Task 1 - 3

1st Task

Values and ethics in vocational teacher’s actions

How are the values and ethics present in the following:

Planning
Assessment and feedback
Teaching and guiding methods
Special needs education
Legal issues
Intercultural and international issues

Give CONCRETE examples and also tell if you have PERSONAL experience of how you take values and ethics into consideration in these contexts.

Planning

While planning courses, the teacher should commit to the standards of the ethics of their work. They can do so by making sure that the planning of a course is done carefully, according to the requirements of the course, fulfils the aims and objectives of the course. My personal experience in planning a course has been when I was doing my teaching training. In my opinion, as a teacher one values of ethics in planning should be that an ethically course plan should be able to accommodate students from all walks of society, and the learning environment should be equal and accessible to everyone. Further, one concrete example in planning in the context of values and ethics can be teachers’ understanding of the learners’ starting point, thoughts and opinions.

Two examples of a situation where a teacher might have a challenge because of differing values or ethical views between pupils/students or their parents are as follow:

1. Teaching people with autism has been a challenge in the teacher education.

Teaching children with autism is categorised as special needs education. The cognitive ability varies from severe retardation to superior intelligence among these people. It is important to listen to students with autism very carefully as it helps to give a new approach in the educational dilemma and intercultural talks. The teacher education needs new perspectives to encounter pupils special needs related to autism or autistic-like behaviour. Teacher has a very special place in a child's life and for a child with autism, it is even more important. Actually, the whole family approach is essential when teaching a child with autism.

With this I refer to Sipilä Anna-Kaisa’s article on Autism as a challenge for teacher education where she discussed students needs and the teacher education. The author mentioned that students affected by autism benefits visually. She illustrated an example of making time visually to them by introducing clocks and diaries. By the sentence “It is important to listen to students with autism” it could be inferred that the needs of these students need to be listened and understood, and as the author mentioned that being clear with the students of autism acts as a best reward.

By the sentence “helps to give a new approach in the educational dilemma and intercultural talks” I referred to Sipilä Anna-Kaisa’s perceptive to intercultural discussion. Here she mentioned that autistic students have their own sub-culture. The ethical point of view she discussed here is that the readiness to accept and tolerate autism as an abnormality that is on a similar level as auditive impairment which is socially acceptable. 

In my opinion, as I previously wrote, is to understand the diversity of students, learn from each other and live with the idea that autism is a socially acceptable abnormality. In terms of intercultural talks, in my opinion because autistic people have their own sub-culture because of their way of looking the world is so different, “normal” people can learn from them too. 

I would not claim that autistic children have a different set of values and ethics compared to other children, since I have personally never worked with them. However, I wish to point out the article by Hens, Robeyns & Schaubroeck (2018) entitled the ethics of Autism. The authors argued that “ethics of autism is a field which cannot be practiced from the armchair”.

2. Bullying is a form of violence that affect students

In the school class with bullying problems, bullies and victims can be taken as labels describing certain social roles. A child being victim of bullying has a great effect in his/her communication and exposure to social life as the child tends to be in the victim role almost all the time. It is a great challenge for teachers to understand the child's behaviour and to motivate the child to speak out in order to be able to help them.

In regards of the explanation that you requested, I give two examples of differing values or ethical views between pupils/students. These two are two true examples, that happened in my college in Mauritius.

1. One student in the class sufferers from strabismus (eyes are misaligned), the Maths teacher also suffered from the same disease. Now, whenever a student bullied the student that suffered from strabismus, the teacher punishment was very harsh because the teacher also suffered from the same.

2. One value that students should have is religious tolerance. In Mauritius the main religions are Hindu, Muslim and Christians. During the Ramadan period, the Muslim students fast for the whole day, and a form of bullying is considered if someone is eating very near the fasting person because the latter might get tempted, which is forbidden. So, the challenge of a teacher in class would be to punish a fasting Muslim student vs a Hindu Student for the same mistake. Finally, evaluation of students’ assignment can be severely compromised with an autonomous vs a very dependant student.

Assessment and feedback

Values and ethics in the context of assessment and feedback should be based on dignity, truthfulness and fairness. Assessment should be done impartially. One concrete example of the way assessment is done in Mauritius in several institutions is by using the double-blinded methods in which the reviewers and the students do not know each other.

Teacher-Parent Cooperation is a concrete example of a situation where the values and ethics of a teacher might influence the teacher’s assessment of a student. Parent expectations play a huge role in classroom teaching practices. Meeting parent expectations is important for their child's academic success. Using double-blinded methods in assessment can make teachers face challenging situation where they need to communicate to the parents about the children's work assessment to indicate parents on which topic their children are weak.

