PROFF – Professionalisation of VET teachers for the future - Europa

Just as programmes differ in scope and duration, so they differed in their choice of subjectmaterial. TOKE has a stronger focus on theory, (pedagogy, legislation) than Telkkä or HEP.Telkkä adopted a practical, hands-on approach based on on-the-job learning (OJL) in acompany environment (during which participants helped to train workplace instructors). InHEP, too, the choice of teaching topics is down-to-earth.The case studies provided several innovative training strategies.The Finnish Telkkä programme, for example, is based on close cooperation between teachersand instructors in industry. This enables instructors to develop their pedagogical skills bycooperating with teachers while teachers benefit from instructors’ up-to-date knowledge ofrecent technologies and working practices.The Dutch ‘dual trajecten bve’ programme adopts a similar dualistic approach placing keyimportance on the concept of learning-by-doing. There is a strong emphasis on teachingtrainees how to produce ICT-based teaching tools and materials. The programme providestrainees with a four-year ‘training route’ which is personalised to provide the specificprofessional competences required by ROC personnel with different job profiles. Theprogramme – which is more demand-oriented than usual in this kind of programme – has anin-built progression, which gives access to further education and to ‘ordinary’ teacher trainingprogrammes.The Finnish META programme provides a new collegial model for pedagogical innovationand development. Training is based on interaction between different groups and activities, i.e.collegial groups established within the same institution, interinstitutional networks builtaround a certain theme and training camps arranged two to three times per year.The Finnish Tukeva programme combines academic tradition and practical experience. Modesof delivery change from one subproject to another. Most programmes used ICT but indifferent ways. Some course components (e.g. some modules on pedagogical techniques) aredelivered using e-learning only. Others adopt a blended approach.Often, participants formed study circles, which support experience sharing and cooperation. Itis useful for single participants to share the workload with a colleague. Many assignmentsinvolve extensive sharing and teamwork.The curricula for Tukeva – equivalent to other study programmes organised by universities,polytechnics and vocational teacher education colleges – were designed using a top-downapproach. The selection of course materials is, on the other hand, entirely bottom-up. Often,participants select themes and cases from their own working environment.Common to all these approaches is interaction between practice and theory, the strongemphasis on cooperation and interaction among participants and using ICT to support thisinteraction. A recent development, observed in the Finnish META and Telkkä projects, isbottom-across networking: lively cooperation between teachers and instructors belonging to28