Citizens for a Livable Cranbrook Society provides grassroots leadership and an inclusive process, with a voice for all community members, to ensure that our community grows and develops in a way that incorporates an environmental ethic, offers a range of housing and transportation choices, encourages a vibrant and cultural life and supports sustainable, meaningful employment and business opportunities.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Lessons to Consider From Finland’s Top-Ranked Schools


Value Teachers, Customize Learning for Students, Let Teachers Shape Curriculum & Policies

By Jay Walljasper

Teachers are given considerable freedom to shape curriculum and student assessment policies in their classrooms, which Sahlberg believes translates into better educated kids.
Educators and school reformers all over the world are descending on Finland to learn from the success of their educational system, which since 2001 has ranked #1 (or close to it) for the performance of 15 year olds on standardized tests in reading, math and science.  The irony is that Finland— a prosperous, technologically top-tier nation— doesn’t place much emphasis on standardized tests.
What they value most is teaching.  Surveys show that Finnish men name teachers as the most desirable profession for a spouse, while Finnish women rank only doctors and veterinarians higher as potential mates.  That’s according to Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Changes in Finland? by Pasi Sahlberg of the Finnish Education Ministry.  This kind of respect means that teachers are given considerable freedom to shape curriculum and student assessment policies in their classrooms, which Sahlberg believes translates into better educated kids. 
Another element of the Finnish success story is a focus on personalized learning: students work at their own pace based on particular abilities and interests.  “Personalization is not about having students work independently at computer terminals,” Sahlberg notes.  Indeed, Scholastic magazine notes that visitors to Finnish schools are surprised to find relatively little technology in classrooms, even in a country with a strong high-tech economy. 
“The Finnish Way is to tailor the needs of each child with flexible arrangements and different learning paths,” Sahlberg adds. “Technology is not a substitute but merely a tool to complement interaction with teachers and fellow students.”
Sahlberg’s conclusion: “Creative curricula, autonomous teachers, courageous leadership and high performance go together.”

Adapted from 27 Bright Ideas We Should Steal From the Rest of the World, a report on best practices by Jay Walljasper published by the McKnight Foundation of Minnesota


1 comment:

  1. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-are-finlands-schools-successful-49859555/?no-ist

    The above link is to a more n depth article regarding the Finnish school system and in my opinion a more balance review of what actually goes on.

    It would appear that the conclusion noted above ( as the final closing line) can be very misleading without all the aspects of the school system being reviewed.

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