HyPeKit investigates the experiences of student teachers (n = 200) and supervisors (n = 50) at the Universities of Jyväskylä, Tampere, and Eastern Finland regarding the use of the HyPeKit toolkit in advanced teaching practice. The project is a research consortium whose key partners are the University of Jyväskylä (Professor Timo Jaakkola), the University of Eastern Finland (Professor Janne Pietarinen), and the University of Tampere (Research Director Tiina Soini-Ikonen).
The project examines the HyPeKit toolkit, developed for teaching practice to support competence in the pedagogy for well-being, its functionality in teaching practice, and its impact on the development of competence in the pedagogy for well-being. The intervention for guiding the pedagogy for well-being includes 1) research-based background material on holistic well-being and supporting it through pedagogical means 2) a tool for identifying well-being needs and suitable pedagogical well-being activities (approximately 150 different activities) 3) lesson and unit plan templates for integrating well-being pedagogy into teaching practice 4) a guide for the supervisor on using the tools, 5) a handbook on well-being pedagogy to support trainees and serve as a reporting tool, and 6) tools for evaluating the success of the implementation of well-being pedagogy. HyPeKit’s materials for pedagogical wellbeing are made available to student teachers and supervising teachers via the Howspace platform, which serves as a collaborative platform to support social learning and development. The multi-method intervention design includes baseline and follow-up measurements and utilizes qualitative and quantitative research instruments developed during the project.
The HyPeKit project advances the goals of the Teacher Education 2050 vision, particularly by ensuring that teacher education curricula, content, and teaching methods are also grounded in research-based knowledge from the perspective of well-being pedagogy, and that student teachers learn the practices of an inquiry-based approach. Furthermore, HyPeKit promotes teachers’ broad and versatile learning and teaching skills and development of professional agency, emphasized in the vision, focusing particularly on the reciprocal relationship between learning and well-being and taking this into account when planning pedagogical practices and implementing instruction. The toolkit developed in the project can be scaled up for widespread use in Finnish teacher education and teachers’ professional learning. The HyPeKit project produces scientific articles and presentations for Finnish teachers and teacher educators, and provides a diverse research dataset for a doctoral researcher.
In the JOHTO+ research project, we develop a research-based model of agency-enhancing pedagogical leadership in vocational education and training (VET), and investigate a training intervention for pedagogical leadership competencies based on this model in vocational teacher education. Pedagogical leadership is a phenomenon that has been scarcely studied in the context of vocational education, both internationally and in Finland. There is also a need for training in pedagogical leadership competencies in upper-secondary vocational education and teacher education that comprehensively covers the specific characteristics of vocational education leadership and the strengthening of the agency of teaching and guidance staff.
The development of a pedagogical leadership model that promotes agency in vocational education is based on previous research and an exploratory survey and interview study (fall 2025). The model, along with its reflective questions, will be published openly so that it can be used in educational institutions as a self-assessment tool for leadership. Based on the developed model, we will implement a vocational teacher education course in early 2026 at two vocational teacher education institutes (HAMK, JAMK). The key themes of the course are agency-based leadership, pedagogical leadership, relational leadership, and self-leadership.
Overall, the JOHTO+ project deepens the understanding of leadership in vocational education and creates new iniatives and practices for developing pedagogical leadership competence in vocational education and teacher education. Thus, the project’s results contribute to the realization of the vision for teacher education, which emphasizes the research-based development of leadership studies and pedagogical leadership competence as an important part of a teacher’s expertise (National Teacher Education Forum, 2025). The project’s results will be published in international and national scientific and professional journals.
The project is carried out by Häme University of Applied Sciences (lead partner; Katja Vähäsantanen, Heta Rintala, and Kristiina Räihä), Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences (Piia Kolho), University of Jyväskylä (Elina Fonsén, Hanna-Kaisa Pekkarinen, and Ritva Ylitervo), and University of Tampere (Päivi Hökkä). Project website:
Starting in the fall of 2026, the University of Jyväskylä will be the first university in Finland to offer an admission pathway for students with a Finnish as a second language to programs for early childhood education teachers and elementary school teachers. Teacher qualification requirements include strict language proficiency standards, so the education provider is responsible for ensuring that all teachers are equipped to support students in developing their language skills. Teacher educators should also learn to navigate multilingual and multicultural interaction situations and to identify and dismantle hidden discriminatory practices in Finnish higher education.
