Friday
Oct152010
A Great Article on Finnish Schools
David Matthews | Friday, October 15, 2010 at 12:21PM | Print Article | Email Article | Share Article Take a look at the following article on Finnish Schools and why they finish at the top of the rankings. Great cultural and educational ideas.
http://www.nea.org/home/40991.htm
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Reader Comments (10)
I think the fact that class sizes are smaller and that teachers are more educated is a wonderful thing. However, we would need a ton more schools for this to happen in America (this is also a little easier in Finland becuase their population is so much smaller than America). It is also nice that there are no standardized tests. Teachers in American teach whats on test only, and I think that many students lose out on learning things this way. And just that way that they understand everyone doesnt learn the same way is so helpful to allowing one to learn!
The thing I took from this article was the importance of all of the systems within the Finnish educational system. For example, without the high standards and training of the teachers, the lack of standardized testing would not be as successful. Also, teaching children as though they are all on the same level would not be possible without the overtime lessons for students who are struggling. Finland has found a perfect balance of all of these systems, and that is why everything is so successful. I think that the United States needs to borrow this idea from Finland. It is so encouraging to see that in such a short period of time Finland was able to make such a difference in their schooling system.
This article is very informative on exactly why Finland is so much more successful in their educational practices. It is simple, they begin with the teachers, improve the curriculum, and their form of testing and evaluating the students progress. The US may do all of these things, but obviously their are gaps throughout the country that do not succeed in effectively teaching students. One of the most interesting aspects of the Finnish approach to education is that the government pays for the education of the future teachers. The US is far from capable from providing this, but a grant or a federal scholarship towards supplying people with some sort of incentive to become a future educator would first increase the countries shortage in teachers as well as improve their overall knowledge to further relay to future students. I'm not saying that all teachers in the US are no up to par, more that they should be educated holistically about programs such as FInland and be given opportunities to become a country that can teach like they can.
I think this article will really help us as we start to design floor plans for our schools. This article explains exactly why Finland is much more successful in their educational practices than we are here in the U.S. I really enjoyed reading about improving the curriculum content and access in Finland. I find it so impressive how in a Finland classroom you will rarely find a teacher standing at the front of the classroom. Students get to determine their weekly targets. This allows them to chose the areas they want to focus on and learn at their own pace. It is great for student to walk around the classroom, engaging in all possibilities. It is also great to have areas where students can learn in small groups throughout their educational process. This allows them to learn from one another also. I will definitely keep this article in mind as we start to finalize our ideas. I think it is amazing how Finland was able to make such a difference in their educational system.
Finnish schools have several interesting concepts behind their educational system. I think by having teachers, as more of a facilitator is a very successful idea. Children have extremely short attention spans so having students interact with one another is a great way for kids to learn from experience. Also having smaller classes allows children to receive more help, which is really important if a student is struggling with something. Another aspect of Finnish schools that I thought was very helpful is they do not use standardized testing. Instead teachers write in narrative form about what aspects of learning students have struggled with and/or where the student has been successful. This seems a lot more helpful than test scores. The US should implement a lot of these ideas into our school systems.
This article is very important for the next step in our project. It is very important for us to understand the transformation of Finnish education within the last 30 years. I think the Finnish approach is the perfect example of constructivism. They focus on self-reflection and self-evaluation. These are two very important constructivism ideas. I also thought it was interesting that Finnish teachers are rarely at the front of the classroom, the standardized location for American teachers. This is another example of constructivism ideas--the teacher is the leader of a class, not the dictator. These constructivism ideas will be very useful when we begin our schematic design phase of the project.
I really enjoyed the aspect that in most Finnish classrooms, the teachers are rarely standing in front of the classroom and lecturing to the class or giving out instructions. Instead, students are typically walking around engaging in different activities and stimulating their own education. They are rotating through workshops, gathering information, working in small groups with other students, and asking questions from the teacher. They are actively learning and cultivating their independence. They are able to solve and tackle problems and issues on their own. I think this learning process should be encouraged in our own schools to help instill independence at a young age and influence future success for students later on throughout their college and adult careers.
This article is probably one of the most in-depth descriptions of the Finnish education system I've encountered. (That also means it's really long!) But there's a lot of great information in here. It really helped to see how much emphasis the Finns don't put on standardized testing and how countries like the USA are effectively choking their students through regulations and exams that don't properly evaluate student learning or address their needs. Students in the USA and other countries and becoming simply statistics to the system, instead of the future leaders, entrepreneurs, and decision makers of the country. I'm really impressed with how Finland was able to completely reject the standards of mass education around them and move towards a new standard of recognizing development and progress in children. I also found it really interesting how there is so much competition for teaching jobs in Finland and how the government equally distributes resources among schools, which is in complete contrast from the schools in America. Here teachers spend out of pocket for basic supplies in some inner-city or rural schools while others are touted and have all the modern technologies available. We're making our own rifts in education inequalities and we can't seem to grasp how to change.
While reading this article I was reminded often of some of the information that we found while researching for our storyboards of the children. The teaching standards in Finland are very high and I wish that the US system would utilize this practice. Many college students graduate and are hired to teach in elementary schools. These teachers are inexperienced and have not had time to develop their skills enough to teach our children. I would also like to see the US public schools develop better lunch programs and systems to provide students with books, tools, and materials for their education like in Finland. I do, however, think that our economy and current education system can not handle this burden for every student in our country.
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