentoring and supervision. All this is on top o subjectknowledge. Also, as society changes public authorities regularlyadd new requirements to teachers workloads, like multi-cultural education, or inormation technology applications in theclassroom; and these need to be addressed in teacher education.Teacher education students need to be able to absorb and refect

on this broad range o knowledge and competences, and theyneed to be supported in this process.

In order to enhance initial teacher education at Masters level re-search in education should be strengthened. There is a need or moreknowledge in Europe about learning and teaching as well as interdis-ciplinary research in these elds. In addition, more teacher educators

with third cycle degrees in education should be available to educatestudents with education as a main subject at Masters level.

Initial teacher education must be acknowledged to be the rst,important stage in the ormation o a teacher. In particular, it mustbe careully articulated with the induction o teachers into theproession. Initial education should also instil the expectation thatteachers have the right and responsibility to participate in continu-ous proessional development throughout their careers.

Continuous proessionaldevelopment

One o the key eatures o the 1994 ETUCE statement was theemphasis it placed on continuous proessional development itsaid, during teachers proessional careers assumptions concern-ing the nature and purpose o learning and education; the valuesystems o schools and o society; and the interests, capabilities andambitions o children and adolescents will all be very much alteredrom the assumptions o the proession they entered. As proes-sionals, teachers adapt to changed circumstances and demandswith varying degrees o sensitivity and adequacy, but reliance onthis alone is unreasonable. The employers o teachers and teachersthemselves must recognise their responsibility or ensuring that,throughout their careers, teachers are able to adapt and up-date

their proessional skills.

This assertion is even more true today, given the increasing pace ochange and new demands on teachers. Assumptions about teach-ers rights and responsibilities to undertake CPD must be built intoeach phase o teacher education including initial education.

Teacher education or all

This publication is concerned with all teachers at all levels. Teachereducation programmes are needed or teachers in post schooleducation and in specialist elds o teaching as much as those in

pre-primary, primary and secondary education. That is not to saythat one size ts all: or example, teachers in higher education, themajority o whom will have studied to postgraduate or PhD level,and who still have a major research component to their job, willrequiredierentformatsforteachereducationthanentrantsto

school teaching. Teachers taking on managerial, leadership or coun-selling roles in education at any level, or changing their teaching



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roles in other ways, will also require careully tailored proessionaleducation. The ETUCE believes that teacher education must developa diversity o programmes and means o delivery to meet the widerange o needs across the education system; planning and provid-ing or such diversity must however not be used as an opportunityto reduce standards o teacher education or any group.

The relationship and balancebetween higher educationinstitutions and schools

It is clear rom the oregoing comments, that teaching must bea highly qualied and high status proession. Teacher education

must also be able to draw on and contribute to educationalresearch: there is a need or a two-way fow between teaching andits related activities and research into all aspects o the teaching/ learning process. We believe strongly that teacher educationshould be the responsibility o the universities and other highereducation institutions. The trend that we observed at the time othe previous ETUCE publication on teacher education in the early1990s, the shit o teacher education rom monotechnic institu-tions to inclusion within universities or other institutions with awider discipline base, has continued. In most countries o Europe,teacher education is now taught alongside at least some otherdisciplines, and in many cases it has the benet o being included

in universities teaching and undertaking research across a more orless complete range o disciplines.

This is welcome as long as the key characteristics o teacher educa-tion are protected: it must be recognised as part o a continuousprocess in which teachers renew their knowledge and compe-tences throughout their careers; and higher education institutionsmust deliver it in close partnership with schools in which teachereducation students gain rst hand experience. Such partnerschools will need to work with the universities to determine theexact balance in the teacher education curriculum taught in thetwo environments.

These issues will be considered in more depth in the ollowingchapters.


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At EU level, the cooperation on teacher education among MemberStates have increased in recent years in the context o the increasedpolitical cooperation on education since the launch o the LisbonStrategy in 2000. The improvement o the education o teachers andtrainers was identied as one o the key objectives to improve theoverall quality o the education and training systems in the EU. In2002 the Commission established an expert group with representa-tives o Member States, social partners and other stakeholders to

support the implementation o this objective, notably throughidentiying key issues and exchanging best practices. In 2004, theCommission was given the mandate by the Council o Ministers tobegin the development oCommon European Principles on TeacherCompetences and Qualications, a common ramework to supportpolicy reorms on teacher education in the Member States. Theexpert group developed a set o common principles which were pre-sented in 2005, but it was not until August 2007 that the Commis-sion ormally presented the results o its work on teacher educationin a Communication on Improving the Quality o Teacher Education.

In its work on teacher policy, the Commission is drawing on data

rom both the OECD and Eurydice: in 2002-2004, Eurydice publishedour reports as part o a comprehensive survey on The TeachingProession in Europe: Prole, Trends and Concern. In the contexto the development o EU indicators in education, the EU has alsoentered into a ormal cooperation with the OECD on the collectiono data. The data which will be collected via the TALIS survey willormally provide the basis o an EU indicator on teachers continu-ous proessional development. This indicator will add to the threeexisting indicators on teachers at EU level which long have beenacknowledged as inadequate as they only relate to the issue oshortages/surpluses o teachers.

