CHAPTER 3
Educating for Human Greatness
1
FINLAND’S EDUCATION SYSTEM
Here is an article from the Washington Post, published on August 30, 2019. It’s an article looking at changes underway in Finnish schools by two people who are experts and know what is really going on. These two experts are Pasi Sahlberg and Peter Johnson. Johnson is director of education of the Finnish city of Kokkola. Sahlberg is professor of education policy at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. He is one of the world’s leading experts on school reform and is the author of the best-selling Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn About Educational Change in Finland? In addition, I was also fortunate enough to have the below document reviewed and somewhat elaborated with the insights of Jaakko Skantsi, the Counsellor of Finland Education and Science. Material added by Jaako Skantsi is in brackets.
Finland has been in the spotlight of the education world since it appeared, against all odds, on the top of the rankings of an international test known as PISA, the Program for International Student Assessment, in the early 2000s. Tens of thousands visitors [sic] have travelled to the country to see how to improve their own schools. Hundreds of articles have been written to explain why Finnish education is so marvellous—or sometimes that it isn’t. Millions of tweets have been shared and read, often leading to debates about the real nature of Finland’s schools and about teaching and learning there.
We have learned a lot about why some education systems— such as Alberta, Ontario, Japan and Finland—perform better year after year than others in terms of quality and equity of student outcomes. We also understand now better why some other education systems—for example, England, Australia, the United States and Sweden—have not been able to improve their school systems regardless of politicians’ promises, largescale reforms and truckloads of money spent on haphazard efforts to change schools during the past two decades.
Among these important lessons are:
• Education systems and schools shouldn’t be managed like business corporations where tough competition, measurement-based accountability and performancedetermined pay are common principles. Instead, successful education systems rely on collaboration, trust, and collegial responsibility in and between schools. [This is essential. If you measure teachers strictly based on a pre-prescribed criteria and make the teachers compete against each other, they will not share their ideas, materials, new pedagogical approaches nor anything else with each other but rather keep "all the good stuff ” to themselves in fear of not being highly enough ranked in the "competition” within the school/school provider. The only way to have truly collaborative atmosphere and thus successful development of the school, the school leadership and teachers should be setup in dynamic teams where collaboration and development efforts are truly possible, in the similar manner as in the most advanced (ICT) companies’ self-directed work teams (SDWTs)].
• The teaching profession shouldn’t be perceived as a technical, temporary craft that anyone with a little guidance can do. Successful education systems rely on continuous professionalization of teaching and school leadership that requires advanced academic education, solid scientific and practical knowledge, and continuous on-the-job training.
• The quality of education shouldn’t be judged by the level of literacy and numeracy test scores alone. Successful education systems are designed to emphasize wholechild development, equity of education outcomes, wellbeing, and arts, music, drama and physical education as important elements of curricul[a]. [As the world is changing and more and more advanced algorithms are partly overtaking many roles previously deemed as "secure and well-paying” jobs, learning skills, and soft skills in particular, that are not in danger of being replaced by algorithms in the near future, are become more and more essential].
10 REASONS WHY FINLAND’S EDUCATION SYSTEM IS THE BEST
According to the insights of Jaakko Skantsi, there is one standardized/national test in place in Finland (but only in upper secondary school) and minimal stress in the Finnish education system. There are, in fact, some private (nonprofit) schools in Finland. However, they have applied for the permission to organize education from the Ministry of Education. Furthermore, when it comes to Basic Education (G1-G9), the law clearly dictates that no fees of any kind can be collected from the pupils nor their parents, even in the "private schools.” Private schools get most of their funding from the Ministry of Education in a similar manner as the other education providers (municipalities/cities, or clusters of them in some cases) based on the number of students enrolled in the school.
According to an article posted by Bigthink on September 9 2018, education system is consistently ranked best in the world. Finland’s common-sense practices and a holistic teaching environment strive for equity over excellence.
Many people are familiar with the stereotype of the hardworking, rote memorization-based, myopic tunnel vision of Eastern Asian study and work ethics. Many of these countries, like China, Singapore, and Japan amongst others, routinely rank in the number one spots in both math and science.
Finland—a country rich in intellectual and educational reform—has initiated over the years a number of novel and simple changes that have completely revolutionized their educational system.
Are they cramming in dimly-lit rooms on robotic schedules? Nope. Stressing over standardized tests enacted by the government? No way. Finland is leading the way because of common-sense practices and a holistic teaching environment that strives for equity over excellence. Here are 10 reasons why Finland’s education system is dominating the world stage.
1: NO STANDARDIZED TESTING
Staying in line with our print-minded sensibilities, standardized testing is the blanket way we test for subject comprehension. Filling in little bubbles on a scantron and answering pre-canned questions is somehow supposed to be a way to determine mastery or at least competence of a subject. What often happens is that students will learn to cram just to pass a test and teachers will be teaching with the sole purpose of students passing a test. Learning has been thrown out of the equation.
Finland has no standardized tests. Their only exception is something called the National Matriculation Exam, which is a voluntary test for students at the end of an upper-secondary school (equivalent to an American high school.) All children throughout Finland are graded on an individualized basis and grading system set by their teacher.
[There are actually national "standards” for grade 8 (4 is failed and 10 is excellent). However, these "standards” are still interpreted by the teachers and are often quite broad. For example, for math, there are 20 objectives, such as: "The Concept of Percentage and percentage calculation”—the competence for grade 8 (good) is described as: "The student can elaborate how the percentage is used. The student can calculate the percentage, the amount indicated by the percentage as well as percentage change and conversion percentage. The student can use knowledge on percentage in different situations.” Now, it’s up to the teacher (the Education Act stipulates that assessment has to be versatile—so not just exams/tests made by the teacher) to conclude in a formative and summative manner whether the student has a command over these goals (grade 8, good), or is exceeding (9 or 10), or underachieving (7, 6 or 5), or failing (4) their objectives.
Tracking overall progress is done by the Ministry of Education, FIEEC (Finnish Education Evaluation Centre), which samples groups across different ranges of schools.]
2: ACCOUNTABILITY FOR TEACHERS
A lot of the blame goes to the teachers and rightfully so sometimes. But in Finland, the bar is set so high for teachers, that there is often no reason to have a rigorous "grading” system for teachers. Pasi Sahlberg, said that following about teachers’ accountability: "There’s no word for accountability in Finnish… Accountability is something that is left when responsibility has been subtracted.”
All teachers are required to have a master’s degree before entering the profession. Teaching programs are the most rigorous and selective professional schools in the entire country.
The concept of the pupil–teacher dynamic that was once the master to apprentice cannot be distilled down to a few bureaucratic checks and standardized testing measures. It needs to be dealt with on an individual basis.
3: COOPERATION NOT COMPETITION
While most Americans and other coun