You will enjoy this amazing slide show created by the great Finnish educator Pasi Sahlberg.
It explains why Finnish schools succeed: Not because they want to be first in the world, but because they want “a great school for each and every child.” Their goal is equity, not excellence. While striving for equity, excellence is the by-product.
His comparison of the stale paradigm of the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM), which features testing, competition, and choice, with the Finnish Way (collaboration, responsibility, trust, equity, and education as a human right) is stark and compelling.
Enjoy!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
How unfortunate that Sweden shockingly is going in the opposite direction, but this is a result of factions who have been elected in their federal government who are not happy with what they consider to be the extreme left. Still, once this attitude of extreme competition permeates the educational landscape in Sweden, the Swedes ought to be careful not to let it permeate their economic and tax system. It belongs nowhere.
If other soverignties think the American way is so modern, let them immigrate here and find out what it’s really like . . . .
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“We” don’t want Equity and “We” have not dealt with that here in the USA.
“We” manipulate, financially exploit and hide behind all the methodology, statistics, research and “philanthropic”/foundation/federal/corporate money that supports the Potemkim Village called Excellence because “We” don’t want to move to Equity.
Well it is long time overdue for a set-down, a family meeting, a lovingly honest intervention. If “We” don’t re-locate to Equity, “We” are goners.
The value sets of ignorance,bigotry, separation, isolation, discrimination, selfishness, greed, totalitarianism, oligarchy and strategically making strangers of each other, have no place in a Democracy…yet these dynamics are now ruling the day. Our children hate the schools that participate in the brand of education logically flowing from such deforming of the American Promise. They don’t attend or participate in these poor excuses with joy or curiosity and they do not like a testing regime based on national hypocrisy. “We” have failed them until Equity becomes our most Excellent action plan.
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So true. This is a crisis of democracy.
Flipping through these slides there was also a strong but implicit point. If we loved all our children equally, we would do exactly as the Finns do and provide a great school for every child. There is no other choice.
An education system first and foremost must start from a place of love and respect for each and every child. Nothing else can fall into place without this basic foundation.
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Interesting. Few questions. What is average salary of teachers in Finland compared to other careers in Finland? Do they have unions? do they work with schools on changes needed? What is general attitude toward education in Finland? What is peer pressure like? Do they have peer groups that put others down for succeeding in school? What does media have to say about education in Finland? Do they support it, ignore it, or talk against it?
Put power back in State hands and create 50 Finlands.
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Finnish teachers are 100% unionized. The overall unionization rate in Finland is about 74% compared to 11.3% in the US. There is no war on unions as there is in the US. There are no anti-union laws in Finland as there are in the US. We have the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act and we have the so called right to work (for less) states which make it very difficult if not impossible to form unions.
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Apparently, the Koch Brothers, Gates, Broad, et al, have not been able to invade the Finnish culture.
Yet.
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Is the Koch Bros story true?
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I was at this presentation yesterday as part of the Chicago humanities festival. One of the most interesting points Pasi shared with us was about the teacher training programs. For one, if you want to be accepted into a teachers ed program you have to first be interviewed by a panel. Only about 800 applicants are accepted each year. Oh and did you know that every teacher gets at least 2 hours of plan/collaboration time each day? Every student must learn two languages and play an instrument. Oh and to continue, kids don’t start school til age 7 and their school day is shorter than the US. However the government provides daycare and early intervention.
The difference between the US and Finland is this. .. There are so many fundamental beliefs that when combined create an entire system that supports every child in their entirety. The Finnish school system builds this foundation from the beginning of both ends. To clarify the foundation is built for children through early childhood education and foundations are built for teachers at the beginning of their educational programming.
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And as an “overall gestalt” point to be made, Finnish society is not set up in the context of a virtually unfettered free market capitalist choice system; the United States is, and is increasing that slant ever more and ever faster . . . .
We are turning into South America and China. Watch out, Americans and anyone living here . . . . .
Equity and democracy are beoming a “once upon a time” . . . .
We are quickly transforming into a de-Mock-crazy . . . . . .
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There is NO EQUITY in the United Stasi.
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Eloquent summation. What a concept…equity!
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Bill, to answer your questions, according to this link:
http://www.ncee.org/programs-affiliates/center-on-international-education-benchmarking/top-performing-countries/finland-overview/finland-teacher-and-principal-quality/
In Finland:
“Teacher salaries are competitive compared to other professions in Finland, but are fairly average compared to other European countries. Lower secondary school [high school?] teachers with the minimum amount of required education are paid $34,707 in their first year; at the top of the pay scale, they can expect $54,181 a year. The OECD average for a beginning lower secondary teacher is $31,687; at the top of the scale, the average is $51,317. These salaries are somewhat lower than other professional salaries in Finland.”
