Finland’s educational success became an international sensation when the nation’s students unexpectedly topped the PISA test a few years back. The Finns really don’t care much about rankings and standardized tests, and they were as surprised as everyone else. Thousands of visitors came to Finland to find out what they were doing. Then Finland slipped out of first place, and the gossip mill began spinning out theories about why Finland was losing its luster. Finland still doesn’t care about rankings or test scores.
In this post, Finnish expert Pasi Sahlberg and Finnish educator Peter Johnson explain what Finland is doing and what it is not doing to improve its schools (not its test scores).
They identify the three cornerstones of Finnish education:
*Education systems and schools shouldn’t be managed like business corporations where tough competition, measurement-based accountability and performance-determined pay are common principles. Instead, successful education systems rely on collaboration, trust, and collegial responsibility in and between schools.
*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 whole-child development, equity of education outcomes, well being, and arts, music, drama and physical education as important elements of curriculum.
They then debunk the myths and misperceptions that have been bruited about.
Unlike the U.S., where billions of dollars are wasted in efforts to switch control of schools from public to private, Finnish educators are trying to work through the problems of building a curriculum and pedagogy for the 21st century–and beyond