Feedback on the other hand should be given in a respectful way that should be constructive for the students. Does the use of automated assessment and feedback systems alleviate ethical problems in assessment and feedback: An important article to read:
  https://www.gcu.ac.uk/media/gcalwebv2/theuniversity/supportservices/feedbackfuturelearning/FFL_Case%20Study_J.Biggam.pdf

No, the challenging situation is after the double-blinded methods of assessment. An example, here would be as such: After double-blinded evaluation, it is found out that some students have failed. One of the students is the daughter of the president of the school where the teacher’s work. This can create a “challenging situation” for the teacher to explain to the president on the weakness of his daughter. 

One core teaching value is truthfulness. Being truthful in assessing the student positively influence the student.

Teaching and guiding methods

In teaching and guiding students, teachers should teach in a manner that reflects their personality; Further one of the most difficult parts that I found during my teaching training was working with other people concerned to improve the students educational experience. This could be for example, other teachers that taught the same batch and other collaborating parties. One concrete example of ethical thing in teaching and guiding students is nonmaleficence – do no harm.

Having international exposure have provided me with different values as compared to other teachers having exposed with only Mauritian teaching values. I faced many challenges in my teaching practice:

• I tried to motivate students who are quiet so that they can participate with others but the teacher assisting me asked me not to do that which i thought was against teacher ethics.

• When giving classroom task, i expected atleast a positive response from each student but some international students from Madagascar did not complete any classroom task i gave and they were not afraid or do not seem responsible for their act. This was astonishing that the other teachers find it normal and did not take any measures. The only question in my mind was where are the teaching values and why no actions are taken?

I tried to overcome that problem by putting the students in group where each student is expected to say something on the group task. It was quite far successful but only for a short while only in group task. In Finland, each student is considered important and is given special attention which i think was somehow missing at the institution where i was doing my teaching practice. Motivating students to participate in workshop or on classroom task is very important for teachers as this helps to make students more active and improve in their communication.

Special needs education

This is an important part when values and ethics are contextualising. In Mauritius there is a report on the topic special education needs and inclusive education in Mauritius report. Here one of the most important concrete issue that was raised was provision of support services within the classroom and the school through the collaboration of all school personnel and the multi-disciplinary team: educational, social, psychological, therapeutic and medical. My reflection on this matter in terms of values and ethics is that should students with special needs be allowed to be with “normal” counterparts or is it necessary for segregation?

Legal issues

Values and ethical issues that are present in legal issues can be seen when teaching online. This can be accessing data that is not necessary and the laws related to online teaching. Something can be legal but not ethical? Teachers must demonstrate integrity, impartiality and ethical behaviour. In some countries political affiliation can lead to problems finding work as a teacher which may be legally not justified but ethically ok.

Intercultural and international issues

Values and ethics that are present in Intercultural and international issues can be perpetuating stereotypes, deceptive self-presentation, quality of service issues, misuse of tools, harmful training and plagiarism. This is an important article that I found that discussed Intercultural and international issues and values and ethics.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0147176715000383

2nd Task

Write reflections on at least three of the online sessions you took part in in the autumn of 2018. Listen to the recordings in one of the AC rooms of each session and reflect on the following aspects:

Topic 1: Pedagogical Competence in Planning

1. What was good and what was not so good in the teaching of the session? Why? 

Group 2 took nice example of explaining the learning theory such as how to bake a bread and talked about Kinesthetics learning theory. Both Group 2 & 3 engaged with the audience well which made the audience realised the importance of planning stage in the learning process. Group 3 explained each slide well and used references which make the presentation more professional.

However, some presenters' voice were not active which make the presentation somehow boring when listening till the end. Group 3 had problem at first with the slides which make it difficult for the audience to understand as some letters were missing from slides. Group 2 presentation was quite complex especially when explaining about the learning theory and slides used for teaching were unattractive.

2. Were the pedagogical choices made by the students well founded? Did the teaching achieve its goals? 

Group 2 used constructive alignment and inquiry-based learning when presenting where a very nice example of plane was taken for the construction alignment. Group 3 also used examples but the presenter could have used some concrete examples to support the pedagogical choice the group made. Learning in a classroom and linking it with the example of setting a table in the restaurant was not  properly interconnected according to my point of view. Group 3 presented in such a way that the goals was clearly seen to be achieved. Group 2 also achieved its goals to a certain extent but it could have been more effective with more attractive presentation slides.

