Finnish Education Forum

Parents file complaints over 'failure' of new school

Via Yle Uutiset: Parents file complaints over "failure" of new school. Excerpt:

Parents of children at the Pontus school in the city of Lappeenranta in eastern Finland have filed a number of complaints with the Regional State Administrative Agency about teaching methods and practices at the school. In some cases, parents have decided to move their children to other schools where more traditional pedagogical methods are still being used.  

The Pontus school is one of the first in the country to fully implement the new core curriculum, introduced by Finland's Ministry of Education in 2016, which is based on the concept of 'phenomenon teaching' – the replacing of traditional subject-based classes like maths and history with interdisciplinary courses focusing on broader topics. 

Under the new curriculum, children are also encouraged to become autonomous learners, for example by creating their own study plans. 

The Pontus school's brand new building was completed and opened in the autumn of 2017, and the architecture was designed to support the objectives of the new core curriculum.  

The building is divided into four units, with approximately 80 primary school children enrolled in each unit. The students within each unit are sometimes further divided into smaller age groups, or sometimes they all work together in one group.

"I didn't learn anything" 

However, the teaching methods and the use of space at Pontus have not suited the pedagogical needs of all children. Sixth grader Aino Piironen found the need to create her own study plan an insurmountable challenge, after childhood epilepsy left her with mild memory difficulties.  

Aino's parents believe that the school failed in its core task of educating Aino. In their view, the school's modern learning environment made it difficult for her to concentrate and that she would have also needed more help from teachers and staff to support her memory.  

Another area of difficulty for Aino was when all the members of the separate units came together in the open space, or 'market square'. The children usually sought a place to sit on the cushioned seats while the teachers sat at a desk in the middle of the room.

"The beginning of the school day was chaotic," Aino recalled.  

The most difficult thing of all, according to Aino, was the lack of teaching. Students began the day by working on their own weekly plan, approaching teachers in the middle of the 'market square' for advice when needed. 

"It was hard for me that the teacher did not teach at first, but instead we should have been able to learn things by ourselves," Aino said. "I didn't learn anything."

Why is Finland fleeing US education policies?

Via the Springfield News-Leader: Why is Finland fleeing U.S. education policies?

Hundreds of thousands of children, including my own 8-year-old, returned to primary school last month in Finland. They also returned to a new National Core Curriculum in a country that has achieved global acclaim for its highly efficient education system and its history of world-topping test scores. 

To me, an outsider living here for six months “embedded” in one of those universities, it becomes increasingly clear that the main reason for the success of Finland’s schools is not because they are ethnically Finnish, but because they are well organized and supported by society. But all is not well in Education Utopia.  

Inequity is growing among schools. Severe budget cuts are hitting vocational and higher education. Finnish children face problems common the world over — bullying, big drop-offs in math and reading skills, digital overload, and feeling bored or disengaged from school. And international test performance has dropped among Finnish teens. 

The United States for more than a decade has responded to its own education challenges with a bizarre, bipartisan and ineffectual mix of mass standardized testing, de-professionalization of teachers, dismal quality “cybercharter schools,” the elimination of arts and recess for children, and the botched, now politically toxic Common Core attempt at national curriculum guidelines.  

Finland is taking largely the opposite approach. To some self-styled education reformers, many of the ideas in the new curriculum are irrelevant to non-Finnish children, especially those from poor backgrounds. To many of the globe’s teachers and childhood development experts, however, they will represent a beacon of hope amid forced standardization, political interference, and childhood stress, shaming and punishment based on bad data.  

The new curriculum encourages children to learn by playing, express their opinions, be open to new solutions, learn to handle conflicting information, seek new information and review the way they think. Teachers are directed to give students daily feedback and measure them against their starting points, not against other students. In the lower grades, schools now have the option of dropping numerical grades in favor of verbal assessments. 

Preschool and kindergarten students will continue to learn through songs, games and conversation, not the military-style drilling increasingly common in the U.S. A number of studies have shown the positive effect of play-based early education, including for low-income children. Formal academic training in Finland will continue to start at age 7. That corresponds with findings that any advantage gained by earlier instruction soon washes out. 

