Teacher education in Finland

by

Tun Min

Introduction

Finnish teachers are highly trained professionals. Since they have strong professional autonomy, they need to undergo high training level (Finnish National Board of Education (FNBE), n.d.-a, para.1). Further, it is strongly believed in Finland that pre-service teacher education is “the most important arena for developing professional knowledge” (Afdal, 2012, p.169). Hence, this essay will first present how teacher education policy originated and developed in Finland. Next, it will turn to how student teachers are normally selected and how initial Finnish teacher education is being implemented. Then, the author will make a brief explanation of teacher recruitment and in-service teacher training that were covered by one of the group members during the seminar presentation, before concluding the essay.