Top reformers and achievers: Finland in focus

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My dear readers, the time of our semester is running out and in the last blog of this epopee, I will continue to review effective educational systems of the world. While the previous blog was dedicated to impressive results of Shanghai in PISA, the current piece of writing concentrates on the world-known educational performer and policy maker – Finland. In fact, Finland scored top positions in PISA rating from the first round of its assessment in 2000 (StatSilk, 2015).  As we may reasonably assume, there is a strong policy lying behind the success of Finland. This blog gives an account on features of Finnish educational system and reveals its strong sides.  

The Republic of Finland steadily illustrates a high performance in PISA – during the five times of its participation, the country usually scored top five positions in all of the three sections of the assessment. Notably, Finland had the lowest standard deviation score between other OECD countries (Hautamäki, et al., 2008), which means that students perform equally well, without strong discontinuity. Partially the secret hides in conditions of equal access to education and services provided by school. Pasi Sahlberg, general director of the Centre for International Mobility of Finland, highlights that the philosophy of “no child left behind” got a substantial support (OECD & Pearson Foundation, 2012). In particular, educators use the system of early interventions, preventing the problem before it appears. There is a constant work with the students, who need additional support or consultancy. It is estimated that 40-45% students had additional interventions prior to the moment they finish school (Sahlberg, 2011). Sahlberg supports the view that with such high percentage of intervention the term “special” itself becomes useless (OECD & Pearson Foundation, 2012). The general picture of Finnish school becomes even more clear with an awareness of full-packed school services. These services include health and dental care, hot meal, psychological support, special services for families in need and a broader range of other facilities, which are available for each children (OECD, 2010).

Another important milestone in discussion on Finnish education is a process of teacher preparation. In the early 1970, Finnish policy makers recognized that the teacher holding only bachelor degree did not possess enough knowledge and research skills to develop as professional (OECD, 2010). As a result, only master degree teachers have a right to teach in Finnish schools. Teaching in Finland is very popular: it is intellectually attractive; teacher in Finnish society has a high social status and recognition and what is more important they have a comparatively high salary. In general, it becomes possible with a strict selection process and high requirements to get teacher position at school. Olli Luukkainen, the president of trade union in education of Finland, supports this stance arguing that it is not possible to have teachers with a great mastery without sufficient preparation of students of pedagogical specialties at teacher training schools (OECD & Pearson Foundation, 2012). In this way, educators ensure that students connect theory with practice. Students work in pairs under a mentorship of experienced teacher and receive feedback and useful advice. Finally, Finnish schools build collegiality on a basis of weekly meetings, where they discuss and solve particular problems, share their knowledge and opinions.

                In the end, we may discover a visible trend in all of the policies and actions of Finnish education – they care about their children and give the highest priority to their development. Finnish society created superior conditions for teachers; they introduced a number of policies aiming to reform their educational system. Observing practices of Finish educational school, we are able to identify similarities with our national system, where the process of student preparation and mentoring program totally match our approach. However, the only difference is how well we implement this strategy. In the recent years, schools of Helsinki started to adopt the most radical reform in the history of Finnish education. They replace traditional approach of “teaching by subject” by new “teaching by topic” (Garner, 2015). Nowadays about 70% of city’s schools start to train their teachers on a new approach of teaching, where the common subjects as geography, economics, history and languages  can be merged in one topic “European union”. It is too early to observe the outcomes of the program, but we will surely see them in result of the next PISA tour.

References:

Garner, R. (2015, March 20). Finland schools: Subjects scrapped and replaced with 'topics' as country reforms its education system. Retrieved from independent.co.uk: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/finland-schools-subjects-are-out-and-topics-are-in-as-country-reforms-its-education-system-10123911.html

Hautamäki, J., Harjunen, E., Hautamäki, A., Karjalainen, T., Kupiainen, S., Laaksonen, S., . . . Jakku-Sihvonen, R. (2008). PISA 20006 Finland: Analyses, reflections and explanations. Helsinki, Finland: Helsinki University Print. Retrieved from http://www.pisa2006.helsinki.fi/files/PISA06_Analyses_Reflections_and_Explanations.pdf

OECD & Pearson Foundation. (2012, January 24). Finland - Strong performers and successful reformers in education. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/ZwD1v73O4VI

OECD. (2010). Strong performers and successful reformers in education: Lessons from PISA for the United States. Paris: OECD PUBLISHING.

Sahlberg, P. (2011). Finnish lessons: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland? New York: Teachers College Press.

StatSilk. (2015). PISA - Programme for International Student Assessment - interactive world map. Retrieved April 19, 2015, from StatSilk: http://www.statsilk.com/maps/pisa-programme-international-student-assessment-interactive-world-map