What Is Professional Competence in Teaching? A Case Study of Finnish Teachers

• In Event: 60.033 - Challenges to Teaching Moral Education for Adolescents

Abstract

Previous research on the role of the professional teacher indicates that teachers need more education in the moral domain and particularly in moral sensitivities (Tirri, 1999; Hanhimäki & Tirri, 2009). Furthermore, Finnish teachers are facing more and more challenges due to the rising number of immigrant students and children who have learning difficulties. In many European countries such as Finland, education is intended to support the development of the whole person rather than merely the cognitive domain (National Core Curriculum for Upper Secondary Schools, 2003). This type of education acknowledges the importance of the social and affective domains in students’ development, including their emotional and moral concerns. Serious problems concerning child welfare in Finland, and the recent school shooting tragedies there, have also focused attention on well being in schools. Thus, along with the didactic aspect, which is needed to help students improve their learning, teaching has a strong moral dimension, and teachers therefore need the moral competence to educate and support the ‘whole’ student.

In this presentation our main objective is to examine teachers’ moral competence in pedagogical encounters between teachers and students, in order to further our understanding of the moral dimension of teaching. First, with the quantitative instruments we have developed, we have asked teachers from different grade-levels (N=464) to evaluate their ethical sensitivity, mindsets and sense of purpose in the context of teaching. Second, the results of these evaluations have been used in choosing teachers (N=5) for more profound qualitative case analyses in which our knowledge of moral competence and its practical dimensions has been deepened. Third, with the help of quantitative and qualitative data we consider the essential aspects of teachers’ professional competence in pedagogical encounters and reflect on these aspects in the light of our previous studies and the theoretical background. As a result, we will introduce a model of teachers’ professional competence.

The results showed that half of the Finnish teachers have a growth mindset: they believed that students could develop their intelligence and personality. However, 16% of teachers had a fixed mindset, indicating that they considered students’ ability to learn and develop their intelligence and personality to be fixed, while 34% had mixed mindset. Regarding their sense of purpose 25% of teachers had high, 45% medium and 30% low purpose orientation. Analysis (ANOVA) showed that teachers’ growth mindset was associated with high purpose orientation and fixed mindset with low purpose orientation (F (2)=6.912, p=. 001, ηp2=. 03). The narrative analysis of teachers’ interviews (N=5) revealed the stories behind different mindsets and purpose orientations. The mixed-method study showed that some of Finnish teachers have a strong moral competence and some of them need more information and training of mindset, purpose and ethical professionalism. We also found that professional competence in teaching requires the combination of didactical skills and moral skills that together build different profiles of professional teachers.

Authors

• Kirsi A. Tirri, University of Helsinki

• Elina Kuusisto, University of Helsinki