Teacher as a Creator of the FutureLaajuus (6 cr)

Objective

Course Purpose:
In this course, you will develop your environmental competence through three key areas: societal competence, Institutional practices competence, and working life competence. You will familiarize yourself with future megatrends and analyze key development trends relevant to your region. You will also explore practices related to futures research and foresight. Together with your learning circle or regional team, you will examine the tasks and opportunities of vocational education in building the future of society and working life, based on your region’s specific needs. This course supports your ability to act as an active developer in a changing society. The course emphasizes information seeking, collaboration, critical thinking, and a culture of experimentation. The development task can be implemented in collaboration with educational institutions or working life representatives and may include a pilot or experiment.

Learning Outcomes

Societal Competence:
- Analyzing megatrends and future competence needs helps you understand broad societal changes and their impact on vocational education.

Institutional practices competence:
- You identify and analyze institutional practices, structures, and development needs.
- You practice development work in the context of an educational institution.

Working Life Competence:
- You learn project-based working methods as well as collaboration and communication skills.

Content

Course Content
- Futures research and development
- Megatrends as part of critical environmental analysis
- Regional analysis: How do megatrends influence regional development? What specific regional issues can be identified?
- Building a sustainable future in working life
- Future working life competence needs
- Regional actors and networks, roles of educational institutions and actors in future development
- Regional strategies, regional education policy, and its priorities
- Team-based future-oriented development task, which may focus on the societal role of education, the development of working life, and/or internal development within an educational institution

Assessment criteria, approved/failed

Assessment Criteria (Pass Level)

Societal Competence:
- You demonstrate an understanding of the role of educational institutions and teachers as societal influencers and can examine teaching as part of a broader societal context.

Institutional practices competence:
- You demonstrate readiness to act as an active developer in your work community and understand institutional operations as part of the education system.

Working Life Competence:
- You demonstrate understanding of the connections between education and working life, can develop your teaching in a work-oriented way, and are able to work as part of a team in project-based development tasks.