3. Was the teaching activating and engaging?

Group 2 presented with nice examples but the voice of the presenter was monotonous which made other group members not motivated when seeing them in their webcams. One member of group 3 even left the presentation at some point (as seen in the webcam). Questions asked were also not clear enough for audience to understand. Group 3 was engaged with the audience with questions and ensured that the audience listened well. However, one presenter of group 3 seemed to be quite unsure about the pros and cons of classroom and virtual settings where I expected to have a more active environment at that time.

4. What would you have done differently?

Group 2 had a very simple presentation which I would have improved by using images and graphs. This helps to activate the audience with questions. Avoiding repetition also is important which Group 2 did. Using slides for audience to easily understand is important at this point. Similar to my group (Group 1) which used a mind-map to teach the topic, i expected something innovative from other groups rather than using only Powerpoint slides.

Topic 2: Implementation 1 - Focus on virtual/online teaching

1. What was good and what was not so good in the teaching of the session? Why?

The objectives of online safety were well-defined by Group 2. The group provided relevant diagrams and took the initiative to design a mind-map. The use of images for discussion was excellent. The presenter was very joyful when presenting which made the audience laugh and being engaged. Group 3 defined the content with discussion which was well-understood by the audience. The group made use of teacher-centered v/s student-centered diagram; it was an effective point as per the content.

The powerpoint slides used were very simple for both groups and not versatile. Group 2 used Wikipedia to define online safety which is totally not acceptable at this stage as Wikipedia is known to be an unreliable source. The mind-map front size was too small to read and understand that the actual presenter had to switch team member to explain the mind-map. The aim behind creating the mind-map was missing. Two members of the group were presenting at the same time repeatedly which made it difficult for the audience to understand and listen. Too much information in a slide also is not advisable. Group 3 had similar problem with front size being too small in diagram they used. Moreover, the presenter was not confident initially when explaining the diagram of teacher-centered v/s student-centered diagram.

2. Were the pedagogical choices made by the students well founded? Did the teaching achieve its goals? 

The use of mind-map was well-founded apart from the front text being difficult to read. Using padlet was amazing but switching among the team members so often make the audience felt lost at some point. Group 2 did not achieve the teaching goals as i expected more examples and diagrams. The group could have make use of real facts as the contents was very interesting. Group 3 took example of constructive alignment when explaining but they did not apply that in the teaching which i believe was not well-founded. Group 3 was able to achieve its goals to a certain extent by making use of effective diagram.

3. Was the teaching activating and engaging?

Both groups were able to engage the audience as they made us of Padlets where each one in the audience needed to add his/her points based on the discussion question. Group 2 members showed themselves via webcam which basically activate the environment when seeing them presenting and discussing. When group 3 presented, there were already less participants present but all participants in the audience participated actively in the discussion.

4. What would you have done differently?

I would make a more interesting slides especially for online safety as it was an easy and interesting content. Making slides with more images, quiz or polls eventually activate the audience which I strongly recommend both groups to adopt. Making use of different presentation rather than PowerPoint would enhance the teaching. Also, using real facts as example is crucial to engage the audience.

Topic 5: Competence in Research and Development

1. What was good and what was not so good in the teaching of the session? Why? 

Good 3 presented by using a newsletter with images which made it attractive. Clear explanation was provided by the group before starting the presentation to make it user-friendly for the audience. The newsletter was based on various sources making it a professional one. Using newsletter and padlet showed the creativity of group 3. Group 2 clearly explained the APA concept and there was a balance between the explanation and discussion part.

However, as being part of the audience for Group 2, i expected a proper explanation of the agenda and topic before jumping straight on the main part of the presentation. I also have the feeling that the group was not well prepared as one group member has to ask its member what to present. Group 3 presentation of newsletter could have been followed by some explanation of the topic but there was mainly discussion which make the audience somehow lost on the actual topic.

2. Were the pedagogical choices made by the students well founded? Did the teaching achieve its goals?

Group 3 chose to teach by designing a nice newsletter where they considered the assessment of students in order to ensure students feel safe in the teaching environment. Group 3 moreover adopted the discussion way of teaching which helped to engage the audience to a great extent. Presentation was clear and well founded and it could be clearly seen that they achieved their goals. Group 2, on the other hand, adopted basic teaching and discussion with some Q&A (questions & answers) with nice contents. It shows that group 2 had also achieved the goals but they needed more practice and more prepared beforehand.

3. Was the teaching activating and engaging? 

Group 3 made teaching very lively which engaged most of the audience in discussing and sharing their views in padlet. The audience was completely comfortable to share their personal experience in the discussion part. Group 2 was not able to engage the audience as it should be, maybe because of using basic way of presenting with slides being simple one. The content was excellent but it could have been presented in a better way to activate the audience.