Finland’s latest education vision could hardly be less like the one ill-informed politicians are imposing in the U.S. In a famous episode of Seinfeld, George Costanza achieved spectacular success by doing the total opposite of everything he had done before. Perhaps U.S. public schools should follow his example.

New Finnish school guidelines turn teachers into coaches

Via Xinhua: New Finnish school guidelines turn teachers into coaches.

The Finnish school system has entered a new era of pupil participation this week against the backdrop of claims that too many do not learn what they are supposed to and that disparity in schools among pupils has increased. 

The new Finnish curriculum changes the role of the teacher from a superior to a coach. Command of detailed information takes a back seat to pupils learning capabilities that are useful in contemporary society.  

Camilla Herlin, principal of Finno school in Espoo, explained to newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet that so far teachers were supposed to teach and the pupils were to adopt the information. As requested by the new curriculum, pupils are encouraged to find out and ask. 

Despite the impression of pupils taking over, the responsibility of teachers actually increases. "There will be more on the shoulders of teachers as they must see to it that pupils have learned what they are supposed to," Herlin said, adding she believed the new methods will be more efficient than the old school culture. 

In the math classes, contrary to giving pupils mathematical tasks to solve, the pupils can themselves develop formulas. Instead of being evaluated by the teacher alone, pupils get responses from fellow pupils and also assess themselves. 

The new curriculum underlines seven competences of a pupil. They include ability to think and learn and competence in communication and culture.  

The schools are to provide abilities for working life and entrepreneurship. The curriculum lists also digital command and multi-literacy. Among other practical changes, hours of religion study have been reduced and language teaching starts earlier. 

Herlin said the plans have been met with mixed reactions among teachers. "Some teachers feel uncertain. All teachers will be offered courses free of charge to learn how to cope with the new system," Herlin said.  

Sanna Lauslahti, vice chairperson of the Education and Culture Committee of the Parliament, said projects are ongoing to train teachers to adapt to the new curriculum.  

"It will take years. We are trying to find out what kind of capabilities they need to bring colleagues, pedagogical specialists into schools," Lauslahti told Xinhua.  

The massive reform coincides with reports about a decline in learning results in schools. A project financed by the Academy of Finland revealed that pupils with well-educated parents and an affluent home achieved better results in school.  

Finnish child ombudsman Tuomas Kurttila told the media that one out of eight 15-year-old boys cannot enter the secondary stage without sufficient reading skills. Last spring, alarms were also sounded in Finland about worsening competence in maths. 

The Finnish education system has long been known for its quality with equality. Finnish schools have achieved high scores in international assessments.

Pilot to shake up lesson structure starts next autumn in 50 upper secondary schools

Via Yle Uutiset: Pilot to shake up lesson structure starts next autumn in 50 upper secondary schools.

An experiment with liberalising the distribution of lesson hours in Finnish upper secondary schools will begin next autumn. The pilot programme will be voluntary and schools that are interested in participating are asked to sign up by the end of April. 

Students beginning their studies in 2016 and 2017 will then have the option of starting their studies under the old core curriculum structure that contains between 47 and 51 courses, or the new experimental version with just 30 to 34. 

The freedom of choice will be extended to all lessons except mathematics and languages. Natural sciences, humanities, social sciences, physical education, arts and other practical subjects will be divided into two groups in the pilot schools, and students would be free to choose at least nine courses from each group. There would be only one obligatory course each in health education and religion or ethics. 

Mathematics and languages not affected 

The natural sciences category includes courses in biology, geography, physics, chemistry and health education. The humanities include studies in history, civics, religion or ethics, psychology and philosophy. 

Three art courses would still be provided, as in the core curriculum, but students would once again have greater freedom of choice. A joint core study module in mathematics will take place at the beginning of the studies. 

No changes are proposed to the existing lesson hours in mathematics and languages. One course in advanced mother tongues studies would be abolished with the change. 

