Sustaining the attractiveness of the teaching profession to recruit committed students to teacher education is a global policy issue. However, in many parts of the world, the teaching profession has become less attractive. Also in Finland, where teacher education has traditionally been highly attractive, several programmes have recently suffered…

In numerous countries, primary school class teachers have problems regarding music teaching. It has been reported that there is a lack of both confidence and musical skills. However, the question often relates not only to a lack of self-efficacy beliefs but also to the organisation of the studies. This research looks for sources influencing the…

Teacher self-efficacy (TSE) is assumed to affect classroom environment, although empirical evidence for this assumption is still elusive. This study examines the relationship between TSE in behaviour management and classroom behavioural climate using a two-level cross-lagged model. TSE in behaviour management was assessed with six-item subscale of…

An in-service training programme was used as an accelerator that scaffolded teachers in four school units in Lappeenranta, Finland, the aim being to find a shared understanding and shared practices, or 'praxis', in terms of promoting student participation. In this study we examine the practices that either supported or prevented participation from…

This study examined how Finnish primary school students perceive teachers' roles and responsibilities, their own learning and participation, and the social climate during co-taught lessons. Data were collected through a web-based questionnaire among primary school students (N = 242) from grades four to six from Finnish schools where Swedish is the…

This article reports the outcomes of research on student teachers' situational engagement during their third-year teaching practice in university-affiliated teaching schools (teacher training schools) at the universities of Helsinki, Finland and Johannesburg, South Africa. We have explored situations that possibly engage the student teachers…

As in many other countries, Finnish primary school teacher education has reduced substantially the amount of music studies during recent decades. From the perspective of the National Core Curriculum, there is a reason to reflect on teacher education and primary school student teachers' skills to teach music. The present study investigates 392…

This study examines pre-service primary school teachers' (PSTs') possible selves in relation to science teaching and the ways in which these possible selves change over time. This longitudinal study adds to the body of knowledge by examining PSTs' possible selves at various time points throughout their teacher preparation: three PSTs, selected…

It has been proposed that well-being or lack of it can spread within tightly knit communities, including classrooms. Yet, to our knowledge, no studies have explored the crossover of burnout between the teachers and the students. In this study, we explored the relationship between teacher exhaustion and students' study burnout symptoms. We…

In this article we examine first-year student teachers' possibilities to become interested in professional issues in teacher education. We study the phenomenon of becoming interested among first-year student teachers via three different kinds of data. We analysed our data through John Dewey's definition of interest, where a person has an interest…

Check In-Check Out (CICO) is a support programme for students with externalising problem behaviours. This study implemented in Finland is one of the first reports on the application of CICO in the European context. An experimental, multiple-baseline, single-case design is used to examine the effects of the CICO intervention on the problem…

A Word Problem Enrichment programme (WPE) has been found to increase student word problem solving performance when facing non-routine and application problems. However, it is unknown if the WPE has an impact on student beliefs about word problem solving and how the WPE works for students with different motivation in learning mathematics. This…

The novel exigencies of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic caused a shift towards online learning environments and teleconference platforms, which have also affected teaching practicums. The impact of this approach on teacher preparation is yet unknown and may render pre-service teachers (PSTs) more vulnerable to the challenges of early professional…

Drawing on a cross-cultural, qualitative study in Finnish and Korean comprehensive schools, we explore how teacher control and student agency are manifested and exercised in the teaching and learning practices of the "official school" and in the student-teacher interactions of the "informal school". We also elaborate on how…

This study explores the level of congruency between students' ratings of their own emotional and behavioral strengths and difficulties, and their teachers' ratings of these factors, when compared amongst two neighboring countries, Estonia and Finland. Secondly, it investigates the level of agreement between sixth grade students' ratings and their…