                                            

4. What would you have done differently? 

I would have improved group 3 presentation by providing a clear explanation of the topic before going straightly on discussion part. Group 2 again used Powerpoint slides which can be changed to make teaching more attractive and effective for the audience. Providing some real fact examples or quiz would enhance the teaching. 

Topic 7: International and Multicultural Competence

1. What was good and what was not so good in the teaching of the session? Why? 

The slides presented by Group 3 were nicely done with pictures and less text on mostly all slides which made the content easy to understand. The idea of having one question in a slide and explaining the question with the use of discussion is an intelligent concept used for teaching. Furthermore, the group used useful references and one of the presenter was much appreciated when she presented with much confidence. Group 2 presented important theories about the topic with all relevant points raised and with the use of diagrams.

Slides of group 2 was however boring with too many texts in each slides. This could be done by summarising each theory. The slides were also too small to read. Some really important theories such as the Iceberg Theory, Geert Hofstede dimension and the Hall Theory of high/low context were not mentioned at all. Group 3 had one presenter which seemed to be unfamiliar from the slides when teaching and she read mostly everything from the slides. There are normally many interesting articles in this content which were missing in the teaching.

2. Were the pedagogical choices made by the students well founded? Did the teaching achieve its goals?

I do not believe that Group 2 has achieve its goals as they missed many crucial and basic theories related to the topic. The Powerpoint slides were quite boring and they have been seen only using powerpoint during almost every teaching. On the other hand, group 3 had well-founded the pedagogical choices and the goals were achieved as they adopted many teaching techniques. There are still rooms for improvement for group 3.

3. Was the teaching activating and engaging? 

Both groups lacked some audience engagement on this topic because i think it is a nice topic where we could hear the audience experience. Having done this topic as part of my Masters' courses, there were much audience activation when my teacher presented this topic with us. My teachers adopted many different teaching techniques which made us love this course. I found that both groups could have adopted similar ideas to activate the audience but that was unfortunately missing.

4. What would you have done differently?

Using relevant images and videos can make teaching much amazing for this topic. For group 2, by providing some discussion parts could enhance the teaching as the content is very important especially due to globalisation. Group 3 could also provide more references with examples on this topic. Pictures normally provide many messages which i would have used that to explain both groups teaching topics.

3rd Task 

What are the necessary guidelines and documents which you will have to be aware of if you start teaching in a Finnish vocational school?

The educational system is based on trust and responsibilities. Vocational Education Training (VET) teachers are required to possess administrative, team working, interdisciplinary and communication skills, areas which have received little attention in traditional teacher training. Specific traits in the work of VET teachers stem from the close connection between theory and practice and the strong presence of the world of work within VET. According to the Vocational Education and Training Act, special attention should be paid to working life needs in education.

Some official documents and regulations that affect teaching in VET are:
> Pedagogical studies and guided teaching guidance
> Business competence, marketing skills and entrepreneurial competence
> Language and communication guidance in Finland
> Finnish National Agency for Education
> Qualification requirements for a competence-based qualification
> Safety and security, risk management and crisis competence
> Quality assurance based on steering instead of controlling
> Handbook for teachers - course structure, teaching methods and assessment
> Professional freedom and opportunities

There are several documents and regulations that teachers need to comply with. Here are are some links that i found important: 

https://into.aalto.fi/display/ensaannot/Aalto+University+General+Regulations+on+Teaching+and+Studying

https://www.oaj.fi/en/education/what-does-teaching-involve/

https://www.oaj.fi/arjessa/opettajan-vastuut-ja-velvollisuudet/

https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/1998/19980986

http://www.ammattinetti.fi/ammatit/detail/72_ammatti

http://mie.ac.mu/image/Code-of-Ethics-19-Jan-2018.pdf

In brief, it means that the role of the teacher is to support and promote the learning and skills development of children, adolescents and adults. This means that the teacher has to provide his students with education according to their level of development and needs. In Finlex, section 5 stipulates subject teacher qualification, and Section 13 (Dec. 28, 2017/1150) specifically discusses qualification of a teacher and the professional qualification components in vocational education. Then, in ammattinetti.fi teachers working in universities of applied science responsibilities are discussed also. In Mauritius the Mauritius Institute of Education explains the code of ethics and responsibilities of teachers. In summary, the Mauritius Institute of Education discusses that teaching should meet the needs of the learner, ensure teaching quality standards, and contribute to development of the curriculum.

