Anniversary Seminar: Ten years of collaborative research-based development of Finnish Teacher Education

The Finnish Teacher Education Forum has been operating for a decade, and it has made a variety of achievements during its existence.

Visioning the future of the Finnish teacher education and concretizing the plans in broad collaboration is an established way of working together in the Forum. The Anniversary Seminar celebrates the Forum and demonstrates its’ current and future work.

Seminar programme

10.00 Coffee 

10.30 Opening Remarks and brief presentation of the Teacher Education Forum
Professor Auli Toom, President of the Teacher Education Forum, University of Helsinki

10.50 Welcoming Remarks
Dr. Marjo Vesalainen, Senior ministerial advisor, Ministry of Education and Culture
Dr. Tiina Silander, Dean, Faculty of Education and Culture, Tampere University

11.00 Keynote: Innovations in Teacher Education
Honorary Professor Viv Ellis, Centre for Teachers and Teaching Research, University College London

11.45 Lunch break

12.45 Short presentations of research projects funded by the Teacher Education Forum

  • Toolkit for pedagogical wellbeing (HyPeKit)
  • JOHTO+ Agency-enhancing pedagogical leadership in vocational teacher education
  • At the crossroads of language and cultural awareness – transforming the expertise of teacher    educators
  • Inclusion practices during the transition phase and collaboration in professional development (SILTA)
  • AI Agents in Teacher Education
  • An AI-based emotional communication detector for supervising student teaching – the special case of primary school mathematics instruction
  • Enhancing Early Childhood Teacher Education Students’ Understanding of Early Motor and Numeracy Learning 

14.05 Afternoon break

14.15 Panel discussion: Building sustainable teacher learning in stakeholder collaboration (TBC)
Päivi Lyhykäinen, Trade Union of Education in Finland OAJ
Riku Oras, Teacher Student Union of Finland SOOL
Mari Sjöström, Association of Finnish Cities and Municipalities
Päivi Ikola, Finnish Association of Principals SURE
Chair: Professor Auli Toom, President of the Teacher Education Forum

15.00 Future insights for the work of the Teacher Education Forum 
Professor A. Lin Goodwin, Boston College

15.35 Closing words
Professor Auli Toom, President of the Teacher Education Forum, University of Helsinki

15.45 Coffee

We kindly ask you to register for the seminar by 7th August at 

You are warmly welcome!