OpenDigi toimintamallin käsikirja: opettajat oppimistaitojen ja digipedagogiikan kehittäjäyhteisöissä

With the acceleration of change in society, education must also respond to the changing needs for skills. The ability to renew oneself and adapt to constant change is emerging as a new civic skill at the core of professional competence. The quality of Finnish education relies heavily on academic teacher education. Social development challenges teacher education and schools to support more strongly people’s active role as agents and instruments of change. In addition to completion of degrees, the education system must provide better opportunities for active learning. Renewal is therefore required at all levels of education.

The change in education requires the professional renewal of teachers in educational institutions. Teacher education has an important role to play in this development work, not only through in-service training but also through basic training of teachers. Attention should be given to teachers’ skills and willingness to renew their competence already during their teacher studies. There is also a need for policies that support teacher educators’ own renewal.

During the project entitled OpenDigi — Teachers’ communities for improving learning and digipedagogical skills, five teacher education universities, in collaboration with primary schools in their regions, created a new type of model for developing teachers’ competences based on collaborative work. The OpenDigi operating model supports the development of the skills of teacher students, teacher educators and primary teachers at different stages of their teaching careers, as well as dialogue between teacher education and primary schools.

This handbook provides support for the development of Finnish education, especially for developers of teacher education and basic education. The handbook also includes individual tools and methods for teachers’ work. The handbook describes the principles of the operating model that was developed and presents three ways to apply them in relation to 1) the development of learning-to-learn skills and regional cooperation, 2) the development of digipedagogical competence, and 3) the development of research cooperation and teaching practice.