Vocational teacher education is always consecutive, meaning that students must hold a Master’s or Bachelor’s degree in the relevant field before beginning teacher education. Vocational teacher education colleges offer 60 ECTS credits, qualifying for work as special needs teachers at vocational institutions. The admission requirements for vocational special needs teacher education and for vocational guidance counsellor education include teacher qualifications and at least one year of teaching experience at a vocational institution. The qualification requirements for various teaching posts are specified in the Teaching Qualifications Degree (986/1998).

Jari Lavonen, professor of education at the university of Helsinki mentioned that the Finnish educational system cannot be copied but can be exported as it is of great demand in the international education market (January 2019). The Finnish success in education is based on equal opportunity.

Teachers need professional documents when teaching which are meant to make teaching and learning more effective. These documents are used by the teacher in the preparation, implementation and evaluation of the teaching process. They include schemes of work, lesson plans, records of work and progress records. 

I have found an interesting picture taken from the publications of Ministry of Education, Finland (2006 p7) which clearly explains about the main tasks and principles of the teachers in Finnish Vocational School. Picture 1 basically refers to the main responsibilities and guiding principles of teachers. The aim is to improve the quality of education and training, to ensure its correspondence with the requirements of working life, to enhance dialogue between education and the world of work and to help students during the transition from institution to workplace. The responsibilities range from providing vocational education and training to societal obligations, as can be seen in picture  1. Teachers complying with these responsibilities can demonstrate a better teaching skill and easily adapt with the values and ethics of their teaching environment.

Picture 1 provides the main tasks for VET providers:

1. Anticipation and interpretation of the need for education and competence - the education and qualification required for VET teachers differs from general education teachers. Therefore, there is a need to meet certain standards which are assessed through cognitive skills. Some specific characteristics of the work of VET teachers are that theory and practice and real working life experience are closely connected. These tasks is made possible by VET teachers if they possess themselves a professional background in the field. The students also are totally responsible for all the decisions concerned with their learning and the implementation of those decisions.
2. Answering the field-specific need for competence and individual education in working life as a whole - VET teachers need to obtain skills in areas where traditional teacher training have focused little such as in areas of administration, team working, interdisciplinary and communication. Effective professional development enables educators to develop the knowledge and skills they need to address students' learning challenges. Both skills demonstrations and on-the-job learning play a central role in continuing training for VET teachers.
3. Service and development tasks for working life and SMEs - the competency development challenges for SMEs are that they do not consider skills development and training essential. To improve the development tasks, on-the-job training on specific topics is required. VET providers specified on customised training programmes to meet the needs of SMEs and for improved working life.
4. Individual education and competence services - VET providers help each individual to develop his/her skills according to the knowledge, education or experienced gained previously. Therefore, vocational teachers involve students to set their own goals and evaluate their learning to gain competences in their fields.
5. Quality Assurance in education - Evaluation is seen as a method for ensuring quality assurance in education. The evaluation targets include achievement of objectives, completion of pedagogic and curricular reforms and use of resources. The use of performance-based funding system have been widely used for self-evaluation and quality assurance system in VET provider level as it encourages VET providers to promote employment prospects and continuing education opportunities for students.
6. Educational cooperation - The vocational teaching education model is considered to be a successful model as it helps in enhancing cooperation between institutions and the world of work.

The guiding principles for VET providers are:

1. Working life orientation - VET providers work closely with institutions that provide work training. Therefore, they are updated with the skills needed in working life and thus provide necessary education and skills to students to be able to cope with working life and understand the real working atmosphere.
2. Customer orientation - It means that the working life and what the teaching students are taught should match. I think it could mean that teachers should participate in working life and understand the needs of the market. A concrete example could be that as a teacher I should update my pedagogical skills by participating in the working life, such as doing further training. In my field, this could be for example working in a Small and Medium Enterprise for a month, understand the working life needs and then go back to school to teach. Further, as you mentioned below, the answers to your questions lies in the document itself. I think that including teachers and representative of enterprise to develop curriculum is a necessary step to improve education.
3. Individuality - Individual education helps to motivate students in achieving their goals and competences. They have their educational choices and VET providers provide blended learning to make it flexible for each individual to learn according to their pace.
4. Social cohesion - Social communication skills is essential to be able to adapt in the working life and meet everyday challenges. This helps to avoid being excluded in the social circle. VET providers aim at improving the social cohesion in developing skills needed to integrate in special groups.

Picture 1: Main responsibilities and guiding principles of VET providers

https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/79951/opm41.pdf?sequence=1