The first group of teachers were certified as Innopeda® Teachers

A graduation ceremony was held online and included speeches by Head of Future Learning Design Minna Scheinin, ISO Colegio Teaching and Learning Coordinator Luis Miranda, Coordinator of  Education and Sciences at Embassy of Finland in Brazil (Säo Paulo) Jelena Santalainen and Diplomat from the Embassy of Brazil in Helsinki, Lilian Cristina Nascimento Pinho. 
 

The Innopeda® Teacher training process took one year and included face-to-face training in Paraiba, online tutoring and guidance, as well as major development assignment of applying Innopeda® in their own teaching. 

The training in Paraiba was an excellent starting point to get to know ISO Colegio working community and their ways of working and teaching. Innopeda® approach with its activating learning and teaching methods and versatile assessment was a major change in ISO school and we are happy to support them in making the change. 

According to Innopeda Trainer Marjo Joshi, “The ISO teachers were ready to take on a new role as teacher and very committed to apply Innopeda. The commitment showed in all the activities and assignments.”   

The long process was a very good way to support the teachers in applying the new methods and approaches in their own teaching. We held several group and personal online meetings where we discussed the challenges and successes. 

“The educational cultures have some differences, such as student-centered approach, and for example taking initiative was sometimes difficult for learners when teachers were applying their new ways. In Finland we are used to giving more responsibilities to students.” explains Innopeda Trainer Milla Järvipetäjä. 

Active learning was one new area of interest for many teachers. For example, some teachers experimented games and multidisciplinary projects. They discovered that having fun can make learning more efficient whilst developing innovation competences. Assessment was another special development point for many of them, and they found that utilizing process assessment and involving learners can make results more visible.  They were also supported in implementing Innopeda in the basic education context by a Finnish basic education expert. 

“The Innopeda strategy was a differentiator as a teacher, as it helped me to seek new ideas for the student to participate in their learning and develop innovation skills in it,” says one of the ISO teachers.

Covid-19 changed the plans that the teachers had made but they adapted to online working and we supported them in applying the new pedagogical approaches and tools online. Read more about their experiences in using innovation pedagogy as a pedagogical strategy online during the pandemic in our recent collaborated article . 

The feedback from the teachers was extremely positive and they described Innopeda as not only an approach to work as a teacher but as a new lifestyle.

The collaboration between Turku AMK and ISO Colegio continues in 2021 with new plans for Innopeda activities, such as training a new group of teachers.