Guidelines for Guiding Teachers

The curriculum of the vocational teacher education is competence-based. Reaching the competence goals is a personal and a personalized process for each student. In developing their competences, the students focus on the exact knowledge and skills which they personally need and which a vocational teacher needs now and in the future. At the very beginning of the teaching practice, the students make a personal study plan for carrying out the teaching practice. The plan is based on the competence goals of the teacher training.

The total extent of the vocational teacher education is 60 ECTS which includes a teaching practice where the student applies their pedagogical knowledge and skills in practice. The learning goal for the student is to plan, implement and evaluate teaching in their field. The student teaches and guides responsibly and professionally in the context of their field in vocational or higher education. The student develops and demonstrates the competence required in the competence goals during the teaching practice.

Teaching practice is carried out in an authentic environment in vocational or higher education. Students get extensively familiar with the operational environment of their own substance field. They practice by teaching until they reach the competence goals of the teaching practice, and they demonstrate their competences.

According to the curriculum for the academic year 2023-2024, the teaching practice is 12 ECTS. The competence goals and assessment criteria for the professional teacher studies according to the curriculum can be found here. The student can also include the competence goals of other competence areas in the teaching practice according to their own personal study plan.

NOTE. Instruction for guiding students who have started in the year 2021 and earlier can be found in the right-hand column of this site. Curricula from previous academic years can be viewed here.

At the beginning of the teaching practice the student teacher, tutor and the guiding teacher talk about the competence goals, competence development plans and demonstrations of the competences. Based on these discussions, the student teacher compiles a personal teaching practice plan of competence development and demonstrations. The plan must be accepted by both the tutor and the guiding teacher before the start of the teaching practice.

Competence demonstration happens during the actual teaching practice – in teaching work, in an authentic setting. The task of the guiding teacher is to guide, support and endorse the student teacher in their professional growth and development. Guiding teacher also evaluates the demonstrated competences in relation to each competence goal.

Student teachers should also develop their competences independently and reflect their learning and development during the entire practice period.

At the end of the teaching practice the guiding teacher writes a report and assesses the teacher student's progress towards the competence goals set in the beginning of the practice. The guiding teacher gives a signed report to the student and sends a copy via email to the tutor at the School of Professional Teacher Education. The assessment of the student's competence is done using this form.

The role of the guiding teacher in supporting and guiding the student teacher’s growth and competence development is essential.

During the teaching practice the guiding teacher:

- Informs the student teacher about the educational environment where the practice takes place, its culture, the documents that direct the work of a teacher, and the role of a teacher in a larger whole of the profession

- Guides and helps the student teacher with their personal teaching practice plan. They discuss and endorse the student teacher with their personal development goals

- Guides the student teacher together with the professional teacher education tutor towards reaching and demonstrating the competence

- Familiarizes the student teacher with the internal and external networks of the placement school and provides the student teacher with opportunities to get involved in the network activities

- Guides the student teacher in recognizing and understanding the needs of different learners

- Selects, together with the student teacher, a study unit or a module that the student teacher will plan, implement and assess. When agreeing on the scope and contents of the study module it should be made sure that the competence goals of the teaching practice are achievable and possible to demonstrate during the study unit or module

- Guides the student teacher in planning, implementation and assessment of teaching and learning

- Observes the teaching and guiding methods of the student teacher, has guidance discussions and gives feed-back. Continuous guidance during the practice process helps the student teacher to develop their competences.

- After the teaching practice, the guiding teacher provides the student teacher with a written evaluation about the teaching practice competences and how they were attained. The evaluation document will be sent to the student teacher and to the professional teacher education tutor by email using this evaluation form.

The timing for the guided teaching practice depends on the practice placement and the teaching schedule of the guiding teacher. Student teacher agrees on the details of the practice with the guiding teacher. If the teaching done by the student teacher is part of the work obligations of the guiding teacher, it is the guiding teacher who bears the legal responsibility of the teaching. During the teaching practice the tutor from the Oulu UAS will visit the placement to observe and guide the student teacher, providing the placement is located within a 200 km radius from Oulu or Rovaniemi. The demonstration of competence by the student teacher can also be done online by using video material.

School of Professional Teacher Education pays a fee of 250 € for teaching practice guidance. This fee is personal. Another option enables an educational institution to charge the School of Vocational Teacher Education by sending in an invoice for the practice fee. Billing address and detailed instructions can be found below.

The Oulu School of Professional Teacher Education will pay a 250 euros guiding fee for teaching practice guidance. The fee is paid tothe guiding teacher as a personal fee or, alternatively, the practice instituteinvoices the fee. The payment of the guidance fee requires that a cooperation and practice agreement has been made between the School of Professional Teacher Education and the internship site. For tutors employed at Oulu University of Applied Sciences, tutoring is resourced in the working time plans and they are not paid a separate tutoring fee for tutoring carried out after June 1, 2023.

Guidance fee as a personal reward

At the end of the guiding period, the guiding teacher makes an online notification about the completed training for the payment of the guiding fee.

After that, the guiding teacher will receive an e-mail about the fee form to be supplemented with other information necessary for the payment of the fee. The sender of the e-mail message is Oulu University of Applied Sciences and the message comes from the address .

You can access the form from the link in the e-mail message by logging in with your own bank credentials or mobile certificate. Through strong identification, the name information and social security number are automatically updated on the form, and then the other information on the form can be completed. Locked data cannot be edited and mandatory fields are marked with a red star.

You can initially save the form as a draft and continue to complete it later.

When the form is complete, press the Accept button to return it. Should the form be rejected, it will be returned back to the sender. You can no longer log in to the form from the login link after it has been accepted or rejected.

It is important to note that

- the recommended browser is Chrome

- always log in to the form with your own bank credentials

- contact if the e-mail you received disappears

- the withholding tax of the fee is 60%, if no income-tax card is not attached to the form.

Reward for the training institution

If the training institute invoices for the supervision of a student’s teaching practice, an online invoice must made for it.

E-invoice information

Oulu University of Applied Sciences Ltd.

Operator: CGI Suomi Oy

Operator ID: 003703575029

VE-invoice address / Finnish party identification number (OVT): 003725097478

In addition, the invoice must mention: School of Professional Teacher Education/Teaching Practice

Guidance fee payments for teachers who work abroad must be accompanied by a tax at source card. The source tax percentage is 0 % for persons who work abroad and do not reside in Finland. These persons pay the tax in their respective countries of residence. The School of Vocational Teacher Education will take care of the tax at source card.

At the end of the teaching practice, the guiding teacher should send an e-mail to . The e-mail should include the name of the student who completed the teaching practice, the name of the school where the practice took place, as well as the date of the practice period. Based on this information, Oulu University of Applied Sciences will start the process of payment of the fee.