Hoitotyön opettajien pedagogisen asiantuntijuuden transformaatio kokonaisvaltaisessa opetussuunnitelmauudistuksessa: 10 vuoden seurantatutkimus

In the Autumn of 2002, Pirkanmaa University of Applied Sciences implemented a comprehensive reform of the curriculum based on a Problem Based Learning (PBL) model. PBL as a teaching and learning method has spread since the 1960s as a global phenomenon. There are hundreds of versions of the method, which share the idea of active learning. Thousands of studies have been published all based on the principle of the PBL framework over a period of 50–60 years, but rarely from the perspective of teachers or as longitudinal studies. However, this study did not investigate the PBL method per se but served as a background for the events. The research task was to describe the transformation of nursing teachers' pedagogical expertise in the comprehensive curriculum reform process during a 10-year follow- up period. The aim of this study is to promote the research of nursing teachers' expertise, especially pedagogical expertise.

The research setting can be considered as a kind of "aquarium" or laboratory. In the beginning, all teachers were forced to use the same problem-based learning application in the same way, at the same "pace", even the model of the "solutions" produced by the students was given in advance. Only the students changed. The informants of the study were 19 nursing teachers. The data was collected in two different interview cohorts. There were three small group interviews over 10 years for both cohorts. The purpose of the first two interviews was related to teachers' well-being at work. The collected material was read for this study from a new perspective and a third interview was added to it. The analysis of the data was guided by a narrative reading method. The data was analysed in three levels, the first of which was the analysis of narratives, and the next two levels were narrative analysis: Greimas' actant analysis and analysis using the positioning framework. The methodological choices of the research were guided by the combination of the ontology of critical realism and social epistemology.

According to the results, the key finding was that a fundamental transformation took place in the teachers' pedagogical expertise, which arose from a concrete understanding of active learning. Teachers argued that there were no possibilities to return. Another observation was that the application of PBL, which guided the reform of the curriculum, was perceived as shackles and as a rejection of the teacher's pedagogical expertise. Teachers rebelled against the model, but it was continued as an administrative choice. Teacher training and its importance emerged as a key factor. It can be said that the awareness awakened by the pedagogical training brought up problems that perhaps would not have been considered without it or perhaps the problems would have escalated as time passes to become unmanageable, but the achieved pedagogical expertise led to solutions to the problems. The teachers' continuous learning and joint reflection in small groups developed each informant's own teacher expertise over the years. In 10 years, different nursing teaching/learning models emerged from within one strict model, according to each teacher's nursing specialty and personality. According to the teachers, teacher training in higher education is important in terms of students' learning and the meaningfulness and control of the teachers' work. The research results confirmed the Finnish practice of nursing education, where long teacher training is required from teachers.

Finnish higher education in nursing differs from other Finnish and international higher education. Teaching staff is not required to have pedagogical expertise elsewhere. One of the topics for further research would be to investigate whether pedagogical expertise would enable teaching staff in higher education institutions to have better resources to develop their teaching, guide learning and model their own activities in relation to students. Related to this, another topic for further research would be to investigate whether the content expertise of the teaching staff is sufficient for university students and whether the pedagogical expertise of the teachers would facilitate learning.