Competence in Laws and Amendments
Learning from teaching
In the following section, I describe what our group has done for our teaching session and what I have learned from preparation and implementation processes.
Topic
How do I ensure the safety of the environment as a teacher?
We gathered information from national laws and institutional laws.
Students right
Students have rights to a safe learning environments. Each institution can set own rules to promote safety.
(Finlex Universities Act (558/2009) section 41a. Right to a safe learning environment (Amendment 954 /2011))
Admission
In order to ensure the student have functional capacity to perform the studies, the university must inform applicants about health-related requirements and other prerequisites related to the studies.
(Finlex Universities Act (558/2009) section 37a. Accessibility and prerequisites for admission (Amendment 954 /2011))
During the studies
Sanction (suspension, revoking study right) is allowed to keep safety. The university may revoke the right to study when the student has proven to be unsuitable to perform practical assignments or practical training relating to studies by repeatedly or seriously endangering the health or safety of another person.
(Finlex Universities Act (558/2009) section 43a. Revocation of the right to study (Amendment 954 /2011))
A student may be issued a written caution, for example, if the student disrupts teaching, behaves threateningly or violently, acts under false pretences or otherwise causes disorder at the university, or refuses to present a drug test certificate (see below health issues).
A student may be banned from attending teaching for a maximum of three days when the student endanger the safety of other students or the student makes teaching and related activities difficult.
(Finlex Universities Act (558/2009) section 45. Disciplinary action (Amendment 954 /2011))
During training
When students conduct the training for the studies, the laws of occupational safety and health are applied.
(Finlex Occupational Safety and Health Act (738/2002) section 1)
Information
Confidentiality information, such a student's state of health and functional capacity can be provided by the holder when it is necessary for the execution of a university’s duties. For instance, information can be provided to: 1) the rector of a university and responsible person for the security of the university in order to ensure the safety; 2) a person responsible for study counselling in order to guide the student’s studies; 3) a person responsible for student healthcare to ensure the student's health and safety; (4) a person responsible for practical training to ensure the safety of the student and the safety of staff and customers at the place of training; and (5) the police and a representative of the university who is primarily responsible for investigating threats to security in order to assess an threat to safety.
(Finlex Universities Act (558/2009) section 90a. Right to obtain information (Amendment 954 /2011)
Safety planning
Each institution has safety planning documentations. Those documentations are formulated specifically for the feature of the institution (e.g., the studies, environments, location) and differ from each other. Teachers should familiarise themselves with the safety planning documentation of their institutions.
For example, OAMK’s safety documentation includes the following facets:
Fire safety
Map of the campus area
Safety planning documentation
Chemical list, Instructions for chemical accidents
Student’ s substance abuse
Crisis management plan (Traumatic crisis, emergency situations)
Neighbourhood of the campus
Instructions for exiting and sheltering inside
Dealing with a threatening person
Safety issues in higher education
Safety issues in higher education can be categorised into three: physical safety, psychological safety and social safety. We decided to focus on issues of bullying, physical and mental health, and potential harm in educational institutions.
Bullying can be included in all three categories, physical, psychological and social safety issues. KiVa is a bullying prevention program which is widely used in educational institutions in Finland. Emphasising empathy, it provides practical suggestions for teachers, parents and students to prevent and intervene bullying. Some countries, such as, the Netherland, Sweden, the U.K., Luxembourg and Japan, have started to test Kiva program in educational institutions.
About the health issues, we focused on students’ substance abuse (e.g., drug use). If there is a suspicion of substance use, the suspected use of intoxicants should be immediately investigated with the student (and underage student's guardian), a situation assessment should be made, as well as treatment management and follow-up procedures. According to e.g. OSAO's (Oulu Regional Vocational College) substance abuse model, every member of staff has a duty to intervene in substance use. Substance abuse is a shared issue between staff and students! The person who is under reasonable suspicion of substance use is required to provide a drug test certificate.
After school shootings happened in 2007 and 2008 in Finland, the Regional Administrative Agency has published the security and safety recommendations for Finnish institutions. There are altogether 17 recommendations. For example, the location, spaces of an educational building, markings and signs, locking system and access control and fire and rescue safety. In addition, it remarks “spiral of positivity”. It includes for example, schools should be physically, socially and mentally open space. All students and staff are responsible for the positive social environment of the school and culture of safety should be actively maintained.
Preparation for the lesson
We started weekly coordinator rules. One of the team members take initiative of planning the week’s lesson. We divided the tasks through WhatsApp and gathered information in Google docs. We had the first meeting on Saturday to share individual tasks and adjust the contents to be coherent. The second meeting was on Sunday to finalise the slides. The final meeting on Monday was to rehearse teaching. As we did not have enough time and needed to be efficient in meetings, we set meeting agenda which included what needed to be covered in the meeting. It was very effective.
My role of this week was planning an activity. Initially we were planning to have a quiz about safety in higher education contexts which leads to discussion later on. However, as the contents had not yet finalised, we found out that the quiz contents were not directly connected to the information we gathered. So we decided to have easy intro quiz in the beginning of the lesson to activate students’ prior knowledge of safety in educational contexts.
