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The present study aims to analyse how school leaders perceive their activities in creating and developing a collaborative school culture that promotes the school learning process. The data were collected in semi-structured interviews with nine school leaders and analysed using thematic content analysis. The results revealed that only three of the school leaders focused on the shared values and shared leadership necessary for creating a systematic and analytic approach to organisational and teacher development. The school leaders understood the importance of leading the development of the learning process, but this did not take place as expected in practice. Organisational and teacher development seemed to be unsystematic or not based on the continuous monitoring of processes. The findings of our study indicate that development programmes for school leaders should concentrate more on shaping the views, knowledge and skills needed to develop a collaborative and learning-centred school culture.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to discover topics in history education in Estonia that are perceived to be controversial, and to analyse how teachers' epistemic cognition is reflected in the teaching of issues perceived to be controversial. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative research based on group and individual interviews with 12 teachers, plus data from lesson observations among 10 participants. Findings: Issues perceived to be the most controversial are topics from the 20th century. The reflection of epistemic cognition in practice is a result of a complex interplay between knowledge and knowing related beliefs and processes. Research limitations: The small number of participants (12). Developed categories must be considered with caution as exploratory findings.

Integration of technology in schools rests on effective teacher education programmes that help teachers create new teaching and learning methods and adopt them for classroom use. Social learning processes play a key role in this, but there is a lack of understanding of their role in technology adoption and in evidencing them in teacher education programmes. Using the knowledge appropriation model, we propose a self-report questionnaire instrument to evidence knowledge creation and learning practices during training. With a sample of N = 109 in-service teachers participating in the Teacher Innovation Laboratory, a teacher professional development programme that is built around school-university co-creation partnerships, we demonstrate the instrument to be reliable and to differentiate between groups who completed different programmes. The instrument predicted intended adoption of technology-enhanced learning methods beyond individual level constructs, highlighting the important role that social practices play for the eventual adoption of technologies in the classroom.

The aim of the study was to understand the development of professional identity of prospective teachers, their ideals and experiences during interactions with their surrounding learning environment, including university studies and pedagogical placement during their 5-year studies. We also aimed at understanding how students with different motivational pathways to teacher education may be supported to explore teaching as a possible career choice. The findings reported in this article emerged primarily from interviews with 13 student teachers at the end of their teacher education programme. Survey responses collected during earlier stages of the study were utilised to provide data about the student teachers' professional development prior to the point of the interviews. The findings of the study point to various concerns and dilemmas, which in turn suggest that student teachers take different identity development routes. The study identified four possible "identity routes" to becoming a teacher. The implications of different identity routes on teacher education are discussed.

This study investigates how moral virtues create purpose for ethical leadership. Four exemplary principals, two from Estonia and two from Finland, were interviewed to study their perceptions of critical incidents in their work and how moral virtues are manifest in their reflections. The results of qualitative content analysis showed that the critical incidents were related to themselves as principals and to their work with teachers, students and families, and their communities as a whole. The principals demonstrated the virtues of wisdom and knowledge in creating long-term visions for their schools and building the schools for future generations. Other leading virtues were humanity, courage and justice, indicating caring and honesty and involving teachers and parents in decision-making. Based on our study, virtues seem to motivate principals to achieve their desired goals and solve challenging situations in morally sustainable ways. The study confirms that principals' work is value-based, and thus, reflection on moral virtues and the moral dimension of leadership should be integral parts of principals' education.

We focus on assessing whether newly qualified teachers' professional outcome expectations and their beliefs about students' intellectual potential are associated with teachers' self-reported classroom management and instructional practices. One hundred and eighteen novice teachers participating in the induction year programme were studied during their first years as full-time teachers. Results attest to a salient association between teachers' more optimistic views of the malleability of students' intellectual potential and teachers' confidence in themselves as positive change agents in student outcomes. Also, teachers' belief-set in the beginning of their career was shown to be associated with significant differences in the level of using instructional practices promoting mastery goal orientation in the classroom as well as offering students emotional support during the learning process. In the light of the significant belief-behaviour links demonstrated, more explicit attention to the sophistication of teachers' ability beliefs in teacher education programmes is recommended.

