Student Welfare Services – Professional Teacher training

Topics

1. Bastu: What does the concept of inclusion mean in practise? What does the concept of accessibility mean in an educational context? What is a pedagogically accessible learning environment? Give examples

2. Tree:What do the student welfare services (in Finnish: opiskeluhuolto) mean in vocational schools and in higher education?

3. Owl: As a vocational/professional teacher, how can you support a student with special needs?

This was the final online teaching practice session. The main theme was SPECIAL EDUCATION. 

What did the teams talk about?

Team Bastu’s main topic was on Inclusion and accessibility options. Team Bastu defined inclusion as “Inclusion is about diversity and involvement of everyone through pedagogical methodology…”. Whereas, they defined accessibility “It refers to a barrier-free learning environment in teaching, services, and facilities with accessible communication, learning tools, equipment, and materials considering diversity and avoiding discrimination”. In other words, It is not only barrier-free but also considering the individual characteristics of every student.

By looking at these definitions it makes sense that as a teacher thinking about inclusion and accessibility should be a priority. I, however, think that we should not in this century be talking about inclusion at the first place. It should already be part of our routine. As we still talk about it so does this mean that many schools, teachers and educational organizations do not make inclusion part of their pedagogical models? If that is the case then we should be alarmed. Personally I am alarmed that I did not think of inclusion or accessibility as a matter of fact while I was making my first course. I do think that I made a course where I included everyone so that they learn from each other. I did not think very deeply about these terms and that is why I said that I did not think of these terms while making my first course. 

Team Owl talked about support for students in special needs. It was an emotional topic to do research on. Someone said after the session that now he has a new motivation of why he wanted to be a teacher. It really makes us emotional as teachers when we see teachers out there making a difference in someone’s life and especially in a child’s life who is considered to be a special needs student. Special needs children are often grouped together with I would just say normal children. Normal in a sense that they are not required to take special needs classes. Special needs students are grouped according to the needs. These groups are often up to 8-10 students. Sometimes even less. 

How to Identify People with Special Needs
● Students whose growth and learning have been affected by illness, disability.
● Students who need psychological or social support for their growth.
● Students whose development involves risk factors related to learning potential.

How Teachers Can Support Special Needs Education
● By interacting with their environment.
● By using both pedagogical and social knowledge and skills.
● By taking the teaching group and the different abilities and needs of each student into account in instruction.
● By guiding students to recognise their own resources, learning-related strengths and development
challenges.
● By being involved in guidance, counselling and student welfare.

My team Tree discussed about Student Welfare Services in vocational and in higher education. Our Objective was to discuss Laws and regulations welfare services have to follow.

By the end of the class students will know the regulations and principles governing student welfare in Finland, the services student welfare units provide in vocational and higher education.

Student welfare act 1287/2013 states that: The wishes and opinions of students must be taken into consideration when taking any measures and decisions involving them, taking into consideration  the student’s age, level of development and other personal capabilities.

Then we discussed about Confidentiality

Confidentiality

Personnel of an educational institution, social welfare and health care professionals providing study care services or other people participating in study care activities, teacher trainers and other persons involved in the implementation of teaching or individual study care, cannot give access to other parties on student’s confidential information that he / she has otherwise received, unless it contains:

1) the individual written consent of the person concerned or, if he is not in a position to assess the significance of the consent given, his legal representative; or

2) a provision of law authorising the disclosure of information.

In higher education institutes typical services that a student is provided and is not limited to the following are:

– admission and pre-study advisory services
– tutoring, guidance and counselling services
– study psychologist
– assessment of prior learning and credit transfer
– library services, information management and  other administrative systems
– differentiated services for students with special needs
– career development

Above are the few of the most important discussion point that I find important to discuss here. Also there were some common points among three groups. 

