Guidelines for Guiding Teachers
The purpose of teaching practice is to provide the students with an opportunity to apply their pedagogical knowledge and skills in real life teaching. The aim is to enable the student teacher to design, carry out and evaluate the teaching methods of their own sector and to cooperate with other parties and students relating to practical studies.
Guiding teacher guides and supports the student teacher. They promote the competence development and professional growth of the student teacher during the teaching practice. The student teacher, the guiding teacher and the professional teacher education tutor will agree on how the student teacher will demonstrate their competences defined in the competence goals during the teaching practice. Before starting the teaching practice, the student also must ensure that a cooperation and practice agreement has been made between the School of Professional Teacher Education and the training site. The contract is a prerequisite for the payment of the fee.
Teaching practice provides the student with an opportunity to practice as a professional teacher either in their own professional teaching job or by teaching assigned subjects defined by a guiding teacher.
The curriculum of the vocational teacher education is competence-based. Reaching 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. The student can also include the competence goals of other competence areas in the teaching practice according to their own personal study plan.
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 an evaluation 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 evaluation form.
The timing for the guided teaching practice depends on the practice placement and the teaching schedule of the guiding teacher. The 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 School of Professional Teacher Education 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 Professional Teacher Education by sending in an invoice for the practice fee. Billing address and detailed instructions can be found below.
Guidance Fee
The Oulu School of Professional Teacher Education will pay 250 € guiding fee for teaching practice guidance. The fee is paid to the guiding teacher as a personal fee or, alternatively, the practice institute invoices 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 hr-info@certia.fi.
With the form below, the guiding teacher can report the student teacher’s completed practice to receive the guiding fee.
"*" indicates required fields
You can access the form via the link in the email by logging in with your bank account details or mobile certificate. Through a strong authentication, the form is automatically updated with your name and personal identity number, followed by the completion of the other information on the form. Locked data cannot be edited and mandatory fields are marked with a red asterisk.
You can initially save the form as a draft and continue to complete it later.
The income-tax card (pdf) is added to the form as an attachment.
When the form is complete, press the Accept button to return it. Should the form be rejected, it will be returned 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 amok@oamk.fi 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 be made for it.
In addition, the invoice must mention: School of Professional Teacher Education / Teaching Practice
Sirpa Aalto, KP 4345001 AMOK Opetus.
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
Guided teaching practice and guidance fee abroad
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 people pay the tax in their respective countries of residence. The School of Professional 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 amok@oamk.fi. 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.