Despite Estonia being ranked among the highest performing nations in the world-wide testing of students, these encouraging results are somewhat overshadowed by the challenge to overcome the divided school system with different languages of learning that impacts crucially on students' social, academic and professional paths. The study examines teachers' (N = 312) attitudes to languages of learning and teaching through various components from a sociolinguistic perspective. The findings, gathered from a correlation and hierarchical clustering analysis, point to a strong connection between the affective (situational variable), conative (operational variable) and cognitive (situational variable) component of an attitude. The results indicate how attitude direction varies in four sub-groups of the sample when interpreted through the element of the cognitive component. The exploration of the latter underlines the necessity to consider the complexity in teachers' attitudes, as almost two-thirds of the participants share a monoglossic vision of learning and teaching languages, giving preference to either Russian or Estonian. Further research is needed to investigate how to enhance a positive attitude towards both languages of learning and teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to identify different groups of in-service teachers based on their general pedagogical knowledge (GPK) and self-efficacy beliefs and to explore potential differences among these groups regarding their instructional quality and commitments to teaching. A sample of 161 in-service subject teachers (science, mathematics, or Estonian language) who taught in lower secondary schools in Estonia were included in the study. Data was collected with a GPK test and self-reported questionnaires on instructional quality and commitments to teaching in the context of an OECD Teacher Knowledge Survey. Based on the cluster analysis, three groups of in-service teachers were identified: “the over-confident” teachers with average self-efficacy and very low GPK, “the competent” teachers with high self-efficacy and GPK, and “the insecure” teachers with low self-efficacy and average GPK. These three types of teachers were different in terms of instructional quality and commitments to teaching. It seemed that teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs are more important than GPK for instructional quality; however, GPK is more important for teachers’ professional persistence illuminating their general sense of professional identity. Implications of these findings for teacher education and teacher retention will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research focuses on Estonian university students' emerging teacher identity and their interest in becoming teachers. Five hundred and sixty-five first, third and fifth year students participated in the survey. The results suggest that pedagogical reasons for entering teacher education and clear motives for studying are significant indicators of teacher potential. Pedagogical reasons for entering teacher education or the teaching profession and the wish to function as a change agent in the society were related to academic self-efficacy beliefs and the belief that the teacher expertise is mainly pedagogical in nature. However, at the point in their studies at which the students are able to choose their masters programme and entry into teacher education, their likelihood of choosing teacher education remains low, indicating that there is a need to develop pedagogical content, study counselling and career guidance services to encourage students' continued interest in and entry to teacher education and the teaching profession. (Contains 4 tables and 4 figures.)

Selle uuringu eesmärk oli kohandada situatsioonispetsiifiliste ehk PID-oskuste (perception, interpretation, decision-making skills) hindamisvahend isemääramisteooria konteksti, et analüüsida õpetajakoolituse üliõpilaste suutlikkust märgata ja tõlgendada psühholoogilisi baasvajadusi toetavaid tegevusi klassiruumi kontekstis. Andmeid koguti aineõpetajate õpetajakoolituse magistriõpingute esimese aasta üliõpilastelt (N = 97), kasutades tunnivideote analüüsi. Uuringu tulemuste põhjal võib öelda, et üliõpilased märkavad tunnivideotest psühholoogiliste baasvajadustega seotud aspekte. Tõlgendamisel ning otsuste tegemisel olid üliõpilaste vastused pigem kas kirjeldavad või hinnangulised ega olnud seotud teoreetiliste teadmistega. Töökogemuse põhjal olulisi erinevusi tulemustes ei täheldatud. Kuigi õpetajakoolituse üliõpilaste puhul on tulemused ootuspärased, tuleks PID-oskuste arendamisele õpetajakoolituses senisest teadlikumalt tähelepanu pöörata, toetamaks paremini teoreetiliste teadmiste ülekannet praktikasse. The quality of teachers' situation-specific cognitive processing skills (perception, interpretation, decision-making, i.e. PID skills) (Blömeke et al., 2015) influences the extent a teacher's theoretical knowledge is applied in their classroom practices. Perception has been described as noticing important or noteworthy aspects that influence student learning in a positive or negative way (e.g. Alwast & Vorhölter, 2022; van Es & Sherin, 2002). Interpretation refers to the ability to use what one knows to reason about a situation - linking classroom events to professional knowledge (Seidel & Stürmer, 2014). Decision-making is defined as making pedagogical decisions based on interpretation (Alwast & Vorhölter, 2022). More precisely, decision-making is viewed through predicting consequences or anticipating responses to student learning and behaviour (e.g. Blömeke et al., 2015) or offering alternative solutions or more effective teaching strategies (e.g. Santagata & Yeh, 2016). In the context of this study, decision-making is viewed through the lens of offering alternative solutions. To the author's knowledge, the assessment of PID skills has yet to be studied in the Estonian context. Hence, this study aimed to test assessment instruments, which have been created based on previously validated instruments (Kersting, 2008; van Es, 2011; Alwast & Vorhölter, 2022; Chan & Yau, 2021) in the Estonian context and assess teacher education students PID skills. As the self-determination theory (SDT) (Jang et al., 2010) is one of the central theories in Tallinn University's teacher education