Students were at the heart of each group’s main conversation points. Inclusion was discussed among groups as well as Law and student welfare. The discussion of Inclusion got me thinking that is it really important to mix special needs students with normal students? May be not all students should be mixed. I do see the importance of keeping all the students together but not always. I also think that this is how it is implemented in schools. I was just thinking that a normal student might not get attention when there is a special needs child in a class who requires more attention. It is not a normal students fault to be not able to study at a faster pace that he wold do in another class where special needs students are not present. I say this because usually there are only two teachers for about 15-20 students including special needs children. It is already hard for even two teachers to deal with normal students of 15-20 in class. 

Reflection

I am sure many students will want to write a long text to reflect. I am not going to do so. 🙂 

I feel happy that I have finished these sessions and in a process learned a lot of useful information. Here is how I think. I have a tool box full of different tools. Not all tools will be used at once. When there is a need of certain tool i will open my box and find relevant tool to use. Even though you will feel that I have not said much but believe me I have gained knowledge that I will use at a certain time or when it is needed. 

Reflection is an ongoing process where if you keep on thinking you are going to keep on getting new insights. This is what I will be doing in the future.  

Feedback by Kimmo and my answer

Feedback by Kimmo: The blog post is inadequate. Elaborate by writing about physical safety and information safety considerations connected to your teaching practice. Length: 2000 words. 05.05.2020 / Kuortti

Answer:

First thing first. I have so far taught in the university. The students are adults and as compared to the school environment it is way easy to deal with students and not worry so much about their physical and emotional safety. Unlike in schools with teenagers or with even younger children it is a different story. In schools a teacher must be fully trained in safety competencies to be able to deal with young ones. That is why Kimmo I think you feel that the blog post is inadequate. It is not that I cannot write about safety. It is because I have no personal experience with school going children. I did not go into detail on safety as I am teaching adults. Adult students can take care of many things that can be considered as safety for a child. For example, bullying. In universities and especially in Finland in did not come across a single case of bullying. But in schools there are lot of cases. All I am saying is that I do know that as a teacher I am aware of the safety of my students, but my students are adults.

Now that you have asked me to write about physical and Information safety, I am going to assume a role of a schoolteacher and write down some safety requirements.

1. Physical Safety:

If we look elsewhere like US, we can see that schools are going through a rough time. Like safety drills in case of fire and shooting etc. teachers in US are under immense pressure in recent years because of all this violence that we see through media.

The safety of students, faculty, and staff on campus or on school grounds has become a high priority in many countries. With a shocking number of crimes, arrests, and incidents reported every year, it is hard to ignore the need for a comprehensive system to keep everyone safe.

Physical safety refers to the protection of all stakeholders, including families, caregivers, students, school staff, and the community, from violence, theft, and exposure to weapons and threats, to establish a secure learning environment.

For students to learn, they need to feel safe.  It is essential that all students can attend schools that provide a safe environment where they can thrive and fully engage in their studies without the distraction and worry about physical safety concerns.

Physical safety is essential for a safe and supportive learning environment in which students and staff can thrive. Physical safety is related to higher academic performance, fewer risky behaviors, and lower dropout rates. Risky behaviors, such as acts of violence, imperil safety for students and staff, and undermine the teaching and learning climate. Students who feel safe are more likely to stay in school and achieve academically. Physical safety is important for students’ feelings of connection to school and their educational experience. Students who are not fearful or worried about their safety feel more connected to their school and care more about their educational experience.

It is essential to keep the school environment including the school buildings, premises, playgrounds, laboratories, swimming pool, computer rooms, libraries, toilets, drinking water facilities, school buses, transport area and the surroundings safe and secure. The buildings should be built to ensure “life safety” and be more resilient to hazards. School administration, staff, teachers as well as students need to be better aware and prepared to respond to any catastrophe, natural or man-made.

