Job Shadowing and Teaching at Tampere

Four teachers from our consortium visited Tampereen yliopisto Normaalikoulu, yläkoulu in Tampere, Finland between 20-24 of May 2024. Kostas Sechidis and Kiki Amarantidou from the Experimental Primary School of Florina were involved in Job Shadowing activities and Giannis Arvanitakis (Experimental Primary School of Florina) and Sotiris Georgiou (Hub of Innovation in Education of Florina) were engaged in teaching assignment activities.

Teaching Assignment

The theme of the teaching assignment was Design Thinking in the classroom. Our teachers had prepared a scenario that uses a specific design thinking process aiming at facilitating students to come up with creative ideas.

Before implementing the scenario and the design thinking process, they met with the teacher for the local school (Janne Nissinen). They discussed the strategies used by the school in Design Thinking and observed the lesson in the class.

The scenario focused on creating new toys and/or games. At first, students explored the needs of imaginary personas using persona cards that were designed for this purpose. In the second stage students utilized the thinking prompt cards that were also developed by our teachers with the goal of creating as many ideas for new toys as they can. In the third stage the students working in groups discussed and evolved their ideas and at the final stage they used their tablets and lego bulding blocks to create prototypes.

Job shadowing

The job shadowing activities were focused at teaching languages and math in lower grades and also music, art and photography. Our teachers had the chance to observe how the local teaching staff prepares the activities and implements them in the classroom and the strategies they use for different lessons. Another important aspect had to do with the overall classroom management. Our teachers observed how the local staff creates the classroom educational climate and how they handle various issues concerning the students and their attitude.

Some important notes that our teachers shared with us upon their return were:

• The freedom that students have in the classroom and the relaxed climate as opposed to more strict Greek classroom environment
• The self assessment of the students in the classroom and the role of the teacher as facilitator when needed
• The considerably more skills than knowledge oriented teaching strategies they observed

We want to thank the staff of the Tampereen yliopisto Normaalikoulu, yläkoulu for their warm and welcoming hosting and the chance they gave us to rethink many things about the practices in our schools.