The Commissions Communication on Improving the Quality o TeacherEducation, nalised in August 2007, presents an analysis o thechallenges acing teacher education today and proposes policy stepsto be addressed at national and EU level. Contrary to the work thatwas underway in 2004-2005, the emphasis here is less on dening aprole o teachers and more on the policy steps needed in the lighto the current challenges. Among such challenges, the Communica-tion highlights the limited access to proessional development or

teachers in many Member States, the low investment in proessionaldevelopment across the EU, as well as the lack o coherence andcontinuity between initial education, induction and continuousproessional development.

In the Communication, the Commission suggests a number opolicy steps. These involve lielong learning or teachers, includingappropriate induction, mentoring, discussions on developmentneeds between teachers and school principals, and ensuring thatadequate unding is available to these ends. Other policy stepsinclude ensuring that teachers have the skills to identiy the needso each individual learner and support them to be ully autonomous

learners, to work in multicultural settings, and to help young peopleacquire the key competences. Teachers should moreover be encour-aged to continue to refect on their own practice in a systematic wayand to engage in classroom-based research. Furthermore, the Com-mission recommends that teacher education programmes should beavailable in the Master and Doctorate (as well as Bachelor) cycles ohigher education.

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EU policy development on teacher education


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The OECD launched a review o teacher policy in 25 countries in2002. Based on national reports submitted by each country as wellas external reviews o 10 countries, the OECD published in 2005 thereport Teachers Matter: Attracting, Developing and Retaining EectiveTeachers which sets out policy suggestions on a wide range o issueswithin teacher policy. As the rationale behind the review, the OECDcites the increasingly complex demands on schools and teachers aswell as research indicating that teacher quality is perhaps the policy

area most likely to lead to substantial gains in student perormance.Since 2005, the OECD has as a ollow-up been preparing a large-scalequestionnaire survey o teachers and school principals TALIS which will be conducted in Europe in the spring o 2008. EighteenEU countries will participate in the survey which will collect data onteachers belies and attitudes, their proessional development, andon school management.

In its policy suggestions in Teachers Matter, the OECD states that theoverarching priority or countries should be to have a clear and con-cise prole o what teachers are expected to know and be able to do,as well as perormance standards or what counts as accomplished

teaching. The OECD underlines that the prole should be evidence-based and it should build on the active involvement o the teachingproession in dening competences and standards o perormance.

Secondly, the OECD highlights the importance o viewing teacher de-velopment as a continuum and in lielong learning terms. The OECDnotes that in most countries it is initial teacher education that is mostin ocus, but it recommends that, in terms o debates over the lengtho teacher education, countries will see a better value o increasingresources to induction and proessional development rather thanincreasing the length o initial teacher education. As policy responsesto ensure teachers proessional development, the OECD highlights

that the teacher prole should include a clear set o expectationsabout teachers own responsibility or their continuous development.It moreover recommends that a combination o three strategies tointegrate proessional development throughout the career wouldprovide the most comprehensive model: i) entitlements determinedvia collective bargaining; ii) incentive-based, linking proessional

development to needs identied in an appraisal system and/or ming proessional development a requirement or salary increaseslinking proessional development with school improvement need

The main theme in the policy suggestions regarding initial teacheducation is to make it more fexible and responsive. This includproviding opportunities to train as a teacher ater having compleother studies; an increase in the common components o teacher

educationfordierentlevelsofeducationinordertoincreasetheopportunitiesforteacherstoswitchbetweendierentlevelsdu

their career; alternative routes into teaching or mid-career chaners; as well as retraining and upgrading programmes or existingteachers to gain new qualications to teach in other types o schor in other subject areas. Improving the entry selection into teaceducation is also seen as critical, especially in countries with teacshortages, given the risk o a higher number o graduates notproperly motivated to enter the teaching proession i admissionteacher education is unrestricted. As regards the content o teacheducation programmes, the OECD notes that the general impressrom the country reports in the sur vey is that there still is a conce

over whether teachers in primary school are suciently groundein subject matter content and whether they have the skills orongoing development, whereas in relation to secondary teachersthe concern rather regards a lack o pedagogical skills, especiallyor new teachers. There is also a concern about limited cooperatibetween teachers, as well as too little sharing o experience betwpracticing teachers and teacher educators. In response, the OECDcalls in general or an improvement o the practical eld experienduring initial teacher education, especially more practical experieearly in the programme, an improvement o induction programmas well as more partnerships between schools and teacher educainstitutions and measures to encourage schools to develop as lea

ing organisations.

Textbox B

The OECD and teacher education in the EU


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Initial teacher educationChapter 3 3


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3.0 General purposes

The quality o teacher education

The quality o teacher education has become a key issue in recentyears. The proessional dimension o initial teacher educationis high on the European agenda and in some countries teachereducation programmes and teacher education institutes are beingreviewed. There is a growing interest in how best to dene thecompetences and qualications that are required to be admitted asa qualied member o the teaching proession. However, despiterecent reorms in a number o countries, initial teacher education

is in several respects still not preparing teachers adequately orthe complexity o the teaching career today. In this chapter, theETUCE sets out a policy vision or initial teacher education that, iimplemented, will not only bring about signicant improvementsin terms o teacher quality but will also contribute to restoring thehigh status and respect which the teaching proession deserves. TheETUCE believes strongly that the length and content o teacher edu-cation programmes have a major impact on the quality o teachers.The status o teachers must derive rom their qualications, skillsand competences.

