The first seven articles of the book provide an overview of how Estonian educational scientists, collaborating with colleagues from Finland and Sweden on one of the articles, have empirically studied the quality of learning environment, teachers' professionalism and their perceptions of their own teaching as well as their professional role and students' coping at school. When dealing with the educational reality, a wholeness-centred educational thinking is represented. Therefore, one of the articles is devoted to the question of how to define youth and interpret the development of the concept of youth. One article deals with creativity in relation to the social field. The last article compares the semantics of the concepts Paideía and lifestyle as expressions of the wholeness-centred educational thinking.

Contents: Airi Liimets: Introduction or How does the current book reflect on the concept of being a teacher - Krista Loogma: Conceptualizing Teachers' Professionalism: the Case of Estonian Lower Secondary Teachers - Madis Lepik/Kirsti Kislenko: Estonian Mathematics Teachers' Beliefs about Teaching and Their Self-Reported Practices - Tuuli Oder: Teachers' Beliefs Regarding Effective Teaching: the Cornerstone of Curriculum Reform - Katrin Poom-Valickis/Tuuli Oder/Kirsti Kislenko/Leida Talts/Tiina Elvisto/Madis Lepik: Teachers' Beliefs Regarding their Professional Role - Monica Sakk: Teachers' Beliefs about How Students Cope at School - Tiia Õun/Kristina Nugin/Marika Veisson/Maire Tuul/Tiia Leppik: The Quality of the Learning Environment in Estonian Preschools - Tiina Peterson/Marika Veisson/Eeva Hujala/Anette Sandberg/Inge Johansson: The Influence of Leadership on the Professionalism of Preschool Teachers in Estonia, Sweden and Finland - Airi Liimets: How do we define youth or what does the development of the concept of youth tell us? - Lilian Reinmets: On Creativity in Relation to the Social Field - Airi Liimets/Kristina Iotsaite: Paideía and «Lifestyle» - On Wholeness-Centered Educational Thinking in Ancient Greece and in Estonia.

The book provides an overview of the empirical study of teachers' professionalism and perceptions of being a teacher in Estonia. A wholeness-centred educational thinking about educational reality is represented. The development of the youth concept, creativity as a phenomenon and the semantics of the concepts of Paideía and lifestyle are analysed.