Collaboration between educators is considered to be the key issue when implementing inclusive practices within schools. An open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used to extend the current understanding of collaboration between teaching staff. The questionnaire was administrated to 167 classroom teachers, subject teachers, special education teachers and teaching assistants in primary, secondary and special education public schools in Finland. Also, semi-structured interviews with 20 participants were used to deepen the understanding of the elements included in the teaching activity in diverse classrooms. The results indicate coordination, cooperation, and reflective communication as modes of collaborative action in the participants' teaching. By combining the perspectives of the activity theory framework and modes of collaboration, the results illuminate how educators often wished to have collaboration but usually played their traditional positions in the multilayered teaching activity. The implications for preparing educators to enhance reflective collaboration for more effective inclusive practices are discussed.

This study examined Finnish elementary school teachers' (N = 212) attitudes toward the gifted and their education. On a general level, teachers' attitudes toward gifted education were slightly positive. Teachers saw that gifted students have social value and that they need special services. The results of teachers' attitudes toward specific gifted education options were in line with earlier Finnish research, because teachers supported differentiated teaching but were more negative toward acceleration or separating the gifted into their own groups. However, despite the strong support for differentiated teaching for the gifted, teachers' positions toward practice were more skeptical.

The aim of this study was to investigate the connection between teachers' burn-out and professional development. In addition, the study aimed at clarifying teachers' conceptions of the significance of in-service training on work-related well-being. The theoretical starting points of the study were based on a model of burn-out (Kalimo & Toppinen1997) and a model of teachers' professional development (Niemi 1989). Present study can be seen as an independent follow-up study for a working ability project called "Uudistumisen eväät" that was followed through in Kuopio. The study was carried out in two phases. First, the connection between teachers' burn-out and professional development was charted with the help of a quantitative survey study. 131 teachers participated in the survey. Some of them were from schools that participated in the working ability project and the remainder were from other schools in Kuopio. The questionnaire consisted of self-constructed instruments of burn-out and professional development. According to the results, burn-out and professional development were strongly correlated with each other. Burn-out was summed up in three factors: emotional exhaustion, feelings of depersonalization and low feelings of personal accomplishment. Professional development was summed up in four factors: personality and pedagogical skills, learning-orientation, social skills and confronting change. Personality and pedagogical skills and skills of confronting change were correlated strongest with burn-out and its symptoms. A teacher, who has not found his/her own personal way of acting as a teacher and who considers change as something negative, is more likely to become exhausted than a teacher, who has developed his/her own pedagogical identity and who regards change more positively. In the second phase of this study, teachers' conceptions of the significance of in-service training on well-being was investigated with the help of group interviews (n=12). According to the results, the importance of in-service training was significant on the well-being of teachers. It appeared that in-service training promotes well-being by providing teachers with motivation, professional development and the possibility of taking a break from teaching and cooperating with other teachers. It has to be based on teachers' own needs. It has to be offered to teachers frequently and early enough. If teachers are already exhausted, they will neither have enough resources to participate in training, nor will they have the strength to make good use of it in practice. Both professional development and well-being are becoming more and more essential now that society is changing rapidly and the demands set on teachers are growing. Professional development can promote well-being, but are teachers too exhausted to develop themselves? Professional development demands resources and teachers may regard it as a threat and an additional strain. When the demands are so high that teachers cannot cope with them, they are likely to suffer stress and see reduction of commitment to their work and its development as a means to survive. If teachers stop caring about their work and their own development, how can we expect them to promote pupils' learning and development? It should be considered in the planning and implementation of in-service training and in arranging teachers' working conditions, that teachers have enough time and resources to develop themselves.

Positive psychology in education is an ideological umbrella term for an educational approach that has an emphasis on the well-being and happiness of the individual. There are many schools that had elements from positive psychology before its creation but the first school to adopt a school wide Positive psychology in education approach in 2007 was Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia. This study is a holistic approach with the attempt to understand how the teachers at Geelong Grammar School look at education and the students from a positive psychology perspective. A qualitative phenomenological hermeneutic research design was applied so that the focus could be put on the ten teachers lived experience in the school environment. Semi-structured interviews were used as a method to gather the needed data, which was thematically analysed. The results demonstrate how the teachers are impacted by the environment; the way in which the teachers deal with and view a very diverse group of students reflect the positive psychological perspectives. The teachers report clear benefits both in their class environment and also offers distinct tools in how they approach the students. Most of the teachers reported an individual benefit from a self-growth perspective. Geelong Grammar school does not demand a certain level of positive psychology, that choice is up to the teachers. This choice is reflected in the research results and shows how it impacts them personally in a positive way, and how they think it impacts the students. The results show both common universal challenges, typical for a school, but there are also challenges unique to the positive psychology environment they live in. This study facilitates the understanding of adopting positive psychology in education seen from the teachers perspective. This study also highlights some of the broader challenges in our culture and life dictated by the consequential demands of economics.

Positive education is the teaching of both traditional school skills and skills for enhancingwell-being. This study examines teachers' (N = 72) experiences with training in positive education.Qualitative content analysis was used to provide an in-depth understanding of theexperiences, and quantitative measures investigated teachers' well-being. Results show thatteachers experienced both personal and professional growth. They also saw positive changesin their students. Teachers used methods of positive education e.g. when communicating withstudents and co-workers, and when supporting the students' socioemotional development.Challenges with implementing positive education practices mostly consisted of lack of timeor support from colleagues. The authors argue that positive education is an effective tool forenhanced well-being both for participating teachers and their students and could therefore be utilised on alarger scale. Future studies could focus on whether teachers continue systematicimplementing of positive education methods long-term, and the reasons behind continued ordiscontinued.

The focus of the current study was to examine teachers’ well-being in terms of work engagement and burnout by using a person-oriented approach. The participants (n = 149, 70.5% female) were subject-matter teachers from 22 schools from metropolitan Helsinki area in Finland. The first aim was to examine the kinds of profiles we can identify based on work burnout and engagement among teachers. The second aim was to study how the identified profiles differed in job-related demands and resources and personal resources in terms of resilience. Based on the demands-resources model, we expected to find profiles that differ in terms of key resources and demands. The sample was acquired as a convenience sample and the data was collected using online self-report questionnaires. The measures were work engagement, work burnout, work demands/resources (workload and control) and resilience as the personal resource. In addition, changes and effects of the economic circumstances were accounted for with two binary variables assessing the effect on class sizes and material resources. We identified two profiles among teachers: engaged (30%) and engaged-burnout (70%) profiles. We found that those in the engaged profile group had more job and personal resources, such as control and resilience, whereas those in the engaged-burnout profile group experienced more work demands, such as workload.