programmes, PID skills were analysed in the context of the satisfaction of the need for autonomy, competence and relatedness in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Social-emotional learning can lead to better social- and self-awareness, more skilled self-management, as well as a higher quality of personal and social decisions (Weissberg et al., 2015). In Estonia and internationally, PAX good behaviour game (PAX GBG) has demonstrated positive results in students' social-emotional skills, as well as academic achievement (Bradshaw et al., 2009; Kellam et al., 2008; Streimann et al., 2020). However, it is known, that programme outcomes depend on the quality of the implementation process (Durlak & DuPre, 2008). In Estonia, research examining programme implementation quality and the contextual factors that support or hinder the quality implementation of PAX GBG has yet to be carried out. In order to understand better: 1) how programme coaches see programme implementation quality of PAX GBG in the Estonian context; and 2) what teacher- and school contextual factors coaches consider to contribute to the quality implementation, it was decided to interview 11 experienced PAX GBG coaches. The coaches that were chosen had up to four years of experience involved with different teachers at different schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of neuromyths among teachers has been studied around the world over the last few decades, and unfortunately, the message of all these studies is the same - neuromyths are widespread among teachers and educators. Neuromyths result from misinterpreted or simplistic interpretations of neuroscience research, which seeks to transfer to areas of application such as teaching, learning and instruction, which has led to the emergence of a wealth of pseudoscientific knowledge (OECD, 2002). A systematic analysis of the literature on neuromyths by Torrijos-Muelas and colleagues (2021) shows that the most common myth in education around the world is that individuals learn better when their learning style preferences, i.e. visual, auditory or kinesthetic, are taken into account. In 91,3% of the studies, it has been identified as one of the most common neuromyths. More than half of the surveys (58,3%) also describe teachers' unwavering belief in the myth of the first three years of life being the most critical for development. The last of the three most common neuromyths, cited in 41,7% of the studies analysed, is related to the belief that differences in brain hemispheres (left vs right) explain individual differences in learning. The international popularity of many neuromyths suggests their existence on a global dimension. Being frequently based on habitual inferences and perceptions, neuromyths are not easily refuted by any single exposure to correct information (Chi, 2013; Lassonde, Kendeou, & O'Brien, 2016; Verkade et al., 2017). Although there are many studies on the prevalence of neuromyths among teachers, it is still unclear what predicts and protects against misconceptions, as the results of the studies are highly contradictory (Ferrero et al., 2016). In most cases, teachers' lack of knowledge and skills to critically evaluate neuroscience research results and distinguish between scientific and pseudoscientific claims is cited as the reason for the spread of neuromyths (Ferrero et al., 2016). At the same time, the results of a study by Im and colleagues (2018) showed that taking educational psychology courses increased literacy in neuroscience but did not affect the belief in neuromyths. As the authors of the article are not aware of studies carried out about the prevalence of neuromyths in Estonia, this study aimed explore which neuromyths are most common among Estonian student teachers and whether background factors (e.g. age, study courses, curriculum or work experience as a teacher) are related to believing in neuromyths. We were also interested in whether students who had completed courses in educational psychology had better knowledge than those who had not. Methodology A total of 297 student teachers from Tallinn University (N = 221) and The University of Tartu (N = 76) participated in the study. The average age of the respondents was 31, and 167 respondents had work experience as a teacher. The majority of the respondents, i.e. 89%, were native Estonian speakers, 32 (11%) were native Russian speakers. In terms of curricula, the largest group, i.e. 28% (N = 82) of the respondents, were future class teachers, followed by students studying the humanities, i.e. teachers of Estonian and foreign languages as well as history (22%; N = 65). Teachers of natural sciences, i.e. mathematics, informatics, high school natural sciences (N = 39) and teachers of skill subjects, i.e. physical education, the arts, music and technology (N = 38), participated almost equally in the survey. There were 19 students in the multi-subject teacher curriculum, 17 special educators, 19 students in the pedagogy curriculum, six pre-school teachers and five future vocational teachers. One student was in the social pedagogy curriculum, and six students had not defined their curriculum. Before answering the survey on neuromyths, 126 or 42% of the respondents had completed some kind of educational psychology course in development and learning. The questionnaire used for data collection consisted of two parts. The first part concerned demographic indicators such as age, mother tongue, work experience, the curriculum, and the workload as a teacher. The second set of questions was based on questionnaires developed by Dekker and his colleagues (2012) and Im and colleagues (2018), containing a total of 29 statements about the most common neuromyths (14) and general knowledge of the brain functioning (15). T-test and analysis of variance were used to compare mean differences between groups. Correlation analysis was performed to determine the relationships between the different characteristics. Results The analysis of student teachers' responses to statements about neuromyths showed, as in several previous studies (Torrijos-Muelas et al., 2021), that the most common misconception among prospective teachers was that adapting teaching to students' learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) supports student learning. The second neuromyth in terms of prevalence (79,5%) among student teachers was the belief that brief coordination exercises help improve cooperation between the left and right hemispheres. The third most common neuromyth among students was related to the belief that the first three years of life are most important for human brain development - a total of 76,9% of students considered this statement to be true. In terms of general knowledge about brain functioning, the number of correct answers was significantly higher than in the case of statements about neuromyths. The biggest number of incorrect answers, i.e. 43,1%, was related to the statement that hormones affect the body's internal state but not the person's personality. 