Abstracts - Earli

teaching practice placement period (on average six weeks) in which students acquired hands-onteaching experience in the classroom. In this study it is assumed that the teaching practiceplacement and related activities may exert an influence on the development of student teachers’orientations to learning to teach. In this study three distinctive orientations to learning to teachcould be distinguished: a closed-meaning orientation, a closed-reproduction orientation and asurvival orientation. These orientations are to some extent in line with previous research. Thestudy demonstrates that students score higher on learning conceptions and learning strategieswhich are characteristic of more meaning oriented learning in the second measurement.Orientations to learning to teach are found to be subjective to a relative degree of change.Especially survival oriented student teachers appear to have undergone a greater degree of changein their learning conceptions and learning strategies after the long teaching practice placement.Regarding to curriculum development, the results suggest that introducing longer teaching practiceplacements and related activities during teacher education degree courses, this may be a lever formotioning survival oriented learners to change their orientation to learning to teach.Comprehensive school teachers as learners in school developmentKirsi Pyhalto, Helsinki University, FinlandTiina Soini, Tampere University, FinlandJanne Pietarinen, Joensuu University, FinlandJyrki Huusko, Joensuu University, FinlandSuccess in bringing new ideas into schools is greatly dependent on teachers will and motivation toadopt and process the ideas in several different levels in their daily work. Accordingly it isimportant that comprehensive school teachers have grown into skilful learners, who master the artof learning to learn in many levels. Teacher’s willingness to learn and promote innovations in theschool community is largely dependent on significance given to the new situation by the teachersand their sense of agency in their working environment. It is presumable, that teachers thatconsider themselves active agents are more successful in coping with educational reforms andimplementing instructional and educational innovations in their work. This paper explorescomprehensive school teachers’ professionality and the school as their learning environment at thecontext of most recent comprehensive school reform, in Finland: implementation of undividedbasic education (UBE) that aims to develop inner coherence of comprehensive schools. This paperreports a case study, that explores how comprehensive school teachers themselves (N =193) fromnine different schools, view their professionality in the context of UBE. The data were collectedby using activating and participative method: "Recalling of the future". Preliminary results suggestthat teachers had quite positive and convergent ideas about the main idea of UBE. As a core mostof them emphasized consistency of pupils’ learning-path and construction of collaborative schoolculture. At the same time teachers’ analysis about the UBE and how to promote the process werequite non-specific, fragmented and narrow. Most teachers found the systemic approachdemanding. Moreover only 37% of the teachers had attained active agency in the terms of UBE.This suggests that, more attention be paid to developing school as collaborative and activatinglearning environment for teachers, wherein the process of shared sense making and ownership areemphasised.– 139 –