A study visit to FIER, Finland

Published on Monday, 05 December 2011 08:51

On 18-20 October 2010 our representatives (Magda Krawczyk – the Teacher Research Unit, and Marcin Chrzanowski – the Science Section), led by Michał Sitek, participated in a study visit to Jyvaskyla (Finland). Its aim was to establish cooperation with the Finnish Institute for Educational Research (FIER – KTL in Finnish: Koulutuksen tutkimuslaitos) at the University of Jyvaskyla. 

The University of Jyvaskyla is the oldest Finnish teacher-training centre and the most renowned university in the field of social and education sciences in Finland. What makes it exceptional is “human technology,” i.e. the combination of  social sciences and humanities with advanced technologies.

Jyvaskyla is located to the north of Helsinki and it takes three hours to get there from the capital of Finland. Every third resident of this city is a student. However, Jyvaskyla is not only famous for its schools, but also for the architecture of Alvaro Aalto, who designed, among others, the innovative campus of the University of Jyvaskyla. 

The meetings were hosted by Prof. Jouni Välijärvi, the Head of FIER. The programme of the visit included the FIER research work and a number of presentations devoted to comprehensive analyses of PISA (Sari Sulkunen, Pasi Reinikainen, Pekka Kupari), the teacher-training system in Finland (Elisa Heimovaara), mentoring as an experimental traineeship system for beginner teachers/a professional development path for active teachers (Hannu Heikkinen, Hannu Jokinen), an outline of the professional status of teachers in Finland, including the salary structure and the legal regulations on working hours (Jouni Välijärvi, Anne Kolehmainen).