Teacher education at

Masters levelTeaching is a demanding job. Hety work demands are placed onteachers and they are expected to have a wide range o knowledge,skills and competences, to be qualied proessionals and to respondto a diversity o tasks they carry out in schools. In todays society,teachers are taking on an increasing degree o responsibility in theclassroom as well as in the wider school environment. As schoolsand other educational institutions unction more and more as anopen learning environment, teachers no longer work together onlywith their peers but collaborate also with other proessionals andmembers o the community. They maintain contacts with parents,

higher education institutions and with colleagues rom otherschools rom the same country or rom abroad. In addition teachersare expected to deal with complex social and personal problemsofchildrenandyoungpersonswhichmayleadtodisaectionand

learning problems and on some occasions also to direct anti-socialand violent behaviour in schools.

Initial teacher education must be well structured and run orlong enough to make it possible to provide in-depth qualications in all relevant subjects, including in pedagogical practiceIn order to ull the requirements or becoming a teacher todait is the ETUCEs rm belie that the objective should be that ateachers are educated to a Masters level. The demands placedteachers today in terms o in-depth subject knowledge, advanpedagogical skills, refective practice and ability to adapt teacing to the needs o each individual child/pupil/student as welas to the needs o the group o learners as a whole, require thteachers are educated at a highly advanced level and equippewith the ability to integrate knowledge and handle the degrecomplexity which characterises studies at a Masters level. Un

the subheadings below, the key elements o teacher educatioare dealt with in more detail.

The Ministers o Education in the EU recently made a joint recommendation advocating that teachers should achieve a high leveskills during their initial teacher education. The principal aspectthis recommendation are in line with the ETUCEs vision o teacheducation. These skills include: teaching a series o transversalcompetences; creating a sae and attractive school environmenteachingeectivelyinheterogeneousclassesofpupilsfromdiv

social and cultural backgrounds and with a wide range o abilitand needs; working in close collaboration with colleagues, pare

and the wider community; developing new knowledge and beiinnovative through engagement in refective practice and reseaand becoming autonomous learners in their own career-longproessional development.1 In the opinion o the ETUCE, the next

Ministers must take is to put orward concrete proposals or teach

education at Masters level.

Although primary school teachers in only 6 countries o the EU tostudy to the level o the Masters Degree (Estonia, Finland, GermaPoland, Portugal and Slovenia), developments are moving in theright direction in Europe. Serbia recently introduced a Masters leprogramme o study or primary school teachers, and in Iceland t

Minister o Education has proposed a bill that will introduce a Maters Degree or all teachers, including teachers in early childhoodeducation. There is no doubt that the act that teachers in Finlandhave or many years been required to complete a Masters Degreehas contributed to the attractiveness, the high proessionalism a

1 Conclusions rom the Council o Ministers (Education) onImproving the Quality o TeacEducation, November 2007


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Chapter 3: Initial teacher education

the high social status o the teaching proession in this country andin turn to the outstanding success o its school system.

In-depth qualiications in all relevantsubjects, including pedagogical practice

Initial teacher education must be o high quality. It should beresearch-based and meet high academic standards, and at thesame time be rooted in the reality o everyday lie in schools. Teach-ers have to be amiliar with and able to use the latest research bothwithin their respective subject areas and relevant disciplines as wellas in terms o pedagogical knowledge in order to perorm high-quality teaching. It is essential or there to be a close connection

between the theoretical elements o teacher education and practicein the classroom.

Initial teacher education must provide teachers with qualica-tions in all relevant subjects, as well as pedagogical practice.Teacher education must provide a combination o knowledge oacademic subjects and knowledge and skills in educational sci-ence, including pedagogy, methodology and didactics. The studyo child development (psychological, emotional, social, cognitive,etc.) must be an inherent part o educational science. At the sametime, student teachers must develop skills in human relations,communications, team working, the prevention or management

o conficts, both with adults and with children and adolescents, aswell as learn to refect on their own practice, adapt and innovate.Specically, initial teacher education must provide teachers withthe dispositions and skills required to contribute actively to col-legial working at all levels within the school. With the welcomeemphasis in recent years on the importance o developingtransversal competences amongst pupils (learning-to-learn, socialand civic competences, etc.),2 it is equally essential that studentteachers should work in an interdisciplinary manner during theirstudies so as to develop their own cross-cutting skills (learning-to-learn, critical thinking, social justice etc.) as they becomespecialised in achieving transversal objectives or pupils learning

outcomes across the traditional curriculum subjects and themes.As stated by the European Commission, teachers are increasinglyasked to develop more collaborative and constructive approachesto learning and increasingly called upon to help young peoplebecome ully autonomous learners by acquiring key skills rather

2 C. the Education Council and European Parliament Recommendation on Key Competencesor Lielong Learning (2006)

than memorising inormation.3 Also, the act that a number oEuropean countries are currently in the process o developingcompetence-based and outcome-based curricula or schools4will evidently have to be taken into account by teacher educationinstitutions and adequately refected in their curricula.

