Teachers’ Pedagogical Competence in Finnish Early Childhood Education—A Narrative Literature Review
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Different Approaches to Pedagogy in ECE
3. Teachers’ Pedagogical Expertise in ECE
4. Data and Methods
- (1)
- Specifying a clear research question to be addressed in the analysis
- (2)
- Systematic and exhaustive searching for studies in the previous research literature was conducted through scientifical databases, with different keywords using the Boolean algorithm. The Boolean algorithm evaluates two statements or expressions using logical operators, such as AND, OR, and NOT [40]. The Boolean algorithm yields a true or false outcome, facilitating effective information retrieval and analysis [41]. The search was focused on educational sciences and specifically on the teacher’s pedagogical competence, excluding the dimension of leadership. To ensure the exclusion of the leadership dimension, the keywords “early childhood education” AND Finland AND NOT (leader OR leadership) were employed, with a specific focus on articles with titles that contained the term “pedagogy” (see Figure 1).
- (3)
- Clear criteria for including and excluding studies. The initial search resulted in 132 thematically relevant studies. The research focus was established on English-written research articles in the Finnish context between 2010 and 2020. This period corresponds to when the pedagogical approach in Finnish early childhood education (ECE) received significant emphasis. Consequently, sixty-two older researchers were excluded from the study. Next, the titles and the abstracts of remaining data were reviewed and those where the four elements of pedagogy are identifiable [7] or a definition of the pedagogical competence of teachers were included as in the following excerpt from the article by Peterson et al. [42]: “The practice of professionalism is shaped by the teacher’s pedagogical awareness of children’s developmental and pedagogical needs, parents’ expectations, teacher’s support from the context for growth environment of the child, parent–teacher partnership, and the regulations of the curricula, including cultural-historical dimensions”. A total of fifty articles were excluded from the analysis due to their not provide a clear definition of the term “pedagogy” or “pedagogical competence”.
- (4)
- Evaluation of the methodological quality of the chosen studies. The emphasis on pedagogy in Finnish ECE, especially in the political agenda, without a clear definition of what teachers’ pedagogical competence is, shaped the research task. A clear definition of competencies in pedagogy was needed in research and policy. The data in this research are textual; thus the narrative nature of the literature review was evaluated to offer clarified explanations and definitions of the multi-dimensional concept of pedagogy [14].
- (5)
- Strategies to reduce bias in both selection and review. The data consisting of twenty studies were read and analyzed using the pedagogical framework as a theoretical basis. The first phase of analysis was tabulated using the descriptions referring to the teacher’s competence. At this stage, five articles were excluded as they lacked a clear depiction of pedagogical competence. Consequently, our final dataset consisted of fourteen peer-reviewed research articles focusing on early childhood education in the Finnish context. The teacher’s competence was classified through systematic classification together with the research team. Diverse skills were discussed and for example, teamwork skills were excluded because of their role of general working life skills and not pedagogical competence. The research team agreed that teamwork skills are skills that belong to all ECE professionals and are not limited to teachers’ pedagogical competencies.
- (6)
- Transparency of the methodology for carrying out the review. The selected methodological ontology focusing on the pedagogy as a concept was followed throughout the research process. Transparency has been considered by selecting and reporting the research articles written in English, which makes it possible to view the data also for an international reader. The selection procedure of the research papers was performed as described in Figure 1. As the author’s team is considerably large, all actively working on research in the field, some selected articles included co-authors from the team. Three co-authors are involved in five selected articles. However, it was agreed that excluding those papers would have caused more bias to the sample and findings (the definition of pedagogical competence would remain narrow) than including them.