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I understand that in Finland teachers are all unionized. Teachers and principals belong to the same union, which would be prohibited in the USA because of Taft-Hartley (passed over Truman’s veto, and which for decades the Democrats used to vow to overturn in their Party Platform.)
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For media, see Els de Bens, editor, “Media Between Culture and Commerce: An Introduction : Changing Media, Changing Europe”, (Bristol, UK and Wilmington, North Carolina: Intellect Books, 2007)
http://books.google.com/books?id=X77-oMVdb-sC&pg=PT15&dq=Commercial+media+in+Finland&hl=en&sa=X&ei=AKh_UoXjILWl4AOCnoHIBg&ved=0CDwQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Commercial%20media%20in%20Finland&f=false
I gather than Finland has among the highest consumption of print media world-wide because print publishing is government subsidized to promote freedom of expression. Musical activity is also subsidized. This would not be possible if anti-intellectual attitudes were prevalent. Don’t know about peer attitudes. Note: Finland strongly supports language learning, and the college admission test emphasizes, so far as I can tell, verbal expression in one’s “mother tongue” (whatever that might be) and Finnish and/ or Finnish and another language.
This is just info. obtained from Google.
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One other point about Finland: all higher education is tuition-free.
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Thank you. I see one big difference is the education teachers get in Finland as compared to ours. What about the other parts of the programs, art, music, pays ed. Are those teachers trained just as thorough? Does anyone know. Seems their teachers are well respected because of the elite training they get.
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And what about the poverty rate, the ‘elephant in the room’? How does Finland compare to the US on this metric?
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Finland, has very low poverty. They want it to be low. They know it is directly connected to children’s health and well-being, which matters more than test scores.
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If this is true, it stands to reason that this policy yields any number of economic benefits, too.
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If something appears too good to be true, it probably is. Finland has just 5.2 million people who speak the same language and who have almost no poverty. This country has few children, so it spends a great deal of money on them. Finnish is written transparently, unlike English. To read Finnish children need about 4 months, while English speaking children need about 3 years.
If the US were anything like this, it would score like Finland or Hong Kong. As things stand, Finland can be at best compared to Maine, Vermont, or Rhode Island.
One reason for the worldwide Finland envy is Mr. Sahlberg himself. He has made a career out of selling Finnish utopia. He jets around the world, all expenses paid and gives cute shows such as those sent to this website. However, this “great educator” got fired from the World Bank a few years ago because what he promised was very far from what he delivered.
There are many such opportunists who live off the largesse and naivete of international donors. The targets are diplomats with little knowledge and much taxpayer money to spend. They will finance the speeches and consultancies of anyone who will make them look good.
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Por Cot,
Finnish children enjoy a low poverty rate because of the thick social safety nets Finnish government and society are willing to produce for themselves. They are collectivist thinkers, unlike the selfish and “me first” attitude of the rich here all too may families. One is incentivized to think that way here in America, but we now see the horrible suffering to be endured.
Also, the world bank, which does not deserve capitals, is a pernicious oragnization whose agenda is to push countries into delivering a substandard, basic 8th grade education to the globe’s inhabitiants, and by dumbing down the people, it serves the bank’s purpose of maintaining and growing more and more plutocracy.
Take your comments and plant them at a Donald Trump seminar . . . . . where they belong.
Mr. Sahlberg is a hero.
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Poor Cot, Finland has three official languages: Finnish, Swedish, and Sami. Finns are expected to master their native tongue as well as at least one other language in order to be admitted to University.
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As I was reading this, and thinking about how the Americans spent years of studying their education system to the point where the Finns told them to stop.
Since they have not implemented the Finnish standards, I was wondering why they were studying them….and then it occurred to me that perhaps they were studying the Finnish education system NOT for the public schools….but for private schools. (sigh)
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What it boils down to is a belief system that plans long term gains for the common good as in the welfare (health, safety, peace, child development, etc.,) of a society. When U.S. turned into an all about ME society, it lost track of the commom good which brings us to the top 1% running the show today. The government knew about minorities becoming the majority, but they ignored it and resorted to bandaid solutions. Poverty grew because the rich only cared about themselves and still do.
We don’t live in a society that lives to encourage its weakest players. We live too much in Darwin’s world. With these nonhumanistic beliefs in place, it’s no wonder our education system has fallen into the hands of a narcissistic group of people. The corporate world is dominating our education system (like a virus) that must be removed. Also we must not allow the drama between liberals and conservatives to run our lives but to demand focus the real issues. What we are fighting for is a change in the current belief system with solid evidence from people who speak the truth, because they have proof to back it up.