Moreover, it is essential that the teaching o the academic subjectsin teacher education is done in the context o teacher education.The acquisition o subject knowledge during teacher educationmust be seen as an integral part o the acquisition o skills intranserring this subject knowledge to uture learners.

Various teaching methods

Teacher education must prepare prospective teachers with theknowledge and practical skills to judge which teaching methods aremostappropriatetotheneedsofthedierentgroupsofchildren/

pupils/students and o the individual child/young person. Teachersmust have knowledge and skills in the range o pedagogical ap-proaches available to them, including, but not restricted to, the evergrowing range o media and approaches made available throughdevelopments in ICT. Being able to adapt teaching so that thelearning needs o the class as a whole are reconciled with the needso the individual pupils is one o the most complex yet also mostrewarding o a teachers tasks. To this end, teachers must possess

research-based knowledge that gives them the competence toexert the high degree o autonomy o judgement which is requiredto adapt their teaching methods to each situation.

A signiicant research component

The ETUCE strongly supports the principle that development ineducation should be evidence-based, and thereore not only is itnecessary or prospective teachers to acquire in-depth knowledgeo the latest research within their respective subject areas, butinitial teacher education must also include a signicant componento development work and research projects. Student teachers must

acquire theoretical knowledge and skills in research methodologiesto organise, implement and analyse research and developmentwork usually within their own classroom or school and elsewhere.This is essential or enabling teachers to be refective practitioners

3 European Commission: Communication on Improving the Quality o Teacher Education,August 2007

4 Commission Sta Working Document accompanying the Council and Commission joint 2008Progress Report on Education and Training 2010, p. 47


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throughout their careers and to assess and improve their teaching;it will also increase teachers ability to conduct research themselvesinto their own practice and cooperate with research institutionson research projects as part o their teaching career. The modelso research used are built upon a concept o teaching as praxisand require the students or teachers to both examine critically thetheories they espouse in the light o their ndings in school and toexamine critically their ndings in the light o theory.

Today, the research component in teacher education in the majorityo EU countries is ar rom adequate. The ETUCE expects to see sig-nicant improvements in this area in the near uture, not least in thewake o the recent emphasis which the EU Education Ministers gave

to the need or todays teachers to develop new knowledge and beinnovative through engagement in refective practice and research.5

Qualiied and motivated students

Teacher education programmes must be able to recruit the mostqualied candidates. Ensuring that the teacher education is at ahigh level is one o the most important means to attract and recruitthe best-qualied students (see chapter 5 on the recruitment andretention o teachers). This is also why the ETUCE rejects the view othe OECD that rather than prolonging the duration o initial teachereducation, governments should invest in continuous proessional

development.6

I initial teacher education is not at a sucientlyhigh level, the education programme will not be attractive to thebest-qualied candidates. Moreover, initial teacher education mustequip teachers with the competences and skills they need to becometruly refective practitioners and thus motivated to engage in andgain ull benet rom continuous proessional development. The actthat teacher education institutions in Finland have on average ourtimes as many applicants as they are able to admit, testies to theattractiveness o a teacher education programme at Masters level.

At the beginning as well as during the degree programme, teachereducation institutions must set clear guidelines and expectations o

thestudentseortsandachievements,andtheinstitutionsmustdo their utmost to ensure that student teachers remain motivatedand genuinely engaged with the teaching proession. Guidancemust be available to assist at an early stage those ailing to progresssatisactorily in their studies.

5 Council Conclusions on Improving the Quality o Teacher Education (November 2007)6 OECD 2005

Encouraging teacher mobility betweendierent sectors o the education system

Teacher education must provide prospective teachers with enouexpertisetoencouragemobilitybetweendierentsectorsofed

tionanddierentprofessionswithintheeducationsector.Ther

should be close links and possibilities or mobility between thedierentsectorsoftheteachingprofessionfromearlychildhoo

teachers to university teachers, provided that adequate re-qualcation is acquired. Teacher education must open up the possibilor postgraduate studies, and possibilities or teacher educationprogrammes at Doctoral level must be available in order to alloteachers with a Masters qualication to develop their expertise

raise their level o qualication should they wish to do so.

A broad initial education has the capacity to prepare teachers torespond to the constant changes o the employment market and the challenges o mobility. The ETUCE also stresses the importanclooking at the qualications o teachers in the context o the EuroQualications Framework and the National Qualications Frame-works. Teachers qualications must be placed at the appropriate lin both the national and European qualications rameworks.