5. The Competencies of Teachers Based on the Literature Review
6. Meta-Competencies
7. Professional Competencies
8. Practical Competencies
9. Discussion
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Elements of Teachers’ Competence | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
n | Meta-Competencies | n | Professional Competencies | n | Practical Competence |
7 | Curriculum management | 8 | Planning and designing | 10 | Teaching skills |
3 | Substance know-how | 6 | Organizing and managing the learning environment | 8 | Child-centeredness |
3 | Methodological awareness | 6 | Organizing the learning environment | 8 | Interaction and sensitivity |
3 | Knowledge of developmental theories | 5 | Reflecting and evaluating | 6 | Enhancing participation |
5 | Understanding of peer-mediated interventions | ||||
4 | Feedback skills |
Class | N of Mentions | Within Research Papers | Meanings (Keywords) |
---|---|---|---|
Curriculum management | 7 | [13,23,42,46,47,48,49,50,51,52] | The pedagogy of early childhood education is built around the curriculum, use of appropriate content and structure in teaching, subject knowledge, and awareness of values and goals of education |
Substance know-how | 3 | [23,48,49] | The organization of teaching within a subject, choices of appropriate learning methods, scaffolding learning |
Methodological awareness | 3 | [23,48,49] | Use of appropriate teaching methods, understanding of the effect of methods, know-how of methods in use, suitable methods for children of different ages |
Knowledge of developmental theories | 3 | [13,23,49] | Understanding of development and psychology of learning |
Class | N of Mentions | Within Research Papers | Meanings (Keywords) |
---|---|---|---|
Planning and designing | 8 | [13,23,42,46,47,52,53,55] | Development of continuous learning, |
skills to plan appropriate activities, | |||
holistic planning and designing skills, | |||
contextual planning of learning culture, | |||
planning of classroom interaction | |||
Organizing and managing the learning environment | 6 | [13,42,46,47,48,49,50,51,52] | Designing the learning environment, |
using appropriate tools and materials, | |||
continuous organization of learning environment, | |||
safe and secure environment, | |||
managing the participation and learning within the learning environment | |||
Reflecting and evaluating | 5 | [13,23,28,42,48] | Reflection of choices and pedagogical tools constantly, |
evaluation of learning and development, critical reflection skills, | |||
Self-evaluation capabilities, | |||
development of practices | |||
The organization of the school community | 5 | [13,28,42,46,52] | Management and organization of social environment and learning culture, |
organization of visibility of children’s initiatives and needs, | |||
multiprofessional competence and working culture development |
Class | N of Mentions | Within Research Papers | Meanings (Keywords) |
---|---|---|---|
Teaching skills | 10 | [13,23,28,42,46,47,48,49,52,55,56] | Choices of flexible teaching methods, |
choices of methods during a lesson, | |||
child-appropriate methods (age and developmental level), | |||
knowledge of teaching strategies, | |||
methods for creative and self-initiated learning | |||
Child-centeredness | 8 | [23,28,47,48,49,52,53,56] | Taking account of children’s initiatives, knowledge of children’s previous experiences, understanding of children’s needs, |
strengthening the potentiality to learn, | |||
flexibility toward children’s ideas in class | |||
Interaction and sensitivity | 8 | [13,23,42,51,52,54,55,56] | Emotional support, |
listening skills, | |||
interaction and scaffolding skills, | |||
understanding of pedagogical interaction, | |||
supportive and goal-oriented interaction | |||
Enhancing participation | 6 | [28,42,52,53,56] | Enabling children’s participation, |
giving opportunities to express oneself, | |||
guiding children to taking part and being active, | |||
understanding the process of motivation, | |||
taking initiatives into account | |||
Understanding of peer-mediated interventions | 5 | [47,51,52,54,56] | Supporting children’s cooperation and peer interaction, |
enabling peer-related learning, | |||
scaffolding cooperative actions, | |||
organizing social learning opportunities | |||
Feedback skills | 4 | [47,51,53,54] | Dialogue skills, |
listening to children’s verbal and non-verbal feedback, | |||
giving feedback on learning and behavior, | |||
sharing reflection with children, | |||
continuous feedback processes |
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Ranta, S.; Kangas, J.; Harju-Luukkainen, H.; Ukkonen-Mikkola, T.; Neitola, M.; Kinos, J.; Sajaniemi, N.; Kuusisto, A. Teachers’ Pedagogical Competence in Finnish Early Childhood Education—A Narrative Literature Review. Educ. Sci. 2023, 13, 791. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13080791
Ranta S, Kangas J, Harju-Luukkainen H, Ukkonen-Mikkola T, Neitola M, Kinos J, Sajaniemi N, Kuusisto A. Teachers’ Pedagogical Competence in Finnish Early Childhood Education—A Narrative Literature Review. Education Sciences. 2023; 13(8):791. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13080791
Chicago/Turabian StyleRanta, Samuli, Jonna Kangas, Heidi Harju-Luukkainen, Tuulikki Ukkonen-Mikkola, Marita Neitola, Jarmo Kinos, Nina Sajaniemi, and Arniika Kuusisto. 2023. "Teachers’ Pedagogical Competence in Finnish Early Childhood Education—A Narrative Literature Review" Education Sciences 13, no. 8: 791. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13080791
APA StyleRanta, S., Kangas, J., Harju-Luukkainen, H., Ukkonen-Mikkola, T., Neitola, M., Kinos, J., Sajaniemi, N., & Kuusisto, A. (2023). Teachers’ Pedagogical Competence in Finnish Early Childhood Education—A Narrative Literature Review. Education Sciences, 13(8), 791. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13080791