Session Information
03 SES 02 A, Relevance of the Curriculum and Students' Future Vocational Pathways
Paper Session
Contribution
The main aim of this presentation is to describe the improvements in the counselling and guidance given in Finnish Comprehensive schools (especially grades 6-9) from the perspective of cooperation, study transitions, special groups, communication of services, and working methods & tools. The national research and development project initiated by the National Board of Education (NBE) gives the context for the activities and their evaluation reported in this presentation.
The task of the school counsellor in Finland is to help pupils (Comprehensive school; especially grades 6-9) to plan their studies, to choose educational paths for the transitions and to make decisions about a vocational career. Some psychosocial services are also provided. Various challenges of post-modern society mean that pupils’ studying paths become diverse and fragmented. Problems such as social exclusion, multicultural issues and drop-out rates, require hard thought and systematic work at both the local and national level. (Numminen & Kasurinen 2003.)
School counsellors need both internal (with subject teachers and other educational institutions) and external (with social work, youth work & organisations, labour administration) cooperation in their tasks of helping young people (Edwards et al. 2009; Nykänen et al. 2007). They do not need only flexible psychological qualifications to encounter pupils in constructive face-to-face meetings but also new tools (eg. virtual rooms, social media; management software) to deal with different pupils in various life situations and to monitor systematically study paths between educational institutions (D’Amour et al. 2003; Lumague et al. 2006).
Local professionals cannot survive alone with the new challenges but their working practices must be supported and enhanced. Various ways of in-service education is needed as well as extra financing for either innovative improvements or for recovering the worst flaws. In the case reported, the NBE established a two year project to provide the practitioners with the kinds of supportive inputs.
The research questions were:
1. What kinds of changes took place in the local development projects analysed by four main criteria during the first year of action: inter- and multiprofessional cooperation, pupils’ transitions along educational paths, taking care of special groups, communication about counselling services, and working methods? 2. What were the self-evaluated a) main achievements from the first year of activities and b) tasks to be done during the second year of action?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Atjonen, P., Mäkinen, S., Manninen, J. & Vanhalakka-Ruoho, M. 2009. Missä ohjaus on menossa? Arviointia oppilaanohjauksen kehittämisestä syksyllä 2008. [Evaluation on the development of guidance and counselling at Finnish comprehensive schools, Autumn 2008] Opetushallituksen moniste 7. D’Amour, D., Ferrada-Videla, M., Martin-Rodriquez, L. & Beaulieu, M. 2005. The conceptual basis for interprofessional collaboration: Core concepts and theoretical frameworks. Journal of Interprofessional Care (May) Supplement 1, 116–131. Edwards, A., Daniels, H., Callagher, T., Leadbetter, J. & Wasmington, P. 2009. Improving inter-professional collaborations. Multi-agency working for children’s well-being. London: Routledge. Lumague, M., Morgan, A., Mak, D., Hanna, M., Kwing, J., Cameron. C., Zener, D. & Sinclair, L. 2006. Interprofessional education: The student perspective. Journal of Interprofessional Care 20 (3), 246–253. Numminen, U. & Kasurinen, H. 2003. The evaluation of educational guidance and counselling in Finland. National Board of Education. Evaluation 5. Nykänen, S., Karjalainen, M., Vuorinen. R & Pöyliö, L. 2007. The development of a regional guidance network – cross-sectoral and multiprofessional cooperation as a resource. [In Finnish] University of Jyväskylä. Institute for Educational Research. Occasional Papers 34. http://ktl.jyu.fi/img/portal/6822/G034_2._painos.pdf.
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