2010 年 19 巻 p. 123-132
In Japan, an expansion of teacher education from Bachelor's level to Master's level is planned. Finland has around 30 years of experience providing Master's level teacher education and thus it is meaningful to examine the country's curriculum. Moreover, Finnish teacher education is “research-based” education. The aim of this study is to examine the theoretical landscape of Finnish teacher education and to analyze the curriculum. Since 1979, both primary and secondary school teachers in Finland have been educated at universities, attaining the qualification of a Master's degree.
Since then, the research activity of teachers has been emphasized in the curriculum. The aim of Finnish teacher education is to educate future teachers who have an inquiring attitude and can develop their work independently. Such education is characterized as “research-based teacher education” by some Finnish researchers. This paper identifies some features of research-based teacher education through examining the researchers' papers. The biggest feature is the close integration of theory and practice. To connect theory and practice, the notion of two levels of teacher education（basic level and general level）and the notion of two-fold practice（practice of teaching and practice of research）in teacher education are introduced. Pedagogical thinking is required of the student teachers, as is their ability to use and produce research to develop their work on the curriculum. How is the curriculum of research-based teacher education constructed? This paper analyzes the curriculum of the Department of Teacher Education in the Faculty of Education of Jyväskylä University as an example of research-based teacher education.
