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Review: Finnish Lessons
Nov. 9th, 2016 08:10 pmI just finished Pasi Sahlberg's Finnish Lessons: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland? (the series on school reform) (2010).
According to some tests (2009 PISA), Finland's students have some of the highest academic achievement among western countries (OECD countries) (only [south] Koreans did better) with some of the smallests differences between schools (only Iceland is better), even though they were quite mediocre in the 1980s.
(US students have slightly above average achievement and significantly below average equality. Korea has pretty good equality; Iceland has slightly above average achievement. Austria and Luxemburg have the worst achievement, and both have below average equity. Belgium has the worst equality?! but better than US achievement. Canada, New Zealand, and Japan are a bit behind Korea and Finland in achievement, with Canada and Japan having very good equality and New Zealand having equality almost as bad as the US. How about my other current favorites? Norway is close to Iceland with a little better achievement but significantly less equality. The Netherlands is just a bit above average on both measures.)
What changed?
1) They made all levels of education accessible to everyone, not just city dwellers.
2) They still don't start school until age 7, but they stay together for nine years rather than four years before splitting into college versus vocational tracks. This means now they all are taught foreign languages. At first there were tracks for lower, medium, and high levels of language learning, but then these were abolished.
3) They changed from the semester system to a 7-week session system. You rarely repeat a whole grade; you just retake the subjects you've failed. In fact, there are no grades 10, 11, or 12, anymore. All students must complete 75 of these 7-week courses including 18 required ones, but they have a lot of choice on what to take and when to take it. Most students study 80 - 90 courses.
4) Career guidance and counseling is mandatory. This helps students pick the best track for them and prepare appropriately.
5) Special education is added as soon as a problem is discovered; about half of all students have special ed at some point during their education, so the stigma is minimal. Usually this is additional instruction in troublesome areas; sometimes this is in separate schools.
6) A masters degree is required for teachers at all levels. This degree also qualifies people for other careers. So teaching has good status--just as good as doctors and lawyers.
7) Teachers are treated as professionals--they write their own curriculum, they teach fewer classes than in the US (4 per day versus 6-7), they are encouraged to help each other out, and there is no standardized testing by which students and teachers are judged. This freedom to do things how they want to (like doctors and lawyers) also makes the job enticing.
8) After the severe recession of the 1990s, the government decided to support diversification into tech and mobile communication (Nokia is a Finnish company) rather than traditional industry such as forestry and metals. So they wanted an educated, thinking populace and started emphasizing experimentation. Also, after the fall of the Soviet Union, they rushed to join the European Union and wanted to improve to European educational standards.
"Surprisingly, Finland, Korea, and Japan--all countries with high-performing and equitable education systems--have had only a modest role in the generation of global change knowledge. Each of the countries has heavily relied on the research and innovation from the United States, England, Australia, and Canada." We do research to discover good teaching methods and then ignore it.
Unfortunately, teachers still only make a slightly above-average salary which implies a low salary for jobs that require a degree just like in the US. But teachers would rather make less than to have less freedom. Not surprisingly, most teachers are women (though the job is considered high-status for men, too). Also, because every school is different there is a lack of consistency between schools; it seems like if you moved a lot like I did, you'd get special education to catch up on the new things at your new school.
For other countries, the author recommends "we should reconsider those education policies that advocate choice [of school, not of subject matter], competition and privatization as the key drivers of sustained educational improvement. None of the best-performing education systems currently rely primarily on them. ... Second, we should reconsider teacher policies by giving teachers government-paid master's degree-level university education, providing better professional support in their work, and making teaching a respected profession. ... Finally, ... The secret of Finnish rapid and sustained educational improvement is due to a smart combination of national tradition and international ideas."
Unfortunately, the global financial crisis of 2008+ hit Finland hard. The government cut expenses by closing down rural schools and temporarily laying off teachers. "Teachers have been sent home without pay for a few days or in some cases, some weeks. While a teacher has been on this forced unpaid leave other teachers have had to take care of her or his classes and students."
The author's recommendation for Finland's future is 1) developing customized learning plans for students, 2) developing more activity-based learning instead of classroom-based learning, to take advantage of technology, 3) developing interpersonal skills and problem solving, and 4) (my personal favorite) focusing on creativity. "If creativity is defined as coming up with original ideas that have value, then creativity should be as important as literacy and treated with the same status."
Other things I learned about Finland: A requirement of high school is that you study two domestic languages and two foreign languages. (Hmm, what languages would I pick?) And what are the domestic languages? Finnish, Swedish, and Sami (the language of the indigenous people). And Finland is the "first country to make a broadband Internet connection a human right for all citizens." Yes, awesome.