The proessional autonomy o the teacher

A highly qualied proession ensures a good balance betweenthe proessional autonomy o teachers and their public and sociaccountability. The proessional autonomy o the teacher is ocrucial importance in developing quality in education. Proessioautonomy is dependent on the recognition o teachers rights tocontribute to the development o policy, planning and practiceat all levels o the education system and to give shape to theeducation provided to pupils within the ramework o the natioregional legislation, the curriculum, the policy o the institute aits objectives and action plans. Teacher education must developthe skills required by al l teachers to work collaboratively withinand beyond their school. Proessional autonomy means that it i

the teacher who makes the choices about methods and how toaccomplish learning based on his/her proessional knowledge awell as on knowledge about the individual learners. There mustgeneral condence in the proessional expertise o the teacher. teaching is carried out in the classroom should never be prescribby persons outside the classroom reality.


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The teaching proession and teacher educationists must takeresponsibility or suggesting new methods and ways o workingbased on research. This does not imply that authorities should notalso suggest new teaching methods through in-service train-ing, proessional development and other means. For teachers tobegivendierentapproachesandmodelsfortheirteachingis

important and necessary, but it must never turn into a process odictating which methods to use.7

Institutional rameworkand duration

Teachereducationtakesplaceinmanydierentinstitutions

bearingmanydierentnames.Itmaytakeplaceinuniversities,university colleges, or specialist institutes. Its duration variesbetween countries. The length o teacher education programmesor primary education is 3 years in 8 EU/EFTA countries, 4 years in 15countries and around 5 years in 7 countries. Two countries, Irelandand Romania, have teacher education programmes o both 3 and4 years in length.8 Within the UK, Scotland has teacher educationprogrammes o both 4 and 5 years. For lower secondary educationthe average length o teacher education is 4.5 years, and or uppersecondary education the average is 4.8 years.9 The general trendhas been or the length o initial teacher education to increase,and in our view this is consistent with our call or teachers to be

educated to Masters level. In many countries primary teacher edu-cation has been increased to our years as it has reached universitylevel, and secondary teacher preparation has increased by a year asit has become a post-graduate qualication.

The structure o study or teaching qualications varies acrossEurope. Two dominant modes exist: the concurrent model and theconsecutive model. In the ormer, theory and practice are combinedduring the initial education. In the latter, the teaching qualication isachieved by undertaking pedagogical studies/training ater the initialeducation is completed. Also, a higher level o teacher qualication ora qualication or another teaching position can be achieved through

additional studies by an individual teacher during their career.

In terms o structure, teacher education at Masters level can beorganisedinseveraldierentways.Inmostcasesitwillentail:a)

7 See ETUCE: Quality in Education, 20028 Eurydice: Key Data in Education 2005, p. 206-207 (data rom 2002/2003). The length

recorded includes any fnal on-the-job qualiying or induction phase.9 Ibid, p. 208-211

combining pedagogical and subject studies in the same institutionor department o a university; b) combining studies or a MastersDegree in education and subject studies in the same or anotherdepartment o the university/college; or c) combining pedagogicalstudies in a specic department o the university/college and stud-ies or a Masters Degree in a specic subject in another departmento the university/college. In other cases it implies that studentswith a degree in a specic subject subsequently receive pedagogi-cal training which is similarly challenging in the demands it makeso the students to qualiy as a teacher, such as can be the case orteachers at upper secondary level.

The ETUCE has or many years strongly asserted that teacher educa-

tion must take place at a higher education establishment. However,arguing or teacher education at Masters level or all teachers doesnot imply that teacher education necessarily should take place atuniversities; it can also take place at university colleges or otherhigher education institutes.

National governments must nance initial teacher education; pro-spective teachers must not be expected to cover the costs o theireducation. Quality standards or degree programmes as well asproper quality assurance mechanisms must be put in place by therecognised public authorities. In countries where several modelso teacher education exist side by side, measures must be taken to

ensure that they conorm to a common high standard and enableteachers to be mobile within their eld.

Theory and practice

One o the key elements in teacher education is to ensure theright combination between theory and practice. This also includesensuring the right combination between teaching practice as anelement in ormal education programmes at the teacher educationinstitute and teaching practice arranged as separate periods at aschool. The proportion o time spent specically on proessionaltraining varies across the EU. The latest data available show

that when teacher education is provided at university level, theproportion o proessional training varies between 13 and 70%(or primary school teachers), with the highest proportions inIreland, Hungary, Malta, Finland and Slovenia. For lower second-ary teachers, the proportion o time spent on proessional trainingis generally lower: it ranges between 9.1% and 58.3%, withonly three countries above 50%: Belgium (French Community),



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Germany and Malta. For the upper secondary level, the proportiono proessional training in teaching skills (both theoretical andpractical) rarely exceeds 30%, except in Germany, Malta, the UK,and, to a lesser extent, in Italy, Luxembourg and Austria, at justabove 30%. In most other EU/EFTA countries, the proportion variesbetween 14 and 30 %.10

10 Ibid, p. 206-211 (data rom 2002-2003).

Teacher education programmes should provide solid training insubject knowledge and relevant theoretical disciplines together wmethodological expertise and teaching practice. School practice sometimes seen as disconnected rom the coursework in teachereducation. The combination between theory and practice in teaceducation needs to be improved in order to acilitate teaching.

