Aalto University pedagogical training for faculty

The training is intended for Aalto University faculty, and it is free of charge. We encourage all who are engaged in teaching and are interested in developing their own teaching, to apply to the courses. It is important that you have the motivation and possibility to commit to the training and tasks.

If there are more enroled participants than the courses can accommodate, we prioritise persons appointed on tenure and lecturer tracks and those who have a lot of own teaching responsibilities.

In 2021, 381 Aalto University staff members participated in Aalto University pedagogical training.

Find the link for upcoming pedagogical courses above for further information on courses and enrolment periods. Please remember to fill in the enrolment form.

• Course offering for autumn term is published in May 
• Course offering for spring term is published in November 

The core courses are usually taught twice a year: once in Finnish and once in English. The selection of thematic courses varies from year to year. You can find the full description of the courses at the end of main page under the titles Core courses and Thematic courses.

The enrolment period starts approximately two months before the course starts and closes about 3–4 weeks before courses start. We will send the information on the admission/rejection to the course to all enroled people approx. 2-3 weeks before the course starts.

The aim of pedagogical training and development is to enhance the learning centered culture and the quality of teaching and learning as well as support the development of teachers’ pedagogical competence.

Learning outcomes

After having completed Aalto pedagogical training (25 ECTS), you will be able to

1. Recognize different types of teaching and learning approaches and formulate your own approach to teaching and learning.
2. Recognize various teaching methods and know how to apply them in your teaching.
3. Understand various phases of course design and evaluate their meaning in educational development.
4. Advise and guide students and provide them with constructive feedback.
5. Facilitate active learning processes that support learning.
6. Justify the pedagogical choices related to the use of digital learning environments ​and various information and communication technology in (online) teaching.
7. Expand your cross-school networks and cooperation possibilities within Aalto University.
8. Recognize your own strengths and development areas as a teacher.
9. Provide constructive peer feedback based on teaching observations 
10. Design and adjust your teaching based on the constructive feedback received.

Working methods

• Contact sessions
• Small group work
• Guided teaching practice
• Independent development tasks
• Online learning

Basis of the training

The basis of the training is the participants as experts in their own fields and their interest in teaching development. All the exercises and development tasks are strongly engaged with the participants’ own teaching work. This allows you to develop your teaching within your discipline as well as your scholarship of teaching.

The elective courses allow opportunities for individual advancement.

Our teaching groups are multidisciplinary, which allows teachers from different areas to enrich their teaching with different perspectives on teaching and its development. Using participant-activating methods, we are able to build our approach of learning and teaching at Aalto University.

If you have completed pedagogical studies at another higher education institution or have other prior learning that is equivalent to the intended learning outcomes of Aalto's pedagogical course, you can apply for the recognition of this prior learning. 

Recognition of prior learning (RPL) is a voluntary process that is based on students’ needs. The RPL process is based on the needs and aims of students, and the students are mainly responsible for demonstrating their knowledge. RPL is not a shortcut to pass courses with minimum effort. The aim is to make the actual knowledge and competence visible by proven proficiency testing according to the definition made by the University.

When considering applying for the RPL, it is recommended to reflect on these viewpoints:

• The acquired competence is relevant, not where or how it has been acquired. The Aalto teaching competence assessment process considers as an advantage all ways of acquiring or developing teaching competence. 
• If you are planning to continue your pedagogical studies (60 ETCS credits) at another institution, it's up to each institution to decide to what extent Aalto University's pedagogical courses are recognized as a part of their degree. In other words, the pedagogical courses completed at Aalto cannot be automatically transferred as part of another institution's studies, but need to be assessed separately at each organization.  
• If there has been a long time since you have participated in pedagogical training, it might be meaningful to participate on our courses and update your pedagogical competence. Pedagogical courses provide an opportunity to get acquainted with the Aalto teaching and learning culture through meeting colleagues and sharing experiences. 
• The previously acquired learning and competence need to be demonstrated and evidenced, in relation to the intended learning outcomes of the course. 

How to proceed with the RPL -application: 

1. Get acquainted with the intended learning outcomes of the pedagogical courses.
2. Assess your prior learning in relation to the intended learning outcomes of the course and gather all the relevant documentation (transcript of records or a certificate that demonstrates the content, extent and time of the training) to evidence your acquired learning. If you have acquired the learning outside formal education, reflect and for instance list, through which kind of experiences the competence has been acquired. 
3. Make a service request in MyTeachingSupport -service.
4. Choose in the MyIssue -section "Pedagogical training" and add ”RPL” as a topic.
5. Describe your situation and explain in the request, which existing Aalto's pedagogical course the RPL -application concerns. 
6. The specialist handling your request will guide you further and send you the RPL-application form as well as further instructions.

UNIPS learning platform: https://unips.fi/

UNIPS (University Pedagogical Support) is a learning platform for university pedagogical studies, and it is aimed for university teachers and doctoral candidates. In the web page the material is constructed into modules that can be studied in two optional ways:

1. Guided study

Guided 1 ECTS UNIPS online courses allow you to strengthen your pedagogical knowledge. They cannot replace the core courses of Aalto University pedagogical training (A! Peda Intro, Learning and teaching in higher education, Course design, and Teaching practice), but they can be used as elective courses. Upcoming UNIPS guided courses are in Events of upcoming pedagogical courses and registrationonline courses and enrollment above and their name ends with "(UNIPS)".

2. Self-study

Everybody are welcome to study the materials of the modules independently. You can concentrate on the topics that are most beneficial for you at the moment or study all the materials in free order. This option doesn't accumulate study credits.

About UNIPS-project

UNIPS (University pedagogical support) -project was funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture (Opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriö) and as one of the three divisions in the larger thematic project "Enhancing pedagogical and digital teaching and supervision skills in higher education" in Finland.

UNIPS partner Universities created English university pedagogical self-study material in collaboration and shared it on the UNIPS learning platform. The guided online courses are based on this material and they are still occasionally organized for the teachers and doctoral candidates of partner universities (University of Turku, University of Jyväskylä, Tampere University of  technology, Lappeenranta University of technology, University of Eastern Finland, University of Oulu, Aalto University and Hanken School of Economics).

Further information about UNIPS-project and Aalto University's contribution to this project can be inquired from Jukka Välimäki (jukka.valimaki (at) aalto.fi).

Students of pedagogical courses can see their completed studies in Sisu. The completion of a pedagogical course can be evidenced with the transcript of records together with the course description. Students can print the transcript of records from Sisu as well as the course description for the course's workspace in MyCourses.

After having completed the Aalto University pedagogical training module (25 cr), the student can request a certificate of the training. Please note, that the courses you have taken must be completed and registered in Sisu when filling out the request.

Request form for certificate of Aalto University pedagogical training (25 cr)Please note that certificates are signed by the VP of Education two times a year:

• To get your certificate in June, please send the request by 15th of May
• To get your certificate in December, please send the request by 15th of November

For further questions, please contact MyTeachingSupport. 

Pedagogical studies and teacher education programmes are organized at several educational institutions in Finland. After completing pedagogical studies at Aalto you may, for instance, apply for further pedagogical studies (60 ects) at other educational institution in order to have the general pedagogical qualification for teaching. However, it's up to each institution to decide to what extent Aalto University's pedagogical training is recognized as a part of their degree.

In addition, you are of course still welcome to participate the various thematic pedagogy courses offered at Aalto.