Finland is probably the only country where sex education has been studied in two consecutive national surveys, in 1996 and 2006 directed at biology and health education teachers, and in 2000 and 2006 by measuring adolescents' sexual knowledge. In 2006, responses from teachers and students could be combined for 339 schools. The most important…

The "MustLearnIT" European-funded research project with partners in Greece, Poland, Cyprus, Finland and the UK aimed to investigate ways of teaching and learning modern foreign languages (MFL) to early learners in small/remote primary schools where there were no specialist MFL teachers. This was to be carried out through new technologies…

Teachers' learning and occupational well-being is crucial in attaining educational goals both in the classroom and at the school community level. In this article teachers' occupational well-being that is constructed in teaching-learning processes within the school community is referred to as pedagogical well-being. The article focuses on exploring…

This paper examines what pedagogical issues mean to practicing teachers, discussing the ethics of purpose, rules and principles, and probability, and noting teachers' philosophical perspectives and practical interpretations. Interviews were conducted with 20 Finnish secondary school teachers working in urban schools during an in-service training…

This article describes a professional development project aiming to develop practical approaches for the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) into science education. Altogether, 13 two-day face-to-face seminars and numerous computer network conferences were held during a three-year period. The goals for the project were…

This study examined what moral issues meant to practicing teachers. Finnish secondary teachers described moral dilemmas they had experienced during their teaching careers and principles they used to solve them (particularly situations in which they had difficulty deciding how to act). The narrative of one female teacher concerned about smoking at…

This study explored the main characteristics of professional morality according to Finnish secondary school teachers. Participants were 33 teachers from an urban Finnish secondary school with a heterogeneous student population. Teachers were asked to identify the most common moral dilemmas they had experienced in the teaching profession and to…

Explored Finnish students' perspectives on males and females as teachers, contrasting them with teachers' perceptions. Data from interviews with students age 13-14, followup interviews at age 17-18, and research on teachers indicated that while teachers considered lack of male teachers a continuing problem, students did not consider gender…

Audio-visual advances in virtual reality (VR) technology have given rise to innovative new ways to teach and learn. However, so far teaching and learning processes have been technologically driven as opposed to pedagogically led. This paper identifies the development of a pedagogical model and its application for teaching, studying and learning…

Educational issues in Finland and Sweden are addressed in the following papers: (1) "Teacher Training and the Official Teacher's Role" (Karl-Georg Ahlstrom and Maud Johnsson); (2) "Evaluation of Coercive Elements in Education" (Timo Airaksinen); (3) "Philosophy from the Viewpoint of Education" (Pertti Kansanen); (4)…

This study investigated the views of 33 Finnish teachers and 120 of their 9th-grade students on justice at their school. Data came from structured teacher and student interviews and from students' written essays. Teachers and students identified situations in their school where they questioned the fairness of the distribution of conditions and…

A study was made of comprehensive school teachers' perceptions of mental health when it was defined as a "dynamic integration process of the physical, psychical, social, and spiritual existence of a human being." Two groups participated: 76 middle-aged teachers and 87 advanced teacher trainees. Perceptions of health and mental health…

The extent to which sources of stress, coping resources, background variables, and different ways of coping determined teacher stress in the fall term was studied with 66 Finnish school teachers on 4 occasions. Results showed a clear accumulation of stress as the term advanced. (SLD)

An introductory overview is presented of current Finnish and American research into secondary school teaching as both a moral and technical endeavor. The described research study sought a comprehensive view of what happens in a student teacher's professional development during teacher education. The following problems were researched: (1) what…

This bulletin is based upon reports to the International Commission on the Teaching of Mathematics concerning the development of the teacher of mathematics in the better secondary schools of different countries. For the most part, only those schools which are under the immediate direction of the Government have been considered. And even here…