More than 100 participants, including key teachers and management personnel from several higher vocational colleges in China, participated in the training, and the overall feedback on the training was excellent, scoring 9.2 out of 10 in the survey.
Diverse content of the training
One of the key takeaways from the feedback was the idea of teachers as facilitators of learning, which inspired the participants. Although China and Finland have different backgrounds and realities in vocational education, understanding how Finnish vocational education is implemented can help to reflect and improve their own context. The participants also noted that the training provided extensive knowledge about professional pedagogics with a lot of practical tools that they can put into practice in their own teaching.
The topics covered in the training included various aspects of Finnish education, such as educational leadership, professional teacher qualification, teacher ethics, and the transition from teaching to coaching. The training also covered learning environments and technology, such as VR (Virtual reality), 3D, AR (Augmented reality), and gamified content for students. TAMK’s modern pedagogical classroom was introduced and was inspirational for the participants.
In addition, the training discussed cooperation between working life and university, entrepreneurship, and innovation education in Finland with deep discussions on HUBS and Sprint Innovation Festival.
The training also covered various modern pedagogics in vocational and higher education, for example, coaching pedagogy, authentic learning, flipped classroom, cooperative and collaborative learning, participatory learning, and competency-based approach.
Curriculum development is another important topic in the training, a case study of curriculum development in TAMK’s Bachelor’s Degree Programme in Environmental Engineering was inspiring for the participants that once again showed the student-centered and competence-based approach in Finnish education.
Teacher as a facilitator of learning
The training was an opportunity for a dialogue between teacher colleagues in Finland and China. TAMK trainers were glad to share and learn from each other. The idea of the teacher as a facilitator of learning is at the heart of Finnish education, and it has proven to be successful. Finnish education has been ranked highly in international comparisons. The Finnish approach to education values trust, creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration. The training was an excellent opportunity to share these values and practical tools in pedagogics between Finland and China.
The online implementation across the Eurasia continent was smooth, as both TAMK teachers and the Chinese participants are already experienced users of online learning tools. With international travel resuming in post-pandemic time, TAMK is looking forward to welcoming Chinese teachers and educational colleagues to visit Finland and get to know Finnish education even more concretely.
For more information, please contact Yue Wang (yue.wang@tuni.fi) at TREE Global Education.
Text: Yue Wang
Picture: Archive of Guangdong Polytechnic of Water Resources and Electric Engineering