The increasing linguistic and cultural diversity among students therefore calls for renewal in teacher education. Our goal is to obtain a research-based basis for the professional development of teacher educators. During the academic year 2025–2026, we will conduct a staff training pilot at the University of Jyväskylä, involving teacher educators for classroom teachers and early childhood education teachers. We will examine the impact of the training using an intervention-based approach. Our research question is: How do teacher educators assess the strengthening of their language- and culture-aware teaching and guidance competencies as a result of the training? The research will be reported in the fall of 2026, and the results will be continuously implemented during the pilot to support the development of staff training.
The Principal Investigator of the project is by Sanna Mustonen, PhD, Docent (JYU); other members of the research team are Eija Aalto, PhD (JYU), Eila Burns, PhD (Jamk), Sanna Ryökkynen, PhD, and M.A. Päivi Pynnönen (Hamk).
The project relates to the challenges and opportunities of the Finnish education system identified in the Teacher Education 2050 vision, particularly the diversification of society, demographic trends, and polarization, as well as the societal challenges identified in the Teacher Education Development Program (2022–2026): strengthening inclusion and active citizenship, changing competence needs, the impacts of migration, and equality and equity (accessibility).
Principal Investigators: Mirja Tarnanen (University of Jyväskylä ) and Mervi Kaukko (Tampere University)
The SILTA project develops and studies pedagogical collaboration and co-teaching between subject teachers in lower secondary school and teachers in instruction preparing for basic education, particularly in situations where newly arrived students transition from preparatory education to basic education. The project aims to develop a research-based model of the factors that support a smooth transition for students and help them engage in lessons. The project also aims to strengthen a school culture in which teachers learn from one another and share their expertise.
The study will be conducted at the partner school in two development phases, the first of which, in the fall of 2025, will focus on collaboratively developing an organizational culture that supports diversity, while the second, in the spring of 2026, will focus more systematically on developing language-aware subject-specific pedagogical practices and supporting student engagement. In addition, teachers will participate in workshops supporting their professional development during both development phases. The effectiveness and impact of the development will be evaluated using qualitative (interviews, observations) and quantitative (InSitu survey translated into the students’ languages) methods. Interviews and observations provide information on the development of teachers’ competencies and the school culture. The quantitative data enables a detailed examination of students’ engagement in lessons.
The project’s aims align with the Teacher Education Forum’s vision, which aims to help teachers develop strong professional agency and expertise. In line with the vision, SILTA also aims to promote inclusive pedagogy, collaborative learning, and teachers’ continuous professional development. In the SILTA project, teachers learn both individually and collaboratively—through research, pedagogical development, and workplace interaction. Teaching is a demanding academic, practical, and ethical expert profession. SILTA strengthens teachers’ ability to operate in multilingual, changing, and complex learning situations.
SILTA emphasizes that supporting students’ readiness is not limited to a single school year: instruction preparing for basic education provides a start to the school journey, but the entire school community builds upon it. The SILTA project is being carried out in collaboration between the Universities of Tampere and Jyväskylä. Materials based on the project’s findings will be published in late 2026, and the lessons learned will be shared in in-service and pre-service teacher education. Peer-reviewed scientific publications in Finnish and English are expected in 2027.
The AI Agents in Teacher Education project develops and investigates how generative AI, and AI agents in particular, can be used in a pedagogically meaningful and safe way in teacher education. AI agents refer to customizable AI chatbots that teachers can modify to align with their own pedagogical goals. The project aims to examine the current state of AI integration in teacher education and to strengthen the capabilities of teacher educators and student teachers to operate in the age of AI. The project supports research-based development and the strengthening of digital competence.
