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Valinnaisaineiden opetuksen haasteita
Start date: Jul 1, 2016, End date: Jun 30, 2018 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Järvenpään lukio, one of the biggest upper secondary schools in Finland, has been striving to establish permanent contacts to Spanish schools for several years and launched collaboration with an Italian art and music oriented school. Teachers hold the key position in creating international contacts. Through their personal contacts to schools abroad they are able to inspire their students to study languages and culture as well as arts and crafts subjects. A teacher’s language skills and knowledge of the culture and society of the target country require constant updating in order to develop professional skills. It is essential that a teacher can get acquainted with schools in other European countries and create social networks with colleagues. By observing the lessons of other teachers and discussing pedagogical and didactic issues teachers discover good practices which they can adapt to their own teaching.The job shadowing mobility project is divided into two subordinate mobility projects, one with Spain and the other with Italy.The main themes in the mobility project with Spain are the current topical issues in the field of education: the changes digitalisation has brought about in learning environments, study materials and teaching methods as well as taking this development into account and including it into teacher training. Two language teachers participate in the mobility project with Spain.In the mobility project with Italy the themes cover the opportunities and challenges brought about by digitalisation in the field of education as well as how young students of arts and crafts, living in the peripheral areas of Europe, find their place in studies and working life. In addition, the participants survey the skills students need so that teachers are able to develop effective modern teaching methods. Five teachers participate in the mobility project with Italy.In the mobility project with Spain the participants gain insight into how Valencian upper secondary schools operate by monitoring lessons, comparing the digital learning environments and the digital study materials available or in process of making. They discuss pedagogical and didactic issues with the Spanish colleagues. Developing one´s skills in international interaction and in authentic surroundings also enables the participants to include culture-related materials in the study materials they create themselves for Finnish students. It is also essential to get feedback from both the students and teachers as to how digitalisation develops in language teaching.Since Järvenpään lukio is a teacher training field school for Helsinki University, the participants clollaborate with the Valencia-based teacher training centre Cefire regarding the challenges that teacher training faces because of digitalisation. The participating teachers of Järvenpään lukio are qualified teacher trainers, who will benefit from this dimension of co-operation when councelling teacher trainees in Finland. The Finnish teachers also give some short teaching sessions and workshops in upper secondary schools as well as the teacher training centre.In the mobility project with Italy the teachers observe the work of their colleagues in a music and art oriented upper secondary school, monitor lessons and workshops and discuss the didactic and pedagogical aspects of teaching arts and crafts subjects, development challenges and the future as well as the new working methods provided by ICT and digital learning environments, which enrich teaching methods and make them more efficient. They explore the extent to which Italian students continue their studies and find their place in working life and finally examine various methods of career counselling by interviewing both teachers and students. They observe cross-curricular working methods and negotiate prospective forms of cooperation, which also involve the use of digital learning environments.International collaboration in a revolutionary phase in the field of teaching where digitalisation is taking its first steps provides opportunities for interaction and comparison in the development process. Finnish teachers acquire an opportunity to develop the contents of their work in a versatile way: they improve their language skills and update their cultural competence as well as examine the newest challenges in teaching. International interaction also inspires their colleagues to create international networks and to enrich their teaching. Even students will benefit from the international contacts of the schools as they will be able to participate in project work and exchange programmes while their awareness of study opportunities abroad will increase.

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