In Finnish education, a metaphor Professionally Thinking Teacher (Koskenniemi, 1971)
has been used to illustrate the ideal of a teacher, who takes into consideration goals in the
curriculum, relevant pedagogical theories and research outcomes, in addition to his/her
own experience when he/she is planning instruction and making decisions in each
teaching/learning situation. The Professionally Thinking Teacher is an important aim in
teacher education and students are guided to understand that a single teaching method is
not a solution to all pedagogical problems in the classroom. For example, in physics and
chemistry teacher education we have prepared a web-based learning environment in order
to introduce several teaching methods suitable for science education, In the web-based
environment, teaching methods are divided into four subsets: 1) experimental teaching
methods, 2) teaching method that support social interaction, 3) teaching methods that
support information processing and 4) teaching methods that support problem solving and
creativity (generating of alternatives) (Joyce, Weil, & Calhoun, 2003). There are several
models of teaching in each subset. The descriptions of each model start with an
introduction where the theoretical background of the model is given, e.g. how the model
supports learning, and what is the learning psychological background of the model. Then,
the syntax of the model is introduced through several examples, video-clips and
animations. Furthermore, on the web-page there are information sections about
assessment and different models of assessment