This article presents the relationship between the Finnish educational change in schools (the Finnish Reform Movement), selected aspects of teachers’ professional development and context of educational thinking influenced by John Dewey’s pedagogy. The successful change of schools “calls for a ‘new professionalism’ in which teachers’ work is based on research-based, outcomes-oriented, data-driven and team focused at the same time as it is globalised, localised and individualised, with lifelong professional learning the norm for the specialist in school education” (Caldwell, 2003, p. 8). In this light, the article presents an overview of in-service training of teachers, cooperative learning and teachers’ autonomy in schools in the context of teachers’ professional development.

This article presents Finnish educational changes in the context of The Nordic Model of Social Democracy improved since 1963 versus English model of Neoliberal Democracy based on conservatism since 1979 with its roots in the late eighteenth century in Europe. The reform of education in Finland was supported by a new curriculum and different methods of teaching. In 1963 students started to have an access to the highest-quality education and it was not related to students’ place of living, richness or annual income. On the other side in England, privatization and centralization were the main pillars of the reform with neoliberalism, neoconservatism and its market competition in education. The central government was responsible for the provision of educational services, educational policy, and planning the direction of the educational system. Teachers faced an ultimatum: “either submit to re-education or lose your job” (Jones, p. 43). The 1988 reform strengthened the ideological control of education and accelerated differentiation between schools.