Comparative study of teaching content in teacher education programmes in Canada, Denmark, Finland and Singapore

Abstract

This article presents the results of a comparative study of the content in selected teacher education programmes for primary and lower secondary teachers in Canada, Denmark, Finland and Singapore. First and foremost, the study is a comparison between teacher education programmes in, on the one hand, Canada, Finland and Singapore, all of which score highly in international comparisons such as PISA and TIMMS, and on the other hand Denmark, which receives average scores, but it also functions as a comparison between all four countries. The study covers the following subjects: pedagogy and mathematics. The study does not offer proof of any clear difference between the Danish teacher education programmes and those found in the top-performing countries. Two main findings are: (1) philosophically based professional knowledge, much of which is normative in character, forms an extensive part of the body of professional knowledge within the Danish teacher education programmes, which is not true of the programmes in the Top-3 countries and (2) the programmes in Canada and Singapore more frequently employ literature combining research-based knowledge with practical guidance and experiences, while the programmes in Denmark and Finland keep these knowledge forms separate.

Keywords:

• teacher education
• content of teacher education
• teachers’ knowledge base
• comparative study

Notes

1. In PISA 2006, Alberta is the top-performing Canadian province. However, there are only negligible differences in relation to Ontario, and so, as Ontario is Canada’s largest province, it has been selected in order to provide a more representative sample.

2. Johan Friedrich Herbart introduced a distinction between three ‘circles’ of pedagogy, as early as 1802 in his lectures on education. This distinction is highly reminiscent of that applied by Durkheim roughly 100 years later, namely pedagogy as science, pedagogy as education in the art of teaching and pedagogy as more haphazard educational relationships (Herbart, 1887, s. 284).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jens Rasmussen

Jens Rasmussen is a professor in the Department of Education at the Aarhus University and holds a PhD, Tuborgvej 164, 2400 København NV, Denmark; email: [email protected].

Martin Bayer

Martin Bayer is the Head of Department in the Department of Culture and Identity at Roskilde University, and also holds a PhD, Universitetsvej 1, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark; email: [email protected].