11 Ritva Jakku-Sihvonen, Hannele Niemi, Research-Based Teacher Education in Finland, 2

InFinland,eortstobringtheoryandpracticeascloseaspossibletoeach other in a teacher education at Masters level have led to a systemwhere every universitys education aculty has a school connected toit or pupils rom close neighbourhood and with competent teachereducators as teachers. In these schools teacher students monitor andpractice teaching guided by teachers and other proessional expertso the university in learning, teaching and education and in subjectknowledge. In addition students practice also in other schools guidedby specially trained and experienced teachers.

The goal is that teacher students achieve knowledge o subject andeducation, pedagogic skills and ability to use the knowledge and ad-

vanced methods when teaching in any school environment. The aimo pedagogical studies is to create opportunities to learn pedagogicalinteraction, to learn how to develop own teaching skills, and to learnhow to plan, teach and evaluate teaching in terms o curriculum,the school community, and the age and learning capacity o pupils.Students should also learn how to cooperate with other teachers,parents and other stakeholders and representatives o society. The aimoftheguidedpracticeistosupportstudentteachersintheireortsto

acquire proessional skills in order to research, develop and evaluateteaching and learning processes. In addition, students should be ableto refect critically on their own practices and social skills in teachingand learning situations. During guided practical studies, students

should meet pupils and students rom various social backgroundsand psychological orientations and have opportunities to teach themaccording to curriculum.

The system concerns primary and lower and upper secondary schoolteacherswithsomedierences.Primaryteachershavescienceofedu -

cation as their major (125 ECTS), and the degree (300 ECTS) requircompletion o a Masters thesis. The topic o the thesis may be highschool-related and are oten action research projects.

The lower and upper secondary school teachers complete amajor in their academic teaching subjects and minor in peda-gogy (300-350 ECTS in total). Their educational studies ocus ondidactics and include practice (at least 60 ECTS). Today in mosto the cases educational studies are completed concurrently witheir academic studies in major eld. Only a ew students take opportunity to study pedagogy as a one-year block ater comping other studies. 60 ECTS o pedagogical studies are obligatory

qualication as a teacher.

An important aim o pedagogically-oriented studies in Finland isto educate teachers who are able to study and develop their ownresearch-based practices, to nd and analyse problems they mayace in their uture work. Research studies provide an opportunity complete an authentic project, in which students must ormulate problem in the educational eld, be able to search independently inormation and data related to the problem, elaborate them in thcontext o recent research in the area, and synthesise the results inorm o a written thesis. They learn to study actively and to internathe attitude o researches as they do their work.

In Finland, the responsibility or providing education or teachers aprimary and secondary level was transerred to universities in 197In the 1980s a reorm o teacher education was implemented whicentailed a requirement or all prospective teachers to complete aMasters degree.11

Textbox C

The relation between theory and practice inresearch-based teacher education in Finland


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The trend towards establishing specic school and college or uni-versity partnerships that create linkages between teacher educationcoursework and school practice is gaining ground (OECD 2005: 108).Tobeeectivethesepartnershipsmustoperatebothatthelevelof

the system and at the level o the individual school. Teachers whosupport students in their practical placements must be recognised asproessional partners in this process.

Relationships betweeninitial teacher educationinstitutes and schools

The ETUCE believes that it is necessary to create better linksbetween teacher education programmes and school practice. For

the ETUCE, schools are also learning environments or teachersin training, as the more experienced teachers acting as mentorsplay an important role in helping uture teachers to analyse theirclassroom practice. This also means that mentors should have suit-able proessional development (recognised i appropriate throughqualications) and access to research in order to ull this task.The ETUCE believes that the presence o mentoring systems withinschools should be developed (see chapters 4 and 6).

Establishing better partnerships between initial teacher traininginstitutions and schools can contribute greatly to developing schoolsas learning communities in general. In addition to providing practice

training to student teachers, schools are also learning communitiesor practising teachers, teacher educators and other stakeholdersin education. There is still a need or more research into the mostavourable conditions or such partnerships, but experience showsthat teachers who are engaged in such partnerships gain a greatersense o involvement in educational developments and opportuni-ties to update their knowledge and skills while the teacher educationinstitutions in particular benet rom the contact with everyday liein schools and learn rom good practices in schools. 12 Experience alsoshows that one key condition or a well-unctioning partnership isthat the role o each partner is careully dened rom the outset.