If cats and dogs can get along or the Boston Tea Party can create change, it will happen.
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Farenheit 451
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Thank you SO MUCH for getting this info out there. Here is Part 1 of a youtube documentary about Finland’s educational system:
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The Finnish Education System works for them, but that doesn’t mean it will work in the US. Plus it is a total package for a different cultural model. You can’t cherry pick the aspects you like. I’d pick the small class sizes and higher pay for teachers. I also like the idea of adequate prep time.
You can’t compare our country to others. It’s like comparing apples to ironing boards. They are two different beasts. Just the fact that everyone is part of our education system and we don’t kick out the low achievers, makes us unique.
Don’t worry about Finland or Japan or Australia. Look at the unique issues facing the United States and try to fix those. I’d start with child poverty.
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Ellen T. Klock,
Finland based its reforms on the work of American educators, such as John Dewey.
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Harold – that was then, this is now. Back in the day, education in the US was very different. Our poverty issues coupled with the continued cultural inequities, plus the government meddling with the wrong issues, has created a perfect storm which cannot be fixed by traditional methods. Jon is right, our vision is cloudy and Finland’s answers don’t apply to our educational system.
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If you read my post above, I referred to a belief system not a specific change. We can change our system to compete with Finland, but we have to start with a consensus of how it make it work. Not only beginning with poverty, but taking a look at what we have to work with which would be different than Finland. We have been too eager to jump the gun making changes to curriculum and now government/corp control. We don’t have a vision for our education system that everyone will buy into and too many chiefs.
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According to Matt Amaral a writer and high school English teacher from the San Francisco Bay Area, ‘Finland does the best job of educating its populace not because it is doing anything differently, it is because of its homogeneous population who live in more egalitarian society’.
Mr. Amaral offers his critique of the Finland Phenomenon in an article entitled “A Non-Finnomenon: A Real Teacher’s Review of The Finland Phenomenon”: http://www.teach4real.com/2012/11/12/a-non-finnomenon-a-real-teacher%E2%80%99s-review-of-the-finland-phenomenon/
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The population is changing rapidly there, too. They are doing everything differently where learning is concerned. Do watch “Finnish First” the Dan rather documentary which I link in my comment below. Those schools have nothing in common with our concept of LEARNING. Watch it, and see what learning looks like… according to the definition that the New Standards research folks gave all of us who were the cohorts for the Pew funded real research, THE 8 PRINCIPALS OF LEARNING (out of Harvard) … always LEARNING…never teaching. My two years spent as the cohort for NYC taught a new way to look at what it was that I did that was so successful in ENABLING AND FACILITATING LEARNING . I was chosen , with six other teachers,of the thousands in the research across the nation, to have my work showcased by the LRDC, for the way I accomplished learning objectives… and I was awarded the NY State English Council’s Educator of Excellence… but within a year, I was charged with incompetence…. my teaching did not meet some new principals evaluation of learning… her own criteria.
THAT does not happen in FINLAND
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I watched the Dan Father documentary Finnish First,”
http://blip.tv/hdnet-news-and-documentaries/dan-rather-reports-finnish-first-6518828
and was struck by the way these teachers were autonomous in their classroom practice, allowed to accomplish the learning objectives (skills and knowledge). When I started teaching, in 1963, I taught in the very same way. No top-down administrator told me what to do in order to teach second graders about fractions or friction. I innovated interesting lessons based on the levels of the learners in my room. I was th practitioner, the professional, and for decades I was celebrated by students, parents and supervisors. All that changed in the nineties, as my salary rose and the budget needed cutting,and the test-prep curricula sat on the horizon.. Of course, iI never worked in a school that supplied materials beyond the basics, and even that I purchased myself.. but they let me teach my heart out, and appreciated my success and dedication.
Go watch” Finnish First.’
Thanks Diane for the slideshow. Right on! Hope you are feeling better.
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Finnisch miracle: fata morgana?
Finnish students’ achievement (15 y) declined significantly: study of University Helsinki
University of Helsinki – Faculty of Behavioral Sciences, Department of Teacher of Education Research Report No 347Authors: Jarkko Hautamäki, Sirkku Kupiainen, Jukka Marjanen, Mari-Pauliina Vainikainen and Risto Hotulainen
Learning to learn at the end of basic education: Results in 2012 and changes from 2001
S.: The change between the year 2001 and year 2012 is significant. The level of students’ attainment has declined considerably: under the mean of the scale used in the questions. The difference can be compared to a decline of Finnish students’ attainment in PISA reading literacy from the 539 points of PISA 2009 to 490 points, to below the OECD average. The mean level of students’ learning-supporting attitudes still falls above the mean of the scale used in the questions but also that mean has declined from 2001.
