In the present study, we aimed to specify the key competence domains perceived to be critical for the teaching profession and depict them as a comprehensive teacher competence model. An expert panel that included representatives from seven units providing university-based initial teacher education in Finland carried out this process. To produce an active construction of a shared understanding and an interpretation of the discourse in the field, the experts reviewed literature on teaching. The resulting teacher competence model, the multidimensional adapted process model of teaching (MAP), represents a collective conception of the relevant empirical literature and prevailing discourses on teaching. The MAP is based on Blömeke et al.’s, Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 223, 3–13, (2015) model which distinguishes among teacher competences (referring to effective performance of teachers’ work), competencies (knowledge, skills, and other individual competencies underlying and enabling effective teaching), and situation-specific skills of perceiving, interpreting, and making decisions in situations involving teaching and learning. The implications of the MAP for teacher education and student selection for initial teacher education are discussed.

This article investigates the perceived and actual predictability of teacher educators working as assessors in entrance examinations for the Finnish Primary School Teacher Education (PSTE) programme. The section examining perceived predictability was conducted as a survey. The data for actual predictability, containing student teachers' entrance examination scores and student achievements, was collected from the student register. The findings indicate that although teacher educators consider themselves able to predict applicants' performance in the PSTE programme, their actual predictability in entrance examinations was poor. The assessments predicted only slightly student teachers' study pace in the PSTE programme, while better scores in entrance examinations predicted, in fact, weaker grades in studies. Teacher educators also conform to hidden quotas based on Finnish student selection paradigms in awarding better entrance examination scores to male and older applicants. The findings highlight teacher educators' need for more structured professional learning in a gatekeeping context.

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School lockdowns in response to COVID-19 have forced teachers around the world to quickly and unexpectedly shift from face-to-face to distance teaching. The struggle with the forced transition has been even more severe in the lower levels of schooling than in higher education institutions, which had already established online course delivery before the crisis. The current paper investigates Finnish primary teachers' principles for high-quality distance teaching. Twenty primary teachers were interviewed in April 2020 during the fourth week of the twomonth distance teaching period. The findings from phenomenographic analysis revealed that high-quality distance teaching at the primary level requires (1) relatedness, (2) design, (3) routine, and ( 4) control. This study illustrates the understanding of teachers' working in a basic education system ranked among the best in the world and thus provides valuable insights for developing instructional practices in distance education.

Teachers' agency is an essential factor in understanding and developing pedagogics. The study adds to the previous research by employing a new materialist perspective, highlighting the notion that teachers' agency is not merely a matter of humans, but results from assemblages of both human and nonhuman elements in teaching. The context of the study is the school lockdown period of the Covid-19 pandemic. Twenty Finnish primary teachers were interviewed to explore how teachers verbalised the rapid transition to a distance teaching environment and to discern what kind of agency that transition unfolds. The findings illustrate lost agency, but simultaneously, new forms of agency emerging from the entanglement of humans and materiality in the changed assemblages. This understanding helps to support both preservice and in-service teachers' agency in ways that acknowledge the complexity of teacher learning beyond individualistic and controllable views in increasingly multifaceted teaching environments.

Sustaining the attractiveness of the teaching profession to recruit committed students to teacher education is a global policy issue. However, in many parts of the world, the teaching profession has become less attractive. Also in Finland, where teacher education has traditionally been highly attractive, several programmes have recently suffered from a substantial decrease in the number of applicants. The current paper addresses the phenomenon by investigating student teachers' pre-admission demotives. A total of 146 freshly admitted student teachers in primary teacher education in two universities wrote texts concerning the reasons for turning down primary teacher education and the profession during the application period. Thematic qualitative analysis revealed that demotives were connected to 1) arduous admissions, 2) deterministic training and 3) a precarious profession. The majority (54%) of participants expressed demotives connected to the above themes: concerns about the profession were the most frequent followed by doubts concerning admissions. By focusing on demotives the study fills the current gap in existing literature. The results can be implemented when outlining the measures to increase the attractiveness of the teaching profession, developing recruitment strategies and admission procedures, and designing more effective and meaningful teaching and learning in teacher education.

Opiskelijavalinnat ovat opettajankoulutuksessa muun korkeakoulutuksen tapaan keskellä poikkeuksellisen suurta myllerrystä. Todistusvalinnan painoarvon lisäämisen kaltaisten yleisreformien ohella opettajankoulutuksessa toteutetaan myös alakohtaista valintauudistusta, jonka seurauksena siirrytään aitoon yhteisvalintaan. Artikkelissamme tarkastelemme, miten vuoden 2020 mittavat muutokset suhteutuvat siihen valintauudistusten jatkumoon, jota luokanopettajakoulutuksen historiassa on toteutettu. Erityisaseman artikkelissamme saavat vuoden 1989 sukupuolikiintiön poistuminen, vuoden 1997 valintojen aikaistaminen elokuulta kesäkuulle, vuonna 2007 valtakunnalliseksi laajentunut VAKAVA-yhteistyö sekä näiden uudistusten syyt ja niistä koituneet seuraukset. Artikkelimme osoittaa, että loogiseen päättelyyn nojaaminen on opiskelijavalintojen kehittämisessä runsaasti käytetty, mutta varsin tehoton keino. Tämä on havaittavissa paitsi opettajankoulutuksessa myös korkeakoulutuksessa laajemmin: toteutetuilla valintauudistuksilla on harvoin saavutettu niille ennalta asetettuja tavoitteita. Sen sijaan uudistuksia vaikuttavat usein leimaavan erilaiset ei-aiotut sivuvaikutukset.