The aim of this study was to explore the core of teaching practice as a part of the curricula for master's degree in special teacher education. The data consisted of the curricula of teaching practice of all six universities in Finland that offer this program, along with the results of an electronic questionnaire administered to students. The…

Research has identified the importance of teaching practice in student teachers' professional development. Supervising teachers are crucial in this process. While the focus previously has mostly been on student teachers' pedagogical development, it is equally important to understand how supervisors enable development processes through their…

This study aims to find out how student teachers' meaning-oriented reflection can be enhanced with the help of video in a primary school teacher education programme. The study shows how student teachers (n = 10) and their supervisors (n = 9) followed the video-enhanced reflection procedure during one practicum period. The data were collected…

The aim of this study is to gain better understanding of the dynamics of the social support system adopted in teacher education and its significance for the student teachers' experienced well-being. The focus was on exploring the extent to which empowering "emotional," "informational" or "instrumental" support is…

The aim of this article was to shed light on problematic issues related to the practical element in early childhood teacher education. We approach these questions mainly through scrutinizing and interpreting this part of kindergarten teachers' university education in Finland. We then expand our analysis to include the broader issues of job…

In this article, we describe a collegial case study conducted in one Finnish university during the last field experience in a primary school teacher education program and discuss pedagogy of supervision from university supervisors' perspectives. The aim of the study was to clarify the role of university supervisors and try out a collegial…

This paper links the problem of questioning and answering in student teacher supervision with teachers' pedagogical thinking. The first section discusses whether asking the right questions or giving the right answers is more important and what is actually involved when the questions and answers are correct. The second section discusses the…

This study examined the justifications that Finnish student teacher supervisors gave regarding their advice and guidelines used in teaching practice, referring to the advice as teaching recipes. Both supervisors and student teachers were asked for information on justifications. Justifications were collected via questionnaires and interviews over…