Same length of study, same course total 

The syllabus would remain unchanged in size, however. It would still last three years and be composed of 75 courses. It is believed that the proposal will not generate any new obligations for education providers; instead, the proposal is expected to slightly reduce expenses, but not in a way that is deemed economically significant. 

The government says its proposal aims to strengthen all-round general education. Societal changes in the future mean working life will alter considerably, they say, and developments in information technology in particular are expected to overhaul occupational structure and competencies in the next two decades.

Finland: The downside of high school curriculum reform

Via Yle Uutiset: Thursday's papers: Budget blues, high school woes. Excerpt:

Coming off the presses in bustling Tampere, daily Aamulehti reports that education authorities will overhaul the curriculum for the country’s upper secondary schools from next year. 

The revamp will provide new content and teaching goals for educators with a view to ensuring consistency, quality, equality and legal protection for learners. The move will coincide with a reform of the primary education system, also due to come into force from August 2016. 

However the paper reports that the education reforms could bite new high school students hard. In many cases students try to recycle used books from friends and family members or the second-hand market. However an entirely new syllabus could see learners and their parents forking out up to 1,800 euros for all-new text books, compared to between 1,000 and 1,300 for used texts. 

The changes also mean that this year’s students who’ve invested in new or used text books will not be able to recover what they’ve spent by offloading their old books to incoming freshmen.

Book prices in Finland are very high indeed, but I hadn't realized that Finnish high school students have to pay for their own textbooks.

Finland: English language instruction to start in second grade

Via Yle Uutiset: English language instruction to start in second grade. Excerpt:

Starting in the autumn of 2016, the instruction of English will begin one year earlier than it does at present in the Finnish school system. Primary students will begin studies in their first foreign language in second grade rather than third. News of the change has been welcomed in the Käppärä School in the western city of Pori. The rector says the school’s eight-year-olds are well prepared. 

The instruction of what is known as the A1 foreign language in Finland will soon begin a year earlier throughout the country. A1 refers to the first foreign language children chose to study in primary school, leading to the greatest competency upon graduation. Although there are many exceptions, most children in Finland these days choose English as their A1 language, so in practice, this means that English instruction will begin in Finland at the age of eight. 

News of the earlier start, beginning with just one hour of instruction per week, was welcomed at the Käppärä School in the coastal city of Pori. 

“We have every opportunity to add one beginning course per week. It will not cause our school any problems,” says Rector Tero Grönmark. 

He has faith that today’s eight-year-olds are up to the challenge. 

“The children have plenty of experience with the English language due to their exposure to the digital culture. At present, the kids are more end users, but the language instruction will help make their experience more interactive,” he says. 

A new tool to develop children’s thinking skills 

Officials justify the new curriculum requirement in Finland under the principle that languages are also learning tools. 

“It will be an added tool for developing the children’s intellectual capacity. The reform is not necessarily intended to achieve grammatical targets; it’s more like a motivational tool to increase students’ interaction with others. This coincides with the primary emphasis of the new core curriculum,” says Grönmark. 

Grönmark says that it is likely that no textbooks will be used in the second grade A1 language instruction: 

“An introductory course of this kind will probably focus on singing, playing and hands-on activities. I believe it will enrich our teaching greatly.”

Finland’s latest educational move will produce a generation of entrepreneurs

Thanks to Shane Granger for tweeting the link to this post from SingularityHUB.com: Finland’s Latest Educational Move Will Produce a Generation of Entrepreneurs. Excerpt:

For decades, computers have assisted learners with skills taught early on, such as basic mathematics, spelling, and memorization. Today, web-connected devices are everywhere. The technology is cheaper, faster, more powerful, and able to instantly draw on the growing body of information available in digital form. 

Students of any age now have access to encyclopedia-like articles on Wikipedia, tutorial videos on YouTube (from sites like Khan Academy), Q&A sites like Quora, and niche communities engaged in in-depth discussions on reddit, among other tools like peer-to-peer sharing. In fact, these same tools are helping some adults transition into new careers in lieu of investing massive resources to return to college to pursue another degree. 