About the tool for the quiz, I had two option in mind: Kahoot and Socrative. After some research on the tools, I found Socrative more useful in this contexts. Though both of them are the tools to support multiple choice or short answer quizzes, the biggest difference is that Secretive allows to present explanation for the answers. This function enhances students’ reflection towards their answers. With this function, Socrative was better for this lesson because 1) it allows better formative feedback (see blog post of assessment) and 2) the content (law) was hard and required to elaborate further.
Implementation of the lesson
Reflection of my teaching
Compared to the last time, this time I was able to speak better (see previous blog post). I did understand the topic well, and I was confident to explain. I paid attention to the speed of my speaking to be slow enough so that students have time to develop their thinking. I also paid attention to the tone of my voice, putting emphasise to the terms which are most important for the contents. As we had quite a lot of contents in the lecture and the topic was serious, I tried to introduce some concrete examples or some casual episodes (on-task but not too serious) in the middle of explanation to keep students engaged in the lesson.
However, the discussion in the end of the lecture was not so successful. Students were not so active in providing their opinions. Next time I would like to improve my teaching by encouraging students to discuss, asking additional questions, give options to choose.
Learning from other groups
Part A: Where can you find the current laws and amendments concerning vocational/university education and working as a teacher? Are there any English versions available?
Part B: Confidentiality law (“Salassapitolaki” in Finnish)
How does a teacher consider the issue of privacy and data security in teacher’s work? What does “confidentiality” mean in practise? How long do you (or the school) have to archive various documents? What can you reveal to your spouse/friends/co-worker/the student…?
Important notes from the lecture
The following information should be secret (adopted from the lecture slides):
any documents containing information on a person’s lifestyle, participation in voluntary associations, or leisure-time activities, family life or other comparable personal circumstances of the person
marital status
the test results of students and candidates and the school diplomas and other documents containing a verbal assessment of the personal characteristics of the student
any information about psychological evaluations of aptitude tests
any information about special support for the student
any information about the student welfare services received by the student
any information about the health and welfare, sexual orientation, disability or invalidity of the student
The following information is public or can be disclosed when requested (adopted from the lecture slides):
exam and test results (can be published in info boards by using student id number only)
transcript of records (opintosuoritusote)
period reports, school year reports, final reports, Matriculation examination report
verbal assessment which does not contain personal characteristics of the student
any disciplinary actions that have been documented
the information of the student being registered in the certain school or learning institution
Good practices
It was good that they started with defining the terms. As the topic is serious and students may not so familiar with it, defining the terms helps to build common ground for the topic.
It was good that they set times for discussion in the middle of the lecture. So that we can actively participate in the lesson rather than listening the teacher speaking.
What are the principles of good administration and how are they evident in the everyday work of a teacher?
They presented with interesting categorisations: good administration (general, can be applied for example work places), school administration (only for basic education), and educational administration (include also higher education).
Principles of good administration
The principle of legality
The principle of non-discrimination
The principle of proportionality
The principle of impartiality and independence
Principles of school administration
Democratic
Cooperative
Scientific
Creative
Evaluation by the results
Duties and responsibilities
Growth
Flexible
Principles of educational administration
Structural democracy
Operational democracy
Justice
Equality of opportunity
Prudence
Adaptability, flexibility stability
Important notes from the lecture
Good practices
After explanation of the good administrations, the group gave us concrete example cases quizzes which we had to guess which good administrations are applied. It was good activity to deepen understanding towards the topic through applying into practical cases.
References
Callaghan, K. (2013). The environment is a teacher. In Ontario Ministry of Education, Think, feel, act: Lessons from research about young children, pp. 11–15. Retrieved November 3, 2019, from http://www2.edu.gov.on.ca/childcare/Callaghan.pdf
Factors to keep in mind to ensure student safety and school security. (n.d.). Retrieved November 3, 2019, from https://www.eprompto.com/article/factors-to-keep-in-mind-to-ensure-student-safety-and-school-security
Helasvuo, M. (2015). Security and safety recommendations for Finnish schools. Regional State Administrative Agency for Southwestern Finland. Retrieved November 3, 2019, from http://www.skoleanlegg.utdanningsdirektoratet.no/uploads/Artikler_vedlegg/Oslo2015_Helasvuo-2%201_jaettu.pdf
Pupil and student welfare. (n.d.). Retrieved November 3, 2019, from https://minedu.fi/en/pupil-and-student-welfare
Watanabe-Crockett, L. (n.d.). 4 Ways of Building Safe Learning Environments for Your Students. Retrieved November 3, 2019, from https://www.wabisabilearning.com/blog/create-safe-learning-environments
6 Rules for School Safety. (n.d.). Retrieved November 3, 2019, from https://www.scholastic.com/parents/school-success/school-involvement/6-rules-school-safety.html
Laws and Regulations Regarding Safety
Occupational Safety and Health Act (738/2002)
https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/kaannokset/2002/en20020738_20060053.pdf
Tort Liability Act (412/1974)
https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/kaannokset/1974/en19740412_19990061.pdf
Finlex Universities Act (558/2009)
https://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2009/en20090558_20160644.pdf
Finlex University of Applied sciences Act (932/2014)
https://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2014/en20140932_20160563.pdf
Rules and Regulations (OAMK)
https://www.oamk.fi/opinto-opas/en/studying-at-oulu-uas/regulations
(Last update: 11.11.2019)