According to some tests (2009 PISA), Finland's students have some of the highest academic achievement among western countries (OECD countries) (only [south] Koreans did better) with some of the smallests differences between schools (only Iceland is better), even though they were quite mediocre in the 1980s.
(US students have slightly above average achievement and significantly below average equality. Korea has pretty good equality; Iceland has slightly above average achievement. Austria and Luxemburg have the worst achievement, and both have below average equity. Belgium has the worst equality?! but better than US achievement. Canada, New Zealand, and Japan are a bit behind Korea and Finland in achievement, with Canada and Japan having very good equality and New Zealand having equality almost as bad as the US. How about my other current favorites? Norway is close to Iceland with a little better achievement but significantly less equality. The Netherlands is just a bit above average on both measures.)
What changed?
1) They made all levels of education accessible to everyone, not just city dwellers.
2) They still don't start school until age 7, but they stay together for nine years rather than four years before splitting into college versus vocational tracks. This means now they all are taught foreign languages. At first there were tracks for lower, medium, and high levels of language learning, but then these were abolished.
3) They changed from the semester system to a 7-week session system. You rarely repeat a whole grade; you just retake the subjects you've failed. In fact, there are no grades 10, 11, or 12, anymore. All students must complete 75 of these 7-week courses including 18 required ones, but they have a lot of choice on what to take and when to take it. Most students study 80 - 90 courses.
4) Career guidance and counseling is mandatory. This helps students pick the best track for them and prepare appropriately.
5) Special education is added as soon as a problem is discovered; about half of all students have special ed at some point during their education, so the stigma is minimal. Usually this is additional instruction in troublesome areas; sometimes this is in separate schools.
6) A masters degree is required for teachers at all levels. This degree also qualifies people for other careers. So teaching has good status--just as good as doctors and lawyers.
7) Teachers are treated as professionals--they write their own curriculum, they teach fewer classes than in the US (4 per day versus 6-7), they are encouraged to help each other out, and there is no standardized testing by which students and teachers are judged. This freedom to do things how they want to (like doctors and lawyers) also makes the job enticing.
8) After the severe recession of the 1990s, the government decided to support diversification into tech and mobile communication (Nokia is a Finnish company) rather than traditional industry such as forestry and metals. So they wanted an educated, thinking populace and started emphasizing experimentation. Also, after the fall of the Soviet Union, they rushed to join the European Union and wanted to improve to European educational standards.
"Surprisingly, Finland, Korea, and Japan--all countries with high-performing and equitable education systems--have had only a modest role in the generation of global change knowledge. Each of the countries has heavily relied on the research and innovation from the United States, England, Australia, and Canada." We do research to discover good teaching methods and then ignore it.
Unfortunately, teachers still only make a slightly above-average salary which implies a low salary for jobs that require a degree just like in the US. But teachers would rather make less than to have less freedom. Not surprisingly, most teachers are women (though the job is considered high-status for men, too). Also, because every school is different there is a lack of consistency between schools; it seems like if you moved a lot like I did, you'd get special education to catch up on the new things at your new school.
For other countries, the author recommends "we should reconsider those education policies that advocate choice [of school, not of subject matter], competition and privatization as the key drivers of sustained educational improvement. None of the best-performing education systems currently rely primarily on them. ... Second, we should reconsider teacher policies by giving teachers government-paid master's degree-level university education, providing better professional support in their work, and making teaching a respected profession. ... Finally, ... The secret of Finnish rapid and sustained educational improvement is due to a smart combination of national tradition and international ideas."
Unfortunately, the global financial crisis of 2008+ hit Finland hard. The government cut expenses by closing down rural schools and temporarily laying off teachers. "Teachers have been sent home without pay for a few days or in some cases, some weeks. While a teacher has been on this forced unpaid leave other teachers have had to take care of her or his classes and students."
The author's recommendation for Finland's future is 1) developing customized learning plans for students, 2) developing more activity-based learning instead of classroom-based learning, to take advantage of technology, 3) developing interpersonal skills and problem solving, and 4) (my personal favorite) focusing on creativity. "If creativity is defined as coming up with original ideas that have value, then creativity should be as important as literacy and treated with the same status."
Other things I learned about Finland: A requirement of high school is that you study two domestic languages and two foreign languages. (Hmm, what languages would I pick?) And what are the domestic languages? Finnish, Swedish, and Sami (the language of the indigenous people). And Finland is the "first country to make a broadband Internet connection a human right for all citizens." Yes, awesome.
