Today's topic of discussion and review, is based on the ideas from "Why are Finland's Schools Successful?" by LynNell Hancock. Canada and the US can learn a lot from this Nordic country, and if anyone needs a refresher on why we enter this great profession, it's surley us - teachers.
Below is a critique & comparison to Finland & the Noth Americas' education system, priorities & overall apporach:
“This is what we do every day, prepare kids for life.” A phrase you sometimes forget as an educator. Finland’s approach to education is in a sense, more holistic and human to that of Canada’s. The Finnish education system tries to ‘catch the weakest student’ where in places like the North Americas, it is more common to ‘weed out the weakest’. This means that schools will generally suggest a ‘lower’ level for students who aren’t strong enough in an academic setting. The complete opposite happens in Finland - teachers will do everything they can so that every student, no matter the ability, will succeed (this also includes holding students back a grade if absolutely needed).
The article also states, “if you only measure the statistics, you miss the human aspect”, which is another stark difference when comparing Finland’s take on testing and standards. Things in Canada are looking up, but for a long period of time, aspects like test scores and daily homework outweighed aspects of what learning actually meant. Education is held at such a high degree in both countries but, the approach to how students receive and demonstrate learning greatly differs. There is ‘no rush’ in Finland, where in Canada there seems to be a strict timeline and expectations as soon as a child enters kindergarten.
Finally, Finland’s education system is largely run by people in education, unlike the North Americas where business and politics have had a huge hand in educational affairs, which also speaks to what drives the overall goals of education in both countries. I think Finland provides a great reminder to the North American education systems to not forget that, “we [educators] prepare children to learn how to learn, not how to take a test...” and learning is life-long, tests are not.
1 comment:
How interesting is to learn about Finland's top rated education system? How great is to know they truly value focusing on the student instead of bureaucracies and politics? I agree with you that Ontario has come along way, but that there is much to learn from Finland's education system. I did wonder though whether or not your article also mentioned that students with learning disabilities are placed in segregated schools rather than using the integration system we do here. Interestingly, I thought that a lot of what you mentioned, and what I read in the other article, about Finnish education sounded a lot like practices Ontario used to have. A swing in Finland's direction would go a long way to correcting the issues we face today! Thanks for sharing and keeping the focus on the students!
- Heidi
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