International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
physical objects are studied by reading a text description or seeing a picture, if you are not present in a
classroom. In 2012, Nokia was looking for a patent for a haptic tattoo to help people feel who is calling
(Technewsworld, 2012). In the future, haptic tattoos could be used to send other kinds of information than just
the name of a caller. For example, a teacher could tutor a student teacher while they are teaching using haptic
tattoos (Aarreniemi-Jokipelto, 2013b).
STUDY CONDUCTED IN AN ONLINE TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMME
Over the last three years, assessment and recognition of prior competences and personalized learning paths
has been studied at the HAAGA-HELIA School of Vocational Teacher Education, where groups of teaching
students studying for their certificate in an online vocational teacher education programme were the subjects.
This article reports on the study conducted during the third year, when the results from the first and second years
were available. The main challenges faced by students during the first year were related to assessment and
recognition of prior competences. Students commented that previous competences were not recognized at all, or
were only recognized in a late phase. During the third year, these were the main challenges aimed to be solved.
The student teachers were adults and most of them were working as teachers or in a position in the education
system in Finland. Thus, many of them had previously acquired competences, information and skills in the field
of teacher education. Due to the student teachers’ existing competences, the first aim of the study was to develop
methods and procedures to recognize prior competences. The second theme was individualization of the
curriculum, i.e., designing personal learning paths based on each student teacher’s definition of their own
learning goals. The third theme of the study was facilitating the learning process. The online teacher education
programme, where the study was conducted, served as a test bed for E-learning and social media learning
development and research (Aarreniemi-Jokipelto, 2011, 2013a). Therefore, several E-learning and social media
tools were utilized in the facilitation of learning.
Teaching student
Working
context
Prior competences
Work
environment
Learning in real
working situations
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Facilitating
context
Assessment and
recognition of prior
competences
Facilitator
VAT
CURRICULUM
Competence
requirements
Team
Teaching student
Figure 3: Online teacher education programme during 2013-2014
Figure 3 above illustrates the processes in which the study was conducted and the participants of the
processes.
Compared to earlier years, the difference was that the facilitator did not design learning processes for the
student teachers beforehand, but instead the learning processes were designed together with each student teacher.
The curriculum, describing teachers’ competence requirements and general guidelines for study, were given by
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