For entire generations of young students looking to educational systems to prepare them for their future careers, the ubiquitous nature of this on-demand, easily discoverable knowledge makes classic school subjects seem archaic, slow-paced and inapplicable to daily life. As a result, we must reform education to properly prepare students for life and careers in the technology-driven 21st century—but how? 

Finland believes it has an answer. 

Recently, the country announced it plans to replace traditional school subjects with a topical approach by 2020. Instead of students having a series of classes, like language, math, or history, they'd study cross-subject topics in groups over the course of a few weeks that include components of many subjects as part of the lessons. 

"What we need now is a different kind of education to prepare people for working life," said Pasi Silander, Helsinki's development manager, speaking to The Independent about the pilot program. Citing the technology students have access to today, he added, "We therefore have to make the changes in education that are necessary for industry and modern society.” 

Silander said about 70 percent of Finnish high school teachers have already received training in the "phenomenon-based" approach, which began testing two years ago. So far student outcomes have improved and teacher response has been positive. 

Marjo Kyllonen, Helsinki’s education manager, who leads the initiative said, "We really need a rethinking of education and a redesigning of our system, so it prepares our children for the future with the skills that are needed for today and tomorrow." 

The new approach aims to encourage different kinds of learning, shifting from facts to problem solving, individual work to collaboration. In other words, instead of skill-oriented instruction, this topical structure prioritizes the four Cs—communication, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration—skills that are central to working in teams, a reflection of the 'hyperconnected' world we live in today.

Sahlberg: Finland’s school reforms won't scrap subjects altogether

Via The Conversation, Pasi Sahlberg explains the new Finnish curriculum: Finland’s school reforms won't scrap subjects altogether. Click through for the full article and many links. Excerpt:

Finland’s plans to replace the teaching of classic school subjects such as history or English with broader, cross-cutting “topics” as part of a major education reform have been getting global attention, thanks to an article in The Independent, one of the UK’s trusted newspapers. Stay calm: despite the reforms, Finnish schools will continue to teach mathematics, history, arts, music and other subjects in the future. 

But with the new basic school reform all children will also learn via periods looking at broader topics, such as the European Union, community and climate change, or 100 years of Finland’s independence, which would bring in multi-disciplinary modules on languages, geography, sciences and economics. 

It is important to underline two fundamental peculiarities of the Finnish education system in order to see the real picture. First, education governance is highly decentralised, giving Finland’s 320 municipalities significant amount of freedom to arrange schooling according to the local circumstances. Central government issues legislation, tops up local funding of schools, and provides a guiding framework for what schools should teach and how. 

Second, Finland’s National Curriculum Framework is a loose common standard that steers curriculum planning at the level of the municipalities and their schools. It leaves educators freedom to find the best ways to offer good teaching and learning to all children. Therefore, practices vary from school to school and are often customised to local needs and situations. 

Phenomenon-based learning 

The next big reform taking place in Finland is the introduction of a new National Curriculum Framework (NCF), due to come into effect in August 2016. 

It is a binding document that sets the overall goals of schooling, describes the principles of teaching and learning, and provides the guidelines for special education, well-being, support services and student assessment in schools. The concept of “phenomenon-based” teaching – a move away from “subjects” and towards inter-disciplinary topics – will have a central place in the new NCF. 

Integration of subjects and a holistic approach to teaching and learning are not new in Finland. Since the 1980s, Finnish schools have experimented with this approach and it has been part of the culture of teaching in many Finnish schools since then. This new reform will bring more changes to Finnish middle-school subject teachers who have traditionally worked more on their own subjects than together with their peers in school. 

Schools decide the programme 

What will change in 2016 is that all basic schools for seven to 16-year-olds must have at least one extended period of multi-disciplinary, phenomenon-based teaching and learning in their curricula. The length of this period is to be decided by schools themselves. Helsinki, the nation’s capital and largest local school system, has decided to require two such yearly periods that must include all subjects and all students in every school in town.

