The rapid development of digital technologies and their increasing application in many areas of everyday life challenge all citizens to continuously learn digital skills. This also applies to older adults, among whom digital literacy is on average less well-developed than among younger adults. This article investigates why retired older adults…

The importance of engaging students with complex societal challenges has led to the adoption of various interdisciplinary teaching and learning practices in both K-12 and higher education. However, interdisciplinary learning is one of the most complex domains of contemporary educational practice, and, despite its significance, remains…

In 2017, the International Bureau of Education (IBE) at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) put forth seven global competences to address accelerating technological progress and increasing levels of complexity and uncertainty affecting many facets of society (Marope, 2017). These competences were used in…

Although one of key ideas behind the introduction of STEM (or STEAM) as a unifying concept, is to emphasize the interdisciplinary character of many real world problems, there is a non-trivial educational challenge in exceeding existing subject boundaries and implementing multidisciplinary activities into the classroom. The present case study…

Recent research has indicated global trends of decreasing teacher autonomy and increasing teacher accountability. Standardised national tests have been identified as one of many factors constraining teacher autonomy. Another trend influencing teachers' scope of action is the profiling and branding of schools that compete for students. This…

Teachers of history will sooner or later encounter issues that are met with disbelief, protest, or feelings of discomfort by the pupils. This special issue aims to contribute to the field of research into teaching sensitive and controversial issues in history by integrating historical, educational and socio-psychological perspectives and theories.…

Learner-centered blended learning approaches, such as Knowledge Creation, emphasize the self-organizing characteristic of thought and action, and value the students' autonomy and self-regulation during the engagement in collaborative learning tasks. In blended contexts, the students need to organize their learning paths within a complex…

Despite the emerging discussions about the growing role of engineers in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is a lack of agreement on which competences should be prioritised to prepare engineering students to resolve future sustainability challenges. This study examined and compared the views of key stakeholders of…

When making study choices, students often find it challenging to identify their interests and strengths. Higher education (HE) systems that do not offer opportunities for reorientation and transfer run the risk of some students never completing their studies. This policy brief examines the different flexible pathways institutions can choose to…

This case study presents the results of an interdisciplinary Virtual Exchange (VE) that was arranged between Finnish and Polish students in 2019. During their six-week collaboration, the students of language studies at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, worked in teams together with their Polish peers specialising in information and…

This report will discuss the process of evaluation for development in a collaborative project that integrated teaching between the Language Centre and the Law School at the University of Eastern Finland. The focus of this report will be on a model the authors devised for the purposes of developing teaching, called "E.A.S.Y,"…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present an example of pedagogical strategy, called innovation pedagogy, and study whether its learning environments (activating teaching and learning methods, working life orientation and research, development and innovation (RDI) integration, multidisciplinary learning environments, flexible curricula,…

Disability studies in education (DSE) is an interdisciplinary field derived from the need to re-conceptualise special education dominated by a medical perspective on disability. In this article we identify what characterises DSE research and consider whether there is a case for arguing for a specific field of DSE in Finland and Iceland. Our…

The complexity of language learning may be expanded to learning the languages belonging to the same language family, for example, Slavic languages. This paper reports on the reflection-on action research aimed at the increase of learners' multicultural competence and enhancement of critical thinking at the interdisciplinary, blended course of…

Internationalization presents both opportunities and challenges for higher education policies and curricula, as well as for teaching and learning methods. This article describes and discusses ongoing exploration and development of the planned curriculum of the MA in Media Education at the Faculty of Education at the University of Lapland, Finland,…