Abstract

The reflections of educational reforms in Estonian teachers’ instructional approaches and teaching practices

Krista Uibu, University of Tartu, Estonia
Kristiina Tropp, University of Tartu, Estonia

Within recent decades many fundamental changes have taken place in the Estonian education system. The values of the past – strictly controlled curricula, traditional and ideologised instruction – are being replaced with more democratic education. The transformation is visible: a competence-based approach has been chosen as the key concept behind curricula; information and communication technology (ICT) is used to change learning from a reproductive to a productive activity. To these ends, the promotion of student-centeredness is favoured in official educational documents as well as in the actual work performed by teachers.

Much attention has been paid to the use of new learning environments and instructional tools. According to constructivist approaches, the competence to search for and employ information is important for constructing new knowledge. However, research –even in primary school stages – has revealed that the proportion of students using computers in subject classes is low and teachers’ skills and confidence in using ICT options in the instructional process is much lower than expected.

In addition, the teacher training system in Estonia is currently being reformed. Universities provide (re)training for teachers, an induction year for young teachers has been added and broad in-service training has been established in order to improve teachers’ qualifications. On the other hand, as the majority of teachers in Estonian schools today studied and worked in Soviet Estonia, their attitudes, beliefs and behaviour have been influenced by the prior ideals. However, effective contemporary teaching in the changed social-cultural circumstances presupposes that teachers change their attitudes and understanding and that their preferences for instructional approaches and teaching practices will also change.