Teacher education and ICTFuture teachers should be given the opportunity to master ICTtechnically and pedagogically. A recent EU survey ound that over90% o classroom teachers use computers to prepare lessons and

12 C. Kari Smith, Presentation onPartnerships, EI/ETUCE seminar on Teacher Education, Bled,March 2008.

74%alsousethemasateachingaid,althoughtherearedierences

between countries ranging rom 95% in the UK to 35% and 36% inGreece and Latvia respectively. The survey also ound that primaryschool teachers were generally less competent than upper second-ary and vocational teachers. The survey did not, however, give anyinormation about the extent to which ICT is used or specic peda-gogical purposes.13In a recent survey carried out by the ETUCE, thelarge majority o respondents armed that ICT is ormally includedin teacher education programmes, but hal o the respondentspointed out that the economic resources available or ICT in teachereducation are not yet sucient.14

For the ETUCE it is important to encourage and support teachersin developing their proessional skills in the use o ICT. Only highly

skilled teachers can use their proessional skills and knowledgetodeterminethemosteectivepedagogicalusesofICTfortheirpupils and students. However, teachers must retain their key role inthe learning process. The ETUCE strongly emphasises that ICT is nota replacement or teachers. Consequently the ETUCE strongly rec-ommends that teachers are given adequate ICT education throughinitial teacher education, in-service training and proessionaldevelopment. This should also be supported by the developmentofeducationalresearchwithaviewtoanalysingthedierent

pedagogical ways o using ICT. 15

Teachers ownership o the

quality o teacher educationA key means o improving the quality o initial teacher educa-tion is to build on the expertise o practising teachers. Teachersand their unions must be closely involved in the development oinitial teacher education and continuing proessional developmentprogrammes and in dening proessional standards, in order todraw on their expertise and experience as well as to strengthenteachers ownership o the quality o both the initial education onew members entering the proession and o serving teachers.

An important way to implement such partnership in teacher

education and proessional development is the establishmento statutory and/or publicly recognised proessional structuresresponsible to and accountable primarily to teachers but also

13 Empirica (2006) Benchmarking Access and Use o ICT in European Schools 2006, c.European Commission Sta Working Document: Progress towards the Lisbon objectives ineducation and training: Indicators and Benchmarks (2007), p. 95

14 ETUCE Survey: Trends in Teacher Education: A survey carried out in 2006, p. 1615 See also the ETUCE Policy Paper on ICT in Education (2006)



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including the voices o other interested parties. The responsibil-ity o such a sel-regulating structure or the development andmaintenance o proessional standards enhances proessionalismand ensures continuity.

Teacher education andthe Bologna process

The impact o the Bologna process on teacher education is a topicto which the ETUCE continues to be attentive and or which itcontinues to develop urther analysis. As a matter o act, this proc-ess, which started in 1999, has developed over the years as a majorreorm movement involving 45 countries. It is characterised by the

implementation o a 3-cycle degree structure which has led to theintroduction o study programmes based on three main cycles (Bach-elor/Master/Doctorate),moreeectiverecognitionofdegreesand

periods o study and the promotion o quality assurance systems.

A recent study into curriculum reorms in higher education com-missioned by the European Commission has looked specicallyinto recent reorms to implement the Bologna Process degreestructure in teacher training. The researchers encountered particularchallenges in studying this eld as there has so ar not been anysystematic monitoring or coordination among teacher educationinstitutions regarding the implementation o the Bologna reorms.

The diversity o institutional and structural settings across teachereducation programmes moreover means that there is a varietyo ways in which teacher training can be adapted to the Bolognacycles, and the study ound that, in general, most countries are stilltrying to come to terms with dovetailing teacher training with thetwo-cycle degree structure.16

It should be noted that in some countries the implementation othe process has been used as a pretext or reducing the contentand the length o teacher education programmes where in act theBologna Process gives no instructions in such matters. The ETUCEasserts that this process should not lead to any dilution o teacher

education qualications, or any shortening o courses.

For the ETUCE, teacher education should be delivered across allthree cycles o higher education in order to ensure that it is placedat the highest possible level.

16 The extent and imp act o higher education reorms across Europe. Final report to DG Educa-tion and Culture prepared by the Center or Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS), theNetherlands (2007), p. 39-42

Identiying a prole o teachercompetences and qualications

Trying to identiy the skills and competences that teachers shouhave, given their changing roles in todays knowledge society, isgeneral trend that can be observed in many policy reorms abouinitial teacher education programmes. For policy-makers, thisapproach consists in elaborating proessional proles and standthat will provide a ramework to guide not only initial teachereducation but also teacher induction and certication. It is a mao concern that in some cases this has been used as a means olimiting teachers proessionalism rather than, as should be thecase, enhancing their ability to think critically and take decision

inormed by research.

Some denitions o proles are being used to refect in anadequate manner the tasks that teachers are expected to ull.Thereore the emphasis is not so much on the actual contents ocurricula but on the competences that teachers are able to showthroughout their career. There is a shit in emphasis rom certition based on the mastery o curricula to certication based oncompetences. Entrants into the teaching proession are expectedemonstrate that they have reached the status o qualied teacers by meeting a wide range o demands including knowledge,skills and competences, and proessional values and practice. Th

competences described must not be low-level, narrowly denedbehaviourist specications o knowledge and actions; rather theshould be high-level, broadly dened statements o the charactisticswhichmarkteachersatdierentstagesintheircareers.Th

should be built on a concept o teaching as praxis in which theopractice and the ability to refect critically on ones own and othpractice illuminate each other rather than on a concept o teachas the acquisition o technical skills. However, it should be clearsome skills and qualications can only be acquired ater startinwork as a teacher. This is why initial teacher education shouldbe viewed and conceived as a solid oundation on which to builcontinuous proessional development (see chapter 6).

