Teachercollaboration.fi
by Sanna Leinonen

This site is a combination of Finnish education, interesting research on collaboration and practical examples from everyday school life in Finland. This started as an inquiry project for my Fulbright fall in 2017 and has kept on evolving. My interest lies in collaborative methods to use with students, especially team learning, but also in teacher collaboration (hence the site name :D)

I frequently work with international teacher groups, so some of the examples or topics might come from the workshops and discussions I have with them. There is also a page here about my webinars and workshops.

Collaboration vs. co-operation

The very simple definition of collaboration according to Collins Dictionary is: “the situation of two or more people working together to create or achieve the same thing”  in addition it gives the following: acting, being or existing together.  I especially like the part “existing together”.  I see collaboration as more than co-operation. It’s setting common goals, trusting each other and working together to get the best result. You can read more about this in my blog later on.

We build knowledge on our life experiences and on the previous education we all have. Teachers are not islands, we are a continent, countries linked and connected to other countries around us. As I see it, teacher knowledge is rooted deeply in the society and in engagement with others. That is why I love to connect with teachers around the world.

Kuvassa Sanna Leinonen.

Sociocultural theory has been my guideline for almost thirty years of teaching and teacher training. Year 2019 was my 30th year teaching. The way I see it, as teachers and teacher educators, our own life and the life we have lived together with other people in the society is the basis of our teaching. I’m a language teacher and language is very much a social phenomenon.

In addition, from my point of view, teachers themselves are the ones who can change their work and the school. We are the experts of our own teaching, students, the school and education in our context

So welcome! I hope you’ll find here lots of information you can use and share with your friends and colleagues.

I hope to connect with you on Linkedin!