Student Teachers ’Transfer of Knowledge to the School Community

Year 2024, Volume: 13 Issue: 2, 119 - 133, 31.08.2024

John Henriksson , Gunilla Eklund , Jessica Aspfors

Abstract

Previous studies have revealed some ambiguity regarding the role of research in teacher education and teachers’ use of research in their profession. In view of this, a research project was started in 2019 with the aim of developing a connection between research and practice through a popular scientific approach. Student teachers create video pitches and didactic materials based on their master’s theses to transfer knowledge to the school community. The current study investigates how teachers perceived student teachers’ scientific master’s theses when they are communicated in a popular scientific way. Ten Finnish primary school teachers were interviewed in 2022 and 2023, and the data was analysed through reflexive thematic analysis. The findings show that the teachers found the student teachers’ popular scientific materials to be beneficial to the teachers’ own learning, the development of students’ digital competence and the recruitment of new teachers. The teachers also noted that the student teachers’ materials were more accessible than traditional theses, but they identified the need for further developments in the platform, material quality and practical application. Based on these results, we suggest that educational research should develop formats for dissemination and knowledge transfer that are more applicable to teachers in their daily practice

Keywords

teacher education, research-based, master’s thesis, popular science

Ethical Statement

The authors report no potential conflict of interest. Author 1 analysed the data and collaborated with the other authors in drafting the manuscript. All three authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Supporting Institution

Jessica Aspfors has two institutions: Åbo Akademi University, Nord University and it was not possible to add a second one in the application form

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