**5.1. Outcomes of the literature review on research on teachers and teacher education**

The literature review [37] on research on teachers and teacher education undertaken by the forum identified several important perspectives, which were discussed in the forum meetings and taken into account in the planning of the development programme. In particular, research outcomes related to the role of education in a society; teaching and learning, engagement and individual differences of learners; the design and use of educational innovations, like education technology, in teaching and learning and, moreover, the research on teachers and teacher education had an impact on the work of the forum (see e.g., [38]). One important topic discussed in the meetings was the link between teachers pre- and in-service training. According to the literature review, during pre-service training student teachers should be willing and able to learn new competences continuously in their work as teachers, including competences needed to organise inclusive classrooms, entrepreneurship education, networking and co-teaching.

*to work autonomously as a subject teacher in the specialisation* and competence needed in the development of learning environments—the *capacity to create conditions in which all pupils can learn and develop (skill)*—and the school environment: *the capacity to plan, implement, evaluate* 

Educating Professional Teachers in Finland through the Continuous Improvement of Teacher…

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As one of its activities, the *Finnish Teacher Education Forum* organised a national web-based brainstorming process related to the renewal of teacher education following the concept of the 'wisdom of crowds' [42]. According to this principle, a large group of people is collectively smarter than a few experts and is more likely to come to wise decisions. In practice, a call to participate was sent to teacher educators in all Finnish universities, as well as to all teachers and administrative employees working in the field of education at both national and local levels. The goal of this invitation was to solicit diverse opinions related to the development of teacher education, encouraging decentralisation of idea generation and independent thinking. The participants were first guided to generate ideas about what will be important in the future of teacher education and to evaluate or rank about 10 ideas contributed by others. In the ranking, participants assigned a number (from 0 to 100) evaluating the importance of these ideas. The web-based brainstorming tool combined similar ideas and reduced the number of ideas offered for ranking. According to participants, the most important priorities for students to learn in teacher education are learning-to-learn skills, along with interaction and collaboration skills. The same skills were also emphasised in the recent Norwegian and Swedish teacher education strategy papers and emerged from the teacher education literature review. The competences involved in generating ideas, readiness for change, research-based action and collaboration in partnerships and networks are all needed so that teachers can participate collaboratively to develop classroom practices and culture in particular school contexts. Most of the top-ranked skills and competences identified are needed outside the classroom. This means that, in teacher education, participants believe that more attention should be paid to the skills and competences needed for effective teacher collaboration. Meanwhile, interaction and collaboration skills, student-centredness and the competences to meet variation, integration of school subjects, digitalisation and the use of various learning environments are skills, competences and attitudes needed by effective, professional teachers

Altogether, the forum organised eight full-day meetings of the entire forum, along with several meetings of smaller thematic groups, during 2016 and 2017. The steering committee of eight people met every month, discussing outcomes of the literature review, best practices based on teacher education strategies and policy documents in other countries and the brainstorming process and designing the *Development Programme for Teachers Pre- and In-service Education*. This development programme [31] set out holistic competence goals for teachers' pre- and in-service education and continuous life-long professional development. According

*and develop teaching and educational processes individually and together with others*.

**5.3. Outcomes of the national web-based brainstorming process**

in a classroom environment.

**5.4. Strategic aims for Finnish teacher education**

to this document, a professional teacher should have:

One outcome of the literature review emerging from the perspective of classroom interaction and learning identified best practices for professional teachers. They should:

