Finnish education has received worldwide attention due to the country's performances in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Research investigating Finland's positive outcomes in the assessment has highlighted not only the strength of teachers, but also the rigour of Finnish teacher education. Finnish student teachers must…

The article will analyze the major opportunities as well as the difficulties in providing and applying research- and evidence-based knowledge in the Finnish educational system. It asks what purposes evidence is required for and who provides that evidence. The chapter introduces the Finnish enhancement-led evaluation policy and its main principles…

This paper stems from a PhD dissertation research focusing on the Nordic representatives' contribution to the field of comparative and international education (CIE) since the middle of the 20th century to the present days. Following the idea of the clear-cut distinction between the two component parts of the field in the region in question, the…

The late 20th century was an era of social, economic, technological, and political change, resulting in significant shifts in the perception of enlightenment, knowledge, and education. The impact of these changes have become quite apparent in higher education where there is now mounting pressure for faculty to deliver high quality education to an…

Scholars studying the global governance of education have noted the increasingly important role corporations play in educational policy making. I contribute to this scholarship by examining the Assessment and Teaching of twenty-first century skills (ATC21S™) project, a knowledge production apparatus operating under cognitive capitalism. I analyze…

This study analyzed whether research collaboration patterns differ across higher education systems based on maturity of the systems, their language, and their geographical region. This study found that collaboration patterns differ across higher education systems: academics in developed systems are more collaborative than their colleagues in…

This review examines the kinds of relationship between research and practice that have been envisaged in programmes designed to provide opportunities for beginning teachers to engage in "research-informed clinical practice". Although the terminology varies, scope for inclusion is defined by an intention to facilitate and deepen the…

Internationally, as the twenty-first century unfolds, there is a burgeoning literature that documents the changing nature of academic work and workplaces. One recurring theme in this literature is the extent to which academic freedom and autonomy are being threatened in higher education settings. In this article, the nature of this ominous threat…

Innovation processes between entrepreneurs and researchers are activated by interaction. Social capital increases the efficiency of action, for example, information dissemination by minimising redundancy. To learn more about how to build and develop social capital assumes that we understand how entrepreneurs behave and what their expectations of…

Traditional research focusing on children has been carried out by collecting information from the children's parents, teachers, and other adults. Information acquired from the children themselves has been considered of secondary importance. As the number of studies focusing on children has increased, it is important to consider the children…

Innovations and new project ideas often emerge in networks of researchers, users of research, and societal actors. This article analyzes and discusses how research scientists learn to conduct research that has an impact on their clients, scientific community, and society. We describe a new developmental impact evaluation method based on the theory…

This article examines the experiences of the researched and the researcher using ethnographic data from interviews with students (13-14-year-olds) and teachers and from participant observation in physical education classes at a Finnish secondary school. Erving Goffman's dramaturgical perspective is used as a frame of reference. In this…

Regardless of the increased interest in technological innovation in universities, relatively little is known about the technology developed by academic scientists. Long-term analyses of researchers' technological contribution are notably missing. This paper examines university-based technology in Finland during the period 1900-85. The focus is on…

Finnish teacher education has been higher academic education since 1979. Thus, all primary school teachers graduate as Masters and they conduct an MA thesis. For this research 23 teachers were interviewed in order to determine their conceptions of reflection, teacher research and their future research intentions. These teacher students worked…

The article examines the modes of research training in two Finnish academic research centres, where research is project based, application oriented and externally funded. In particular, the article asks what duties, skills and qualities are considered appropriate for people in different positions (PhD student, post-doctoral researcher,…