Since 1996, educational effectiveness has been understood in Finland to include not only subject specific knowledge and skills but also the more general competences which are not the exclusive domain of any single subject but develop through good teaching along a student’s educational career. Many of these, including the object of the present assessment, learning to learn, have been named in the education policy documents of the European Union as key competences which each member state should provide their citizens as part of general education (EU 2006).
In spring 2012, the Helsinki University Centre for Educational Assessment implemented a nationally representative assessment of ninth grade students’ learning to learn competence. The assessment was inspired by signs of declining results in the past few years’ assessments. This decline had been observed both in the subject specific assessments of the Finnish National Board of Education, in the OECD PISA 2009 study, and in the learning to learn assessment implemented by the Centre for Educational Assessment in all comprehensive schools in Vantaa in 2010.
The results of the Vantaa study could be compared against the results of a similar assessment implemented in 2004. As the decline in students’ cognitive competence and in their learning related attitudes was especially strong in the two Vantaa studies, with only 6 years apart, a decision was made to direct the national assessment of spring 2012 to the same schools which had participated in a respective study in 2001.
The goal of the assessment was to find out whether the decline in results, observed in the Helsinki region, were the same for the whole country. The assessment also offered a possibility to look at the readiness of schools to implement a computer-based assessment, and how this has changed during the 11 years between the two assessments. After all, the 2001 assessment was the first in Finland where large scale student assessment data was collected in schools using the Internet.
The main focus of the assessment was on students’ competence and their learning-related attitudes at the end of the comprehensive school education, but the assessment also relates to educational equity: to regional, between-school, and between- class differences and to the relation of students’ gender and home background to their competence and attitudes.
The assessment reached about 7 800 ninth grade students in 82 schools in 65 municipalities. Of the students, 49% were girls and 51% boys. The share of students in Swedish speaking schools was 3.4%. As in 2001, the assessment was implemented in about half of the schools using a printed test booklet and in the other half via the Internet. The results of the 2001 and 2012 assessments were uniformed through IRT modelling to secure the comparability of the results. Hence, the results can be interpreted to represent the full Finnish ninth grade population.
Girls performed better than boys in all three fields of competence measured in the assessment: reasoning, mathematical thinking, and reading comprehension. The difference was especially noticeable in reading comprehension even if in this task girls’ attainment had declined more than boys’ attainment. Differences between the AVI-districts were small. The impact of students’ home-background was, instead, obvious: the higher the education of the parents, the better the student performed in the assessment tasks. There was no difference in the impact of mother’s education on boys’ and girls’ attainment. The between-school-differences were very small (explaining under 2% of the variance) while the between-class differences were relatively large (9 % – 20 %).
The change between the year 2001 and year 2012 is significant. The level of students’ attainment has declined considerably. The difference can be compared to a decline of Finnish students’ attainment in PISA reading literacy from the 539 points of PISA 2009 to 490 points, to below the OECD average. The mean level of students’ learning-supporting attitudes still falls above the mean of the scale used in the questions but also that mean has declined from 2001.
The mean level of attitudes detrimental to learning has risen but the rise is more modest. Girls’ attainment has declined more than boys’ in three of the five tasks. There was no gender difference in the change of students’ attitudes, however. Between-school differences were un-changed but differences between classes and between individual students had grown. The change in attitudes—unlike the change in attainment—was related to students’ home background: The decline in learning-supporting attitudes and the growth in attitudes detrimental to school work were weaker the better educated the mother. Home background was not related to the change in students’ attainment, however. A decline could be discerned both among the best and the weakest students.
The results of the assessment point to a deeper, on-going cultural change which seems to affect the young generation especially hard. Formal education seems to be losing its former power and the accepting of the societal expectations which the school represents seems to be related more strongly than before to students’ home background. The school has to compete with students’ self-elected pastime activities, the social media, and the boundless world of information and entertainment open to all through the Internet. The school is to a growing number of youngpeople just one, often critically reviewed, developmental environment among many.
The change is not a surprise, however. A similar decline in student attainment has been registered in the other Nordic countries already earlier. It is time to concede that the signals of change have been discernible already for a while and to open up a national discussion regarding the state and future of the Finnish comprehensive school that rose to international acclaim due to our students’success in the PISA studies.
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