RDI – Professional Teacher training
Overview
My group was given a task to discuss about research communities, journals, development, and overall personal experiences of research, participation in seminars and whether we have written some academic articles or not. Thus, our task was to discuss in genral benefits of RDI in some fields. Whereas, team Bastu were to discuss trends in RDI, and what benefits does teachers gain through publications of articles etc. Team Owl was given a task to discuss skills and ethical principles required in the RDI.
Team Bastu started the conversation with discussing trends in RDI. It was very interesting conversation and I found some important resources for my future use. They used the examples of University of Oulu and University of applied sciences of Oulu along with some other examples. It was made clear how universities and other administrations all around constantly using RDI to solve issues to ultimately give their students a chance to gain skills and experiences that they deserve and need.
Team Owl with the help of interactive online tool helped participants understand ethics and planning involved in RDI situations. Some of the skills that I think are important would be the ability to find the correct information from the databases with the use of proper keywords. I suggest to always take a library know-how course in your universities. It really helped me to understand how databases and search engines work.
My group prepared a short introduction to RDI where we covered separately Research, development, and Innovation with some examples.
Research – careful consideration of study regarding a particular concern or a problem using scientific methods.
According to the American sociologist Earl Robert Babbie, “Research is a systematic inquiry to describe, explain, predict and control the observed phenomenon”.
Development – continuous professional growth of educational staff and evolution of teaching and learning in an educational institution. Responds to change in the society and initiates educational change.
- enhances the quality of student learning experiences
- facilitates positive change in teaching and learning
- helps educational institutions be evidence-based, student-centered learning communities
Innovation – is the process of creating value by applying novel solutions to meaningful problems.
With the help of these simple explanations and some in between discussions I was able to explain what RDI is. Then I was able to discuss Some of the development projects happening in Higher Education of Finland.
Ministry of Education and Culture provides funding. MAIN AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT 2017-2020 :
- teaching
- cooperation in the provision of education
- strengthening the digital learning environments
- promotion of research by young researchers
- openness and flexibility of studies
- recognition of prior learning and degrees to promote national and international mobility
- speeding up transition to working life
Along with the above mentioned projects many other universities have similar projects running as well. Thus far in my understanding all these projects are being used to help the students for future jobs, working life and life long learning. So, the emphasis is on the student’s development and learning.
University of Lapland is a research based university and all of its faculties are always working on some sort of RDI project. Similarly, Lapland University of applied sciences is also working on many different RDI projects. This shows that RDI is pretty much alive here in Lapland and is very closely linked to TEACHING.
16 percent of the UAS’s projects are international. Here is the list of their current projects as of this writing.
- Knowledge of Arctic conditions and cross-border expertise
- Bioeconomy, circular economy and side streams
- Development and applications of digitalisation
- Green Care
- Mining and industrial services and safety in mining
- Safety in tourism
- Start-up entrepreneurship and supporting entrepreneurship
As a teacher you can find research communities through university websites, library databases, conferences, email lists, and social media etc.
Reflection
So what did i learn other than RDI?
I am a PHD candidate so I have my fare share of experience in RDI. As, I am learning to be a teacher so, I have to think about improving my skills in teaching different subject in a way that my students will be able to understand what I am saying. I do believe that I did achieve my object in teaching RDI to my audience. After my teaching i was given feedback. They said that my way of presenting and talking was calm and understandable. They did not have difficulty in understanding the topic. They told me that I gave ample time for discussion, questions and for thinking. One student said that she needs time to think and I gave her time. Which she appretiated as I waited for her to speak before moving forward with the topic. All i did was to speak slow, ask questions, wait for their replies, did some discussion, listened to their conversations, asked each participant to say something many times and each time waited for the response before moving forward. It is not that hard and I like the fact that now I am not in a hurry to finish my topic as I take time and take things slow. This practice is helping me to think and act in a right order and learn at the same time.