Now, let me come back to a university teacher. As a university teacher I am aware of the above mentioned many challenges. Therefore, when I am preparing for my class my first priority is to keep my class atmosphere friendly and trustworthy. I focus on building trust among students. I do that by making course student-centered. I ask them to get to know each other’s skills that they can get benefits during and after the course. I build long term relationships among students so that they can ask each other help when they need it. All the students have different set of skills and I make sure that the students get to know each other’s skills and seek help from each other when needed. So, in my opinion the physical safety of a student in my class starts with trust building. After that I listen to everyone and give equal chance of participating. I give my students autonomy. So that they can take responsibility of the work and try to finish tasks alone or in groups. Also, seek help from where they can work effectively. So, the students can do all the work alone or with other students. I care that the students get to know each other and learn from each other. This is my way of teaching and I think that if students help each other they will be able to trust each other, and no physical safety concerns will arise in my class hopefully.

2. Information Safety:

Note: Kimmo if you mean by information safety about accessibility to educational resources than this is what I will be writing below. Otherwise, please tell me what you mean by information safety.

With regards to media education following are some of the things I keep in my mind while teaching.

Teach Students About Online Privacy

My course was called Diversity in Media did not discuss much about online privacy, but online privacy is a very important topic that we discuss in media education courses. SO, our students are aware of this online privacy topic. Regardless, as a teacher I should consider about teaching my students about online privacy and give them the resources that they need. Again, in schools, teachers will have to do lot more than in the universities. So, personally I have not come across any online privacy issue as a teacher or before when I was student. I have not taught any class on this topic either. But I must teach the class on online privacy I will then discuss about social media ads. As these ads are the biggest reason our privacy is destroyed. People have become commodities and especially teenagers are biggest targets of ads. Companies know children now have smartphones and children (many) have access to credit cards of parents. This has been seen in case of games where children use credit cards of parents to by in game purchases. So other than ads bullying online is something I will discuss in my future courses if I get to teach one.

Get Students Involved

I believe that one teacher can learn more than he teachers during the class. Students especially in universities come from various fields of life and with vast amount of experiences. As a teacher I can use their own knowledge to teach them all. I do that by involving students in the teaching process. Again, I do this by giving students autonomy over their learning and by making the course student-centered. Students must work in groups to teach and learn from each other. I take a role of a facilitator and navigate the class.

Keep up with Technology

Well my university does not do anything extra ordinary when it come to the use of newer technologies. Like many other we used Adobe Connect and Moodle to teach students. The purpose of technology was to enhance learning and make life easier. Now we are walking on a very thin line. Technology can be harmful. That is why it is very necessary that we not only teach our students to keep learning new technologies we must also make sure that the teachers do the same. Our students as compared to a seasoned teacher knows more about technologies. Therefore, here I will say that teachers need to keep up with the technologies so that they should be able to talk about harms of technologies. Now we are on a thin ice and because teachers lack ICT skills it is very dangerous that our students get lose in using the technologies the right way.

I can give examples. Like in the current COVID-19 crisis all over the world teachers are struggling with using ZOOM. Students are on the other hand making memes of their teachers struggling with technologies. One of my research ethics teacher (20 plus years teaching experience) was all the time complaining that she don’t know how to use adobe connect.

In all this the lesson for me is to keep a close eye on the technologies and keep exploring new ones. If I do not know how to use AC correctly how can I assume that I am teaching my students with confidence. I will be worried about AC more than teaching. Students are comfortable with the technologies that they use and even if there is something that is new the students will take less time in learning that new technology. I am just worried about our seasoned teachers.

Provide Resources to Students

Libraries both digital and physical are the number one resource for students. Students are informed about library resources in my university during their first week of orientation. Then in each class a teacher is reminding students to get to know library databases and get the information they need. Personally, I have informed my classmates and students zillions of times about library services. In our university everyday between 12-4pm we have a person sitting and waiting for students to come and ask help. Another resource is google scholar that I recommend to the students but with some restrictions. If students go to google scholar, they must find peer reviewed articles so that the information they get is acceptable by the university standards. I always recommend that students should start with the library data base of the university.