Secret finland’s success educating teachers

Learning from the World, 2014

Since the mid-1990s, the United States has been losing its comparative advantage in education quality with the rest of the world. This is evidenced in recent global rankings; in 2009, the OECD Programme for International Study Assessment (PISA) released its international rankings of student performance in reading, mathematics, and science. The United States ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science, and 25th in mathematics. Finland, by contrast, ranked 3rd in reading, 2nd in science, and 6th in mathematics. In fact, since the publication of the first PISA results in 2001, Finland has consistently ranked in the very top tier of countries in all PISA assessments, and its performance has been especially notable for its consistency across schools. During the same period, Finland has also often been cited as one of the world's most competitive economies. For these reasons, Finland is now seen by many as a major international leader in education. In this chapter, we pinpoint education policies and practices from which others seeking to emulate Finland's success might learn. Though Finland and the United States differ greatly, for example in the size of their populations and sociopolitical orientation, Finland's unique education system provides insights that may prove useful for the United States as it considers new models. This chapter looks at some of the factors that contribute to the success of the Finnish educational system. These include political consensus to educate all children together in a common school system, an expectation that all children and youth can achieve at high levels regardless of family background or regional circumstances, the pursuit of excellence in the professional competence of teachers, and the climate of trust and respect between educators and the community. The chapter is structured in two main parts. First, we highlight the cultural values on which the Finnish education system is based, and provide a brief introduction to the functioning of the Finnish educational system, including its accountability framework. This is a brief overview of the full educational system, from early childhood to adult education, and how it is designed to trace a coherent path for lifelong and lifewide learning for every citizen. Second, we

Educating for the 21st Century, 2016

This chapter seeks to analyze the success factors, challenges, and renewal of Finnish education in the context of learning 21st century competency. We analyze the good performance and low variation in performance of Finnish students and suggest Finnish teachers and teacher education as well as the Finnish approaches to curriculum, assessment and quality assurance as possible factors for the excellent results. In addition, we analyze possible reasons for the recent decline in assessment results. Challenges for Finnish education in the classroom, school, municipality, and national level as well as challenges in teacher education are considered. Finally, we introduce the new Finnish national curriculum and how it aims to develop the 21st century competencies of students as a solution for overcoming the challenges. The creation of teacher collaboration networks is suggested as a way to support teachers' continuous professional development, particularly with respect to their teaching of 21st century competency. We show how such networks could facilitate the creation and sharing of educational innovations related to teaching and learning through teachers' collaboration, inquiry, and problem-solving activities as well as through a close connection to classroom practice. Finnish education context Finland is situated in northern Europe, and its population, of which 90% are Finnishspeaking Finns, is around 5.5 million, the majority being concentrated in its southern regions. The Finnish education system consists of daycare programs, a one-year "preschool" (for children aged six), a nine-year compulsory basic comprehensive school (starting at age seven and ending Towards 21st Century Education 3 at age 15), post-compulsory secondary general academic and vocational education, higher education at universities and applied universities, and adult (lifelong, continuing) education. Finland has consistently ranked high in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) studies that compare national educational systems internationally (OECD, 2007; OECD, 2010), achieving not only high scores but also little variation in performance, an important outcome of national education policy. Several researchers and policymakers argue that this success is a consequence of Finland's education policy, structure, and practices (Burris, 2012; Sahlberg, 2011). The masters level teacher education programs have been named as particularly important reasons for the success (Laukkanen, 2008; Simola, 2005). However, when the PISA 2012 results were released, Finnish policymakers, researchers, and teachers encountered a new situation (Kupari, et al., 2013) due to a decline in PISA results (OECD, 2012). The percentage of weak performers in Finland had risen from 7% to 12%, and the percentage of high performers in mathematics dropped from 23% to 15% compared to the previous PISA 2009 results. To find reasons for this decline, as well as new approaches to stop the decline, Minister of Education Krista Kiuru launched a project in spring 2014 to plan "Future primary and secondary education." As an outcome of this project, some speculative reasons for the decline, including reduced resourcing and non-engaging pedagogy, were suggested. In addition, recommendations for the development of primary, secondary, and teacher education were outlined (Ouakrim-Soivio, Rinkinen & Karjalainen, 2015). Knowledge-based society. The most important feature of Finnish education policy has been the commitment to a vision of a knowledge-based society. This vision can be found in national documents published as early as the 1970s, when the idea of introducing a common comprehensive school and university level teacher education was first presented (Jakku

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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2015

Through a partnership between the University of Oradea in Romania and New England College is the USA we sought to corroborate whether or not teachers in the field agreed with the information we have been receiving through the media, change agents, and the leaders of the Finnish educational system. We believed that Finnish teachers agreed with the journalists then we would have an important message for our teachers and educational and political leaders. Our findings overwhelmingly indicated that teachers should be given the respect, support, resources, responsibility, freedom, training, and authority to effectively and professionally teach their students.

Many studies have been conducted on the Finnish PISA success, identifying variables that influence the performance of global school systems related to ratings in reading, science, and math. While Finland had topped the PISA rankings in 2000, 2003, and 2006, the results of Finnish pupils have declined in the last PISA ranking. However, Finland can be regarded as a role model for successful inclusive education. But what are the reasons for the equity in Finnish schools nowadays? According to the author there are 5 main reasons why all students seem to have access to a high-quality education in Finland.

Policy Futures in Education, 2018

The Finnish educational system is well known for its excellent learning results, highly trained teachers and egalitarian values. However, when the political leanings of the government change, its policies are usually altered as well. In this policy report we give an account of the recent changes and current trends in Finnish education policy. We analyse the characteristics of the Sipilä Government’s current education policy since 2015 and compare it to the Nordic welfare-state ideals of universalism, equality and social justice which have traditionally been the key building blocks of the Finnish education system. The Government’s policy appears to be narrow-minded and ignorant of issues related to educational equality, stressing instead the importance of a flexible workforce and national competitiveness. We will reflect on the characteristics of Finnish education policy in light of the debate regarding academic capitalism and as part of an overarching trend of social inequality in E...

Research Papers in Economics, 2009