Two teachers, one class, three levels

Finland’s learning support reform has now been in force for a year in basic education (Finnish National Agency for Education, in Finnish). Support is given primarily within the student’s own teaching group, and one of the statutory support forms brings a second teacher into the classroom. This autumn the same reform extended to vocational education (Finnish National Agency for Education, in Finnish).

We went through what the law actually steers toward and what the first year has shown. From the materials’ point of view, two things follow. Co-teaching needs shared material. Support given within the group needs the same material at several levels.

The law brought support into the classroom

The amendment to the Basic Education Act (1090/2024) discontinued the three-tier support model. Group-based support forms now come first: general remedial teaching, remedial teaching in the language of instruction, and teaching given by a special education teacher in connection with other instruction (Association of Finnish Municipalities, in Finnish). That last one is co-teaching in practice. The special education teacher comes into the classroom instead of the student leaving for support.

Group-based support does not rest on goodwill. The education provider must reserve at least 0.122 teaching hours per student per week for it each school year, planned in advance. The law also caps at five the number of students in one teacher’s group who receive special-class or small-group teaching as an individual support measure. OAJ’s experts have proposed resourcing a second teacher into the class when the cap is reached (OAJ 2024, in Finnish). The law does not directly require co-teaching, but it steers toward it from several directions.

One year in: resources decide

In spring 2026, OAJ asked principals and teachers how the reform is going. The results are not flattering. Ambiguities in interpreting the law keep many students from getting the support they need. In every third school, the new support runs on the same resources as before, even though municipalities received additional funding (Uusi Suomi, 4 Aug 2026, in Finnish).

In a teacher’s everyday work, support therefore rests on what is in the classroom anyway: the teachers and the material. Without a second teacher, the same topic has to work at several levels in one teacher’s lesson. With a second teacher, much of two adults’ effort goes to waste without a shared plan.

Co-teaching starts with shared material

Co-teaching stands or falls on shared planning. Planning, in turn, comes together in the material: two teachers need the same exercise set, level versions, and an agreed division of who teaches which version. If the material lives in one teacher’s own files, the other is assisting blind.

In Bruukki, shared preparation has its own place: the teamspace. The class teacher and the special education teacher see and edit the same materials, so lesson preparation does not travel back and forth as email attachments. The support the special education teacher adds stays in the same material the whole class uses. Next year it is still there, ready.

Three levels from the same material

Support given within the group shows up in the exercises: the same topic as a supported version, vocabulary opened up, intermediate steps visible, and an advanced version for those who move fastest. Bruukki makes a supported and an advanced version of the same material in the same preparation session. You can bring in your old Word or PDF materials as a base. AI suggests the versions, and you decide who gets which. Students’ personal data or support needs are not entered into the service.

There is a more detailed guide on preparing materials for the reform’s everyday reality: the learning support reform: what it means for teaching materials.

Try it with one unit

Pick a unit you teach together with a special education teacher. Make its most central exercise set in three levels in the teamspace before the unit starts. One shared preparation session shows whether the division of work in lessons changes.

You can try Bruukki for free. If something does not work, tell us.

Read also: AI suggests, the teacher decides and the guide differentiation with AI.