57,6% stated that they did not know that myelination, which improves the speed of neuronal communication, intensifies significantly during adolescence. Based on the analysis of the associations between teachers' knowledge and background factors, it should be noted that, as in previous studies (e.g. Hughes et al., 2020), there were no statistically significant differences and myths are prevalent among teacher education students in all curricula. Also, students involved in different curricula did not differ from each other in terms of their general knowledge. However, a weak positive correlation between age and wrong answers related to neuromyths appeared, i.e. younger students were slightly less likely to believe in neuromyths. As for work experience, differences appeared only in terms of general knowledge, i.e. students who did not have work experience demonstrated a better general knowledge of brain functioning than teachers who worked more than 20 hours a week. A comparison of the groups of students based on seniority showed that students with 6-10 years experience gave more correct answers about neuromyths than students with 0-1 years experience. Unlike in several previous studies (e.g. Dekker et al., 2012; Gleichgerrcht et al., 2015), having experiences with some educational psychology courses was positively related to students' knowledge. It means that students who had completed such a course gave significantly more correct answers to both statements about neuromyths and in the domain of general knowledge about brain functioning. At the same time, it must be said that although there was a difference between the two groups, the students who had completed educationalpsychology courses still believed in a large number of neuromyths. In coclusion, it can be stated that the knowledge of teacher education students concerning neuromyths is still poor. In contrast to previous studies, where better general knowledge was often associated with greater belief in neuromyths, in our study, students with better general knowledge had more correct answers about neuromyths. In conclusion, teacher education students' knowledge of cognitive neuroscience, their ability to critically evaluate information obtained from various sources and their ability to read scientific literature need to be improved. Neuromyths as easily entrenched misconceptions by being oversimplified and therefore attractive must be addressed consciously in teacher training, considering knowledge about dealing with conceptual change, a topic that is extensively researched in other complex knowledge domains such as physics, chemistry and mathematics (Lassonde et al., 2016; Potvin, Masson, Lafortune, & Cyr, 2015; Potvin et al., 2020). Also, it is important to develop interdisciplinary collaboration between the fields of neuroscience and education and a two-way dialogue between researchers and practitioners to identify and resolve misunderstandings when they arise and to formulate both scientifically based and pedagogically informative concepts and messages (Dekker et al., 2012; Howard-Jones, 2014). The present study also has some limitations that should be considered when interpreting the results. As researchers, we did not know which topics and to what extent were covered in the educational psychology courses. More detailed mapping of students' prior knowledge and a more accurate overview of the content and scope of their studies would provide essential additional information for interpreting the results. To ensure greater content validity of the research instrument and avoid the possibility that students interpreted some of the questions differently from the researchers, it would be necessary to check the understanding of the statements more closely. In addition to quantitative data collection methods, it would be advisable to use qualitative methods to understand and analyse the origin and background of students' knowledge, including misinformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life, property, and the effectiveness of efforts involved in saving the environment depend upon the situational awareness of incident commanders. However, so far, the impact of situational awareness training for working rescue incident commanders has not been studied in Estonia. This study aims to evaluate situational awareness training that has currently been implemented as an overall part of the dynamic decision-making model for all rescue incident commanders in Estonia. The new training curriculum, plus training materials and methods, were developed for situational awareness training using the virtual reality software, XVR On-Scene, and the Moodle e-learning environment. Assessors were trained and certified to apply the effective command behavioural marking framework to measure situational awareness. The Kirkpatrick training programme evaluation model was adopted to measure the SA training outcomes. Based on the Kirkpatrick model, Level 1 trainee reactions indicated that Estonian rescue incident commanders were able to accept a new approach to their decision-making training as a purposeful and engaging way of completing their attestation. Their basic psychological needs were supported during the training process, and participants achieved higher-than-threshold results in all SA levels, as is shown in Level 2 of the Kirkpatrick model. Training programme evaluation model Level 3 behaviour, and Level 4 results, need to be further studied. Suggestions have been provided in improve the virtual simulation-based training and assessment of situational awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]