Anu Partanen by Laila Eweda

Main Idea

lwe7_1 — 2024-03-05 15:59:05 UTC

What does Finland do differently in regards to education that makes them more successful than the US?

Less Homework and More Creative Play

ar2282 — 2024-03-05 16:12:19 UTC

Finland has had consistently good test scores in standardized testing and has ranked at the top, however, Finland schools assign less homework and allow children to have more creative play.

No Private Schools

ar2282 — 2024-03-05 16:14:10 UTC

There are also no private schools in Finland, the schools are all publicly financed and don’t charge tuition fees including universities.

American's Obsessed Over the Wrong Things

ar2282 — 2024-03-05 16:16:10 UTC

Americans are obsess over unimportant questions that don't work towards actually improving its education system.

Expert Voice

lwe7_1 — 2024-03-05 16:16:12 UTC

Finnish authorities on education reform, Pasi Sahlberg, director of the Finnish Ministry of Education's Center for International Mobility and author of the new
book Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland said "and there are no private schools in Finland."

ar2282 — 2024-03-05 16:18:41 UTC

Americans love to talk about competition however “real winners do not compete”. In Finland the main drive of education policy is not competition between teachers and schools, but cooperation.

Evidence

lwe7_1 — 2024-03-05 16:20:27 UTC

"Finland's schools owe their newfound fame primarily to one study: the PISA survey, conducted every three years by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD). The survey compares 15-year-olds in different countries in reading, math, and science. Finland has ranked at or near the top in all three competencies on every survey since 2000, neck and neck with super achievers such as South Korea and Singapore." (Partanen, 2)

ar2282 — 2024-03-05 16:21:23 UTC

How can you keep track of students’ performance if you don’t test them constantly? How can you improve teaching if you have no accountability for bad teachers or merit pay for good teachers?

All teachers and administrators are given prestige, decent pay, and a lot of responsibility

lwe7_1 — 2024-03-05 16:22:34 UTC

ar2282 — 2024-03-05 16:22:44 UTC

Teachers are trained to assess children in classrooms using independent tests they create themselves, reports are based on individual grading by each teacher, progress is tracked by testing a few sample groups across a range of different schools, and they require a master’s degree to enter the profession. (Partanen, 2)

ar2282 — 2024-03-05 16:25:17 UTC

Finland’s experience suggests that a country has to prepare not just some of its population well, but all of its population well, for the new economy. (Partanen, 8)

ar2282 — 2024-03-05 16:27:03 UTC

"Since the 1980s, the main driver of Finland's education policy is that each child should have exactly the same opportunity to learn, regardless of family, background, income, or graphic location in order to even out social inequality." (Paratnen, 6)

ar2282 — 2024-03-05 16:29:36 UTC

Schools should be healthy, safe environments for kids which is why Finland offers free school meals, easy access to healthcare, counseling, and individualized guidance. (Partanen, 6)

Conclusion

lwe7_1 — 2024-03-05 16:31:11 UTC

"The problem facing education in America isn't the ethnic diversity of the population but the economic inequality of society, and this is precisely the problem that Finnish education reform addressed. More equity at home might just be what America needs to be more competitive abroad."(Partenen 9)