Teaching skills are not static elements; they evolve throughout tdierentstagesofateacherscareerandarepartofanongoing

process. Similarly, qualications cannot be viewed as static: anumber o teachers obtain additional qualications during theicareer, e.g. through urther specialisation. Continuity throughoua teachers career can be promoted through the use o a commo


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structurefortheframeworksofcompetencesusedatdierent

stages. All standards should require the development o proes-

sional knowledge and understanding, proessional skills andproessional values and commitment. But it is not sucient solelyto develop these three aspects; rather to ensure proessional actionthey must be interlinked.

Teacher education andthe Education andTraining 2010 process

In the context o the Education and Training 2010 process, theCommission published in October 2005 a working paper entitledCommon European Principles or Teacher Competences and Quali-cations. The paper describes the tasks and values o the job o theteacher as one who is able to:

Workwithothers:theyworkinaprofessionwhichshouldbe

based on values o social inclusion and nurturing the potentialo every learner. They need to have knowledge o humangrowth and development;

Workwithknowledge,technologyandinformation:theyneed

to work with a variety o types o knowledge. Their pedagogicalskills should allow them to build and manage learningenvironments and retain the intellectual reedom to make

choices on the delivery o education; Workwithandinsociety:theypreparelearnerstobecomeglobally responsible in their role as EU citizens..; 17

This document also puts orward or the rst time a set o our prin-ciples which can be read as recommendations to policy-makers atthe national and regional levels. It is obvious that the emphasis onthe competences and qualications o teachers must be developedas a matter o priority. Nevertheless, nothing is mentioned in termso the length o teacher education programmes.

Awell-qualiedprofession:high-qualityeducationsystems

require that all teachers are graduates rom higher educationinstitutions and those working in the eld o initial vocationaleducation should be highly qualied in their proessional areaand have a suitable pedagogical qualication.

Aprofessionplacedwithinthecontextoflifelonglearning:

17 Common European Principles or Teacher Competences and Qualifcations, drawn up byCommission working group A, 2005

teachers should be supported in order to continue theirproessional development throughout their careers.

Amobileprofession:mobilityshouldbeacentralcomponentofinitial and continuing teacher education programmes

Aprofessionbasedonpartnerships:institutionsproviding

teacher education should organise their work collaboratively inpartnership with schools, local work environments, work-basedtraining providers and other stakeholders

The ETUCE ully supports these main guiding principles as theypresent the teaching proession as a highly qualied proession seenas a continuum which includes initial teacher education, inductionand continuing proessional development. However, these com-

mon European principles are broad and can only be used as policyguidelines. It is dicult to assess their impact on some o the policyreorms that have been implemented in initial teacher education.

In 2007, the European Commission issued a Communication onImproving the Quality o Teacher Education which in many wayspresents a satisactory analysis o the challenges acing teachereducation today. Contrary to the work that was underway in 2004-2005, the emphasis here is less on dening a prole or teachersand more on the policy steps needed at national and EU level in thelight o the current challenges. In its response, the ETUCE welcomedthe Communications attention to the existing challenges with re-

gard to the limited access to proessional development or teachersin many Member States, poor investment in proessional develop-ment across the EU, as well as the lack o coherence and continuitybetween initial education, induction and continuous proessionaldevelopment. While the Council o Ministers in its Conclusions in re-sponse to the Communication agreed with the Commissions analy-sis o the existing challenges, the ETUCE expressed regret at seeingthat the Ministers ailed to bring orward any rm commitment inrelation to raising the level o qualication and the degree o practi-cal experience o teacher education. The Ministers conrmed theirgeneral intention to promote that teachers acquire a high level ocompetences during their initial education, as stated above, but

ailed to express any substantial recommendation as regards theneed to raise the actual level o qualication o teachers.



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3.1Teachers in Early

Childhood EducationIn this section dealing with teachers in the early stages o the edu-cation sector, Early Childhood Education (ECE), the term teachersisusedtorefertothequaliedprofessionalsinECE.Fordierent

historical and traditional reasons the terminology o ECE and theprofessionsinvolveddiergreatlybetweentheEuropeancountries,

andatremendousvarietyofstaareinvolvedinECEtodayfrom

non-orlow-qualiedstamemberstowell-educatedprofession-als such as (pre-school) teachers, educators and pedagogues. Thiseld is on the one hand closely connected to lielong learning and

teaching and on the other hand also related to the care sector o amodern welare society.

Raising the status o ECE teachers

It is widely recognised today that education in early childhood is ogreat importance both or its own sake and in providing the oun-dation or subsequent learning and or an individuals success inlater lie. Yet in many systems, early childhood teachers still do notenjoy the same status as teachers in later stages o the educationsector. For many years, the ETUCE has advocated that teachers in

the early phases o the education sector should have the same levelo qualications and same status, rights and rewards as teachersin later phases.18 It goes without saying that the ETUCEs call or allteachers to be educated to Masters level also applies to teachers inearly childhood education.

A qualied proession

The education o teachers or ECE is closely related to teachereducation or other levels o education

Documents

ETUCE Policy Paper en Web