The project is carried out in collaboration with researchers from teacher education units at the Universities of Eastern Finland, Oulu, and Jyväskylä. In addition, the University of Helsinki participates in the project through research collaboration. The project consists of three interconnected components: (1) an assessment of teacher educators’ current AI-related competencies; (2) a joint professional development programme on the pedagogical use of AI agents; and (3) practical course-based interventions in which customized AI agents are developed and piloted in courses across different subject areas.
Together, these components form a comprehensive framework that offers a broad overview on the opportunities and challenges associated with AI technologies in teacher education. The project will yield research-based knowledge on the integration of AI, pedagogical applications of AI agents, and student teachers’ experiences.
The project aims to develop and study an AI-based emotional communication detector for use in teacher education, particularly for supervising teaching practice in primary school mathematics. The goal is to strengthen student teachers’ pedagogical and communication skills and to support positive attitudes toward mathematics by utilizing video analysis and systematic reflection on emotional communication. The project supports the LUMA(TE) strategy and the Vision for teacher education by developing research-based, scalable solutions for the pedagogical use of artificial intelligence.
The consortium includes Associate Professor Anu Laine (PI), University Lecturer Eeva Haataja, Professor Minna Huotilainen, Research Director Mari Tervaniemi, and PhD researcher and classroom teacher Karoliina Salonen from the University of Helsinki, as well as Academy Professor Guoying Zhao and Adjunct Professor Sari Harmoinen from the University of Oulu. The project will be carried out in 2025–2026 and includes a pilot phase in the fall of 2025 and the actual data collection during 2026.
The data is collected by videotaping pre-service teachers’ mathematics lessons and the related reflection discussions, and by analyzing emotional communication based on facial expressions, body movements, and acoustic features of the voice. In addition, survey data is collected from students regarding their emotional experiences related to mathematics and teaching practice.
The project aims to produce a research-based understanding of how an AI-based emotional communication detector affects student teachers’ attitudes toward mathematics and their self-efficacy during teaching practice. In addition, the project will develop a pedagogical model that describes how the emotional communication detector and video analysis can be utilized in supervision to support student teachers’ reflection, communication skills, and teacher identity. The goal is also to produce clear and scalable recommendations for best practice for universities and to define the technical requirements necessary for the smooth and widespread implementation of the method. Overall, the project strengthens the quality of teacher education and produces new, research-based AI solutions to support equitable and high-quality mathematics education.
The project aims to enhance early childhood education teacher students’ competence and self-efficacy in teaching early mathematical and motor skills, identifying learning difficulties, and implementing pedagogical interventions. The project promotes the integration of evidence-based methods into teacher education and improves future teachers’ ability to support children’s foundational mathematical and motor skills.
During the project, several teacher education interventions will be implemented at three universities, in both Finnish and Swedish. The interventions consist of lectures and practical training. The lectures cover the theory of the development of children’s early mathematical and motor skills, as well as the Movement with Early Numeracy (MovEN) training program, which is a research-based tool for supporting these skills. Teacher students plan and implement sections of the MovEN program in an early childhood education setting. The teacher students’ ability to implement the MovEN program sessions is assessed using an evaluation form developed for this purpose. The impact of the interventions on the students’ competence and self-efficacy is measured through pre- and post-surveys.
The project promotes the Teacher Education Forum’s “Vision for Teacher Education 2050,” the “Teacher Education Development Program 2022–2026,” and the LUMA(TE) Strategy by embedding evidence-based methods into teacher education and enhancing future teachers’ ability to support children’s foundational mathematical and motor skills.
The project is coordinated by the University of Helsinki, and the consortium is led by Professor Pirjo Aunio. Lecturer Kati Sormunen and Postdoctoral Researcher Anssi Vanhala are responsible for the Helsinki subproject. Postdoctoral Researcher Donna Niemistö (University of Jyväskylä) and University Lecturer Heidi Hellstrand (Åbo Akademi University, Vaasa), along with their respective research assistants, are responsible for regional implementation.