Enconto International de Educacao Professional in Joao Pessoa, Brazil, on 9-11 December

Teachers from the first two cohorts of VET teachers for the future gathered to an international conference on vocational education, Enconto International de Educacao Professional in Joao Pessoa, Brazil, on 9-11 December. The second cohort who spent five months in Finland in the spring were now presenting their development works that they had been working on during the last five months in their own schools and classrooms.

The conference had several parallel sessions including workshops run by teams of teachers from the two cohorts. I attended, for example, a workshop on student-centred methodologies by Maristella Gabardo, Kelly Oliveira and Bruno Garces. Kelly and Bruno are from the second cohort, Maristella from the first. In this workshop the participants learnt to use two methods, Opera and Gallery walk, through own experience.

A workshop on student-centred methodologies by Maristella Gabardo, Kelly Oliveira and Bruno Garces

All the workshops demonstrated applications of new pedagogical approaches that the Brazilian Vet teachers had learn in Finland. Where ever we went we saw people working in small groups, pasting pieces of post-it notes on the board, writing on flap boards, sharing and discussing.

The second cohort's development works were similarly examples of collaboration and networking. A case in point was the Games factory, a project created by two business teachers and three IT teachers from different Federal Institutes thousands of kilometres apart from each other. The teachers brought their students together via web conferencing and collaborative tools to create and market games. IT students from different institutes studied programming through creating games in small groups, business students from different institutes worked together to evaluate the games to make a marketing plan. Students made videos to demonstrate the games and to give their pitch talk. They also voted for the best game.

The impact of the VET teachers for the future programme is amazing. It seems that those teachers who participated in the programme have started a snowball effect, which keeps. In April 2016 we expect the third cohort of Brazilian VET teachers to TAMK.

Graduation of VET teachers for the future second cohort who studied five months in TAOK and TAMK in the spring 2015.

Text: Sisko Mällinen
Photos: Sisko Mällinen and Paulo Leão

Chinese guests

Chinese teachers from Luoyang Institute of Science and Technology visited TAMK in November and spent three weeks familiarizing themselves with the Finnish education system and especially the administration and organization of universities of applied sciences. With TAOK they were very happy to experience student-centred learning methods first hand. They also had an opportunity to learn about various learning environments and observe classes. Again this intercultural encounter proved mutually beneficial.

Text and photos: Sisko Mällinen