Understanding and empowering teachers and other staff. 8.3.1 How do school leaders improve teaching and support teachers’ competence development in subject matters, pedagogy, classroom management, etc? In Finland, to begin with, most teachers are highly qualified after having a five-year education towards a Master’s Degree. So, in general, the teachers do know their job when they enter the field. This means that the Finnish school leaders need not to be instructional leaders, which is the case in many other countries. But, although new and experienced teachers have earned their ‘driving license’ to teach in schools, they are constantly in need of improving on their competencies. They need to have the aspiration for continuous learning because the world is changing, students are changing and our understanding of learning is changing. And, added to that, the schools need to change. Therefore, in Finland, the school leaders’ support to teachers’ professional development arises from the premises mentioned above. There is the call for a new broad pedagogical leadership discussed earlier. Principals do not have a responsibility to observe lessons, but the opportunity exists. Neither are there any external inspection systems or preliminary inspections of learning materials in the Finnish educational system. It is the principal’s duty to evaluate teacher performance according to the criteria approved by the evaluation provider. Typical evaluation criteria consist of mastery of the profession, pupil performance, renewal capability and the ability to cooperate. All this is done in order not to control, but to develop the competencies of the teachers.