National Board of Education: 'Subject teaching in Finnish schools is not being abolished"

Apparently the whole subject vs. topic issue has been misunderstood. Via the website of the Finnish National Board of Education: Subject teaching in Finnish schools is not being abolished.

The news that Finland is abolishing teaching separate subjects has recently hit the headlines world-wide. Subject teaching is not being abolished although the new core curriculum for basic education will bring about some changes in 2016. 

The subjects common to all students in basic education are stipulated in the Basic Education Act, and the allocation of lesson hours among school subjects is prescribed in the Decree given by the Government. 

However, education providers have had a high degree of freedom in implementing nationally set objectives for more than twenty years. They may develop their own innovative methods, which can differ from those in other municipalities. 

The new core curriculum for basic education that will be implemented in school in August 2016 contain some changes which might have given rise to the misunderstanding. In order to meet the challenges of the future, the focus is on transversal (generic) competences and work across school subjects. Collaborative classroom practices, where pupils may work with several teachers simultaneously during periods of phenomenon-based project studies are emphasised. 

The pupils should participate each year in at least one such multidisciplinary learning module. These modules are designed and implemented locally. The core curriculum also states that the pupils should be involved in the planning.

Finland to do away with subjects in school; should India follow suit?

Finland's "topic-based" approach is drawing attention worldwide. Via the Hindustan Times: Finland to do away with subjects in school; should India follow suit?.

Finland has always topped the list of countries hosting some of the most successful schools in the world apart from being progressive. Finnish education has been highly admired for its endeavour towards ensuring quality. It  has been pro-actively engaged in experimenting with the education system. 

To match up with the ever changing industry across the globe, in a latest move, it has decided to do away with subject-wise teaching and introduce teaching by topic. This means, now students will learn cross-subject topics. 

For example, a topic on European Union will amalgamate portions of subjects like economics, geography and languages thus replacing history and geography as regular subjects. This will also encourage students to take up problem-solving activities thus, breaking ways from the traditional classroom learning. 

This announcement has got mixed responses from the teaching community in India. 

“An interdisciplinary mode of education helps a child to understand and learn better. We need not call mathematics as mathematics. It can be taught through many different ways like dance, music or art. Why do we need to have names for the subject? We can teach them through a variety of interesting methodologies that can help engage the children better. Children look at the subject as difficult and worrisome as it is not well-connected to our real life. We can form such connections through interdisciplinary mod and better pedagogy. For example, at Springdales, we taught the Pythagoras theorem through dance. What we are teaching is completely disengaged mathematics from life. Interdisciplinary studies in maths work well till class 8 at least. This will help them grasp their fundamentals better,” says Ameeta Mulla Wattal, principal, Springdales School, Pusa Road. 

Contradicting with Wattal, Gowri Ishwaran, the founder-principal of Delhi-based Sanskriti School and a renowned educationist says maths is fundamental to understanding life and it cannot be done away with as a subject at the school level. 

“We need to have the subjects accompanied by value added subjects. You should make history more alive and global and teach children interesting things that have relevance to the present day. Today, we teach history as isolated facts, and students just rote learn various facts. We need to bring about a radical overhaul in the way we teach our students and the curriculum itself. Make subjects more dynamic rather than removing them. Indian context is encouraging rote learning whereas it should encourage discovery and innovation.” 

Asked if this move will work well in our country, Krishank Indoria, class 10, JD Tytler School, New Delhi says, “I don’t think it is a good move as students would never get to know about the history of their country and its growth. Maths is not only important as a subject but it also plays a crucial role in our daily life. Such a revolutionary initiative can never be successful in India considering the fact that admissions to major universities depends on these subjects.” 

However, there are few who believe that India needs to give a face-lift to the existing education system. “Finland's move is really good because at the end of the day history is not going to help me administer a state, or maths is not going to help me launch satellites. It is the applications that will help us in the long run. I believe that this is the need of the hour in India. The fields of occupations are widening, henceforth skills are more important than mugging up concepts and theories,” says Shikhar Tripath, class 12, DPS Mathura Road.