A Series of Webinars “Mentoring in Teaching Practice” Has Started

A series of webinars «Mentoring in Teaching Practice» has started. It is carried out by the Learning Together project for the teaching staff of higher education institutions and schools. 

The first webinar was held on 17 October. The series of 15 webinars will last throughout October-December.

During the webinars the trainees will familiarize themselves with the Finnish initial teacher education, primary and secondary school teacher education structure, content and teaching practices.

The webinars also seek to increase understanding of a teacher’s professional development and growth to teachership. In particular, they will introduce the idea of a guided teaching practice and a school as a learning organization.

The topic of mentoring has been selected by representatives of 24 pilot higher education institutions – participants of Learning Together training programs. They have already taken part in three modules at an earlier stage of the project and chosen mentoring as the topic that requires attention.

The issue of mentoring acquires a new meaning in wartime – in addition to professional support, it also provides for social and emotional support.

The distinctive feature of the program is that in addition to teachers of higher education institutions (departments of primary education) it will be attended by representatives of schools where students undergo their teaching practice, namely, teaching practice supervisors and school administration representatives (a school principal or deputy principal). Thus, we will build teams: higher education institutions + schools.

The webinars are carried out by Riia Palmqvist, Counselor of Education in the Finnish National Agency for Education, PhD in Education with 20 years of experience in teaching, and Anja Huurinainen-Kosunen, MA in Education, teacher trainer, primary school teacher with almost 30 years of experience in teaching.