Why do Finland's schools get the best results?

[Gail]

Why do Finland's schools get the best results?

By Tom Burridge

BBC World News America, Helsinki

Last year more than 100 foreign delegations and governments visited Helsinki, hoping to learn the secret of their schools' success.

In 2006, Finland's pupils scored the highest average results in science and reading in the whole of the developed world. In the OECD's exams for 15 year-olds, known as PISA, they also came second in maths, beaten only by teenagers in South Korea.

Education in South Korea In South Korea, the school day is long and pupil's have a much stricter study regime.

This isn't a one-off: in previous PISA tests Finland also came out top.

The Finnish philosophy with education is that everyone has something to contribute and those who struggle in certain subjects should not be left behind.

A tactic used in virtually every lesson is the provision of an additional teacher who helps those who struggle in a particular subject. But the pupils are all kept in the same classroom, regardless of their ability in that particular subject.

Finland's Education Minister, Henna Virkkunen is proud of her country's record but her next goal is to target the brightest pupils.

''The Finnish system supports very much those pupils who have learning difficulties but we have to pay more attention also to those pupils who are very talented. Now we have started a pilot project about how to support those pupils who are very gifted in certain areas.''

Late learners

According to the OECD, Finnish children spend the fewest number of hours in the classroom in the developed world.

This reflects another important theme of Finnish education.

Primary and secondary schooling is combined, so the pupils don't have to change schools at age 13. They avoid a potentially disruptive transition from one school to another.

Teacher Marjaana Arovaara-Heikkinen believes keeping the same pupils in her classroom for several years also makes her job a lot easier.

''I'm like growing up with my children, I see the problems they have when they are small. And now after five years, I still see and know what has happened in their youth, what are the best things they can do. I tell them I'm like their school mother.''

Children in Finland only start main school at age seven. The idea is that before then they learn best when they're playing and by the time they finally get to school they are keen to start learning.

Less is more

Education in the United States "If education is expensive, try ignorance"

Finnish parents obviously claim some credit for the impressive school results. There is a culture of reading with the kids at home and families have regular contact with their children's teachers.

Teaching is a prestigious career in Finland. Teachers are highly valued and teaching standards are high.

The educational system's success in Finland seems to be part cultural. Pupils study in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.

Finland also has low levels of immigration. So when pupils start school the majority have Finnish as their native language, eliminating an obstacle that other societies often face.

The system's success is built on the idea of less can be more. There is an emphasis on relaxed schools, free from political prescriptions. This combination, they believe, means that no child is left behind.

[Gail]

Hooray on the later age entry! That's a well-known homeschooling practise.

[karl]

Hooray on the later age entry! That's a well-known homeschooling practise.

Yes. Very useful - especially with the boys.

[Guest]

My parents didn't let me start 1st grade till I was seven.

[Gail]

Did your family have a copy of Child Guidance or Adventist Home or Education in their library?

[Bravus]

Lots of great lessons we can learn from Finland. Enough funding to have two teachers in the classroom most of the time instead of one is *huge* in terms of supporting the individual students' learning. Valuing education as a society, reading to kids, starting them later (instead of earlier and earlier, as seems to be the pattern here) and so on.

To some extent they do also have uniquely easier conditions with a fairly homogeneous society, and as the article points out, most students have the national language as their first language. That makes it tougher when that's not the case, so we might never beat the Finns on the international assessments (I think Australia is 4th on PISA anyway, so not too shabby.)

My current research project that I've been writing about the past couple of weeks is about how to improve the science engagement, enjoyment and achievement of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, because apart from the social justice (!! oh noes !!) reasons why it's good to help those stuck in cycles of disadvantage join society, there's also lots of good evidence to show that (a) a given investment in improvement will yield dramatically greater results with this group and ( since Australia already does well on international assessments, it's 'lifting the bottom' that will have the biggest effect over all.

(And the innovations that work for these students will work for all students too.)

[Neil D]

So, just to ask, Bravus, how does a society that has bilingual problems adjust to this information?

Canada has a french and english problem.

The US has a Spanish and English lingual problems.

Great Briton has other lingual problems, ie Arabic (?)....

If society is such that society feels the need for TWO incomes to make ends meet, how can you have this "stay at home" parent that reads to the child? If society believes in no fault divorce, and they have single moms earning a wage AND trying to raise a child, what impact does this have upon the family?

Um, just a few problems to overcome before we are able to give the Fins a run for thier money.... Looking for a suggestion or two....?

[phkrause]

Did your family have a copy of Child Guidance or Adventist Home or Education in their library?

Doesn't EGW mention something about 8 or 9 years old before they are sent to school. That the most important training takes place in the home, in our early years of development?

pk

[Bravus]

Responding to Neil's questions:

Bilingual is easier than multilingual: in many Brisbane classrooms there are kids with backgrounds from a dozen or more languages. A lot of them don't speak English at home. It just does require different things from the teacher than a very monolingual situation. It can be surmounted, but it does actually require attention and resources.

I personally would encourage anyone who plans to have kids to plan to have one or the other parent at home a fair bit of the time before they start school. The idea of kids being popped out of the womb and straight into day care and never seeing their parents worries me deeply, because I agree with Mrs White on the importance of parenting. But even if the kid is in day care, the parents can read with them in the evening, and can read for pleasure themselves. If kids think reading is normal, they have a huge advantage throughout their lives.

But yeah: I would argue that trying to beat the Finns on international tests, as well as being an unreachable goal is not really a particularly worthy goal. We should be focusing on our students and helping them. We can learn things from the Finns, but we know things already that we aren't getting the support to implement.

And yeah, if our society is set up so parents can't parent, we need to work on that too.

[Dr. Shane]

As a church we need to teach our students at the high school and college level how to get by on one income. I have no problem with the non-breadwinner (husband or wife) taking a part-time job however two parents both working full-time are not going to be able to give the kids the attention the kids need. A lot has to do with lifestyle. Another is family planning. A problem is that young adults start having kids without having a road map of how they are going to raise them. They buy too much house. They buy cars they can't afford. Then they end up with so many payments that both parents have to work. It becomes almost a form of slavery where they become indentured servants to their bank. If someone consciously chooses that, they should be free to do so. However many get sucked into it and never get out.

I think the key to children getting a good education is parents being involved with their education. With two parents working, that certainly is a challenge.

[Bravus]

+eleventy billion

[doug yowell]

My parents didn't let me start 1st grade till I was seven.

Yes. You were obviously deprived of the ability learn how to interact with your peers.If they're still alive, it's not too late to sue them!

[doug yowell]

Lets face it, the real advantage is that whatever the Finns start, they Finnish.

[John317]

Quote:

Richard Holbrook: My parents didn't let me start 1st grade till I was seven.

And I betcha you were all the better for it, too.

I went through kindergarten 3 years. Boy, it was hard! lol

My mom was the teacher and she had the class at home, so I went through it for free. She also had first grade class in the garage-- 25 kids! You can't do that today. Those were the days. About 1952, 1953. Fullerton, Ca. Vice-Prsident Richard Nixon's home town.

[Bravus]

I repeated Grade 1, due to maturity issues, and it doesn't seem to have done me any harm (twitch).

[John317]

Don't feel bad-- I understand a little kid name Einstein had the same kind of problem. So did another kid name Edison. Both were known at the time as slow-learners and not too talkative. Edison's teacher thought of him as intellectually challenged. haha

[Neil D]

Responding to Neil's questions:

Bilingual is easier than multilingual: in many Brisbane classrooms there are kids with backgrounds from a dozen or more languages. A lot of them don't speak English at home. It just does require different things from the teacher than a very monolingual situation. It can be surmounted, but it does actually require attention and resources.

[Gail]

So, just to ask, Bravus, how does a society that has bilingual problems adjust to this information?

Canada has a french and english problem.

The US has a Spanish and English lingual problems.

Great Briton has other lingual problems, ie Arabic (?)....

Canada may have language barriers, but it's definitely not French/English! It's more like English/Asian.

[Amelia]

The U.S. has more than just Spanish language problems. We have high percentages of Asian and Russan too. Along with our immigrant languages came all the different parenting styles and education backgrounds.

The Finnish system works because the country is small and it has been in place for such a long time. Plus the country makes education a priority and funds it as such.

A charter school would probably do very well using their system but I highly doubt it could work on the public school level. Our school are so messed up and really, not many students get the best start on the home front.