Finnish Education Forum

UK: Labour seeks to emulate Finland's school system

Via The Guardian: Top of the class: Labour seeks to emulate Finland's school system. Excerpt:

It’s early afternoon in Lintulaakson school in Espoo, near Helsinki. The younger children are having a snack before starting their after-school activities. Upstairs a group of 12-year-olds are in a craft class, cutting patterns and making clothes on sewing machines. 

Outside, children play in an enormous outdoor space, equipped with climbing frames, football pitches and basketball courts. “Hey, Petteri,” one boy yells casually at the principal, Petteri Kuusimäki. “Next year can we start school a bit later, at 10am?” Kuusimäki jokes with them. It’s all first names here. 

The Finnish education system is the envy of the world. Along with Tove Jansson’s Moomins, Nokia phones and Iittala glassware, it has become one of the country’s most celebrated exports – and it’s easy to see why. 

Its students consistently score well at the top end of the Pisa international league tables, and as Kuusimäki walks me round his school he describes a kind of education utopia – a place where teachers are highly trained, revered and trusted, and children’s wellbeing is paramount.

There are no Ofsted-style inspections, no streaming by ability, no national exams until 18, no school uniforms, no school league tables and no fee-paying private schools.  

At its party conference this week, Labour committed to follow Finland’s lead and not only scrap Ofsted but abolish private schools by forcing them to integrate them in the state sector. Explaining the policy, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, told BBC Radio 4: “In some countries, it is not allowed to charge for education in any form … in Finland, for example.”  

The British Labour party is far from alone in its enthusiasm for the Finnish education system. Every year hundreds of delegations of teachers and policymakers from all over the world pour into Helsinki to see this nirvana for themselves. So popular has it become that international visits are strictly regulated and have to be paid for – a presentation costs €682 (£607) per hour and a school visit €1,240.

In the past two months there have been groups from Israel, Brazil, China and Korea. In the coming weeks there will be visits from New Zealand and Lithuania.

Meanwhile, Finland’s influence is spreading far and wide. Last month a school opened in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam based on the Finnish curriculum and pedagogical approach, with Finnish staff on the teaching team.

Emotion-tracking app introduced in southern Finland school

Via Yle Uutiset: Emotion-tracking app introduced in southern Finland school. Excerpt:

The Aurinkovuori school in Asikkala, part of the Lahti region of southern Finland, believes it is the first in the world to introduce students to a mobile phone application to help them monitor and report their emotional states. 

The app asks students once a week a different question concerning the emotions they have been feeling. Students respond by choosing one of 20 different emoticons, representing a variety of sentiments. 

"Teachers can't see your answer. It's your own business," said student Moona Sillman. 

"Because I know it's just my own personal thing, I have the courage to say what I really feel," added classmate Sampsa Tura.

Teachers may only intervene if the emotions the children report are consistently sad or angry, for instance. 

"Children don't necessarily express how they feel or speak up if they are upset, even at home," said teacher Ismo Kotilainen from Aurinkovuori. "A secure, anonymous system on their personal phone can help them see their feelings as real." 

The application's algorithm anticipates abusive behaviour based on the responses, hopefully flagging them before they escalate. In this way schools hope to nip bullying cases in the bud.  

An app for emotional interaction 

Naya Daya, the Lahti startup behind the emotion app, said it bases the programme on scientific research on emotions and behaviour. The company's shareholders include Geneva University emotional intelligence researcher Marcello Mortillaro.  

Naya Daya's founder and CEO Timo Järvinen said he sees his company as fulfilling a communicative need and bringing empathy into interpersonal situations. 

"People often think that digitalisation is robbing us of our emotional understanding, but it can also be used to solve problems in emotional interaction," Järvinen said.  

Naya Daya has many customers in addition to the innovation-driven Asikkala school. Media conglomerate Keskisuomalainen received a 300,000 euro grant from Google last spring, money which is being used to track the emotional reactions of media users and their commitment to a product.

Teachers union calls for more consistent grading criteria in comprehensive schools

Via Yle Uutiset: Teachers union calls for more consistent grading criteria in comprehensive schools. Excerpt:

Teacher trade union OAJ has called for better guidelines for grading comprehensive schoolwork in Finland, stating that the current evaluation criteria (in Finnish) issued by the National Agency for Education have proved problematic across all subjects.  

"There are too many criteria and they are too complex. […] We have insisted that they cut them back, as every single one contains many things that are open to interpretation. The criteria should be far more straightforward," says the OAJ's development manager Jaakko Salo. 

A 2015 study of year 7-9 maths competencies from the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre found that "the grades of students doing equally well but studying in different schools could have a systematic difference of up to two points".  

Salo says the spread is probably closer to four different grades for the same skill set.  

Comprehensive schools in Finland follow a somewhat illogical 10-point system in which there are actually only seven grades: 10 is the highest possible grade for excellent work, followed by 9 (very good), 8 (good), 7 (satisfactory), and 6 (fair). 5 is the lowest passing grade and a grade of 4 indicates that the pupil has failed. 

Benchmarking against fellow pupils 

National Education Agency evaluation criteria lay out the performance necessary in each subject to achieve a "good" grade of 8. The teachers' union says this is part of the problem. 

"We feel that criteria should also be at least drawn up for a grade of 5, or minimum competence. It has apparently already been decided that new criteria for grades of 5, 7 and 9 should be outlined," Salo says.  

He says using only grade 8 as a reference puts too much emphasis on comparing the pupils on a classroom or school-wide basis, making grading decisions highly relative. 

"The rest of the student body becomes the teacher's benchmark. At its worst, this means that schools with poorer overall performance divvy out better grades for weaker competencies. This should not be happening," Salo says.

International students in Finland - obstacles and top tips

Via Yle Uutiset's "All Points North" podcast: All Points North #58: International students in Finland - obstacles and top tips. Excerpt:

A new academic year has begun and many international students have arrived in Finland and getting a feel for what lies ahead. While they are just settling in, as many as 1,000 are still waiting for a decision on residence permit applications to begin their studies. 

Leena Turku, a senior officer with the Finnish Immigration Service Migri, told All Points North that the agency has issued 3,600 residence permits to international students this year. She added that 500 applications were turned down, while another 1,000 are still to be processed. 

Turku said that the agency had been understaffed during the month of June, when it usually begins processing students’ residence permit applications. She pointed out that students may encounter further delays in processing times if their documentation is inadequate or faulty. 

The Migri officer explained that most denials resulted from fraudulent bank statements or inadequate insurance coverage. "It can’t be normal travel insurance but must cover the individual for one year," she added.  

"Not enough" to have a great education system 

Heidi Rättyä is a board member of the National Union of University Students in Finland (SYL) and responsible for international affairs. In response to Turku’s remarks, she responded that international students have sometimes face difficulty meeting the requirement to provide proof of insurance.  

"One problem is that it’s hard to find an insurance agency that provides insurance that is also valid in Finland," she pointed out. 

Rättyä said that SYL has been lobbying politicians to make it easier for international students to come to Finland to study and also to stay on and work. 

"We have a great education system, but that’s not enough. We are far up north and it gets very cold, so Finland won’t be the first choice for many people," she noted, and called for a one-stop shop to help international students deal with school applications, residence permits, insurance coverage and other requirements.  

International students can find out more about the work of the National Union of University Students in Finland online, but should turn to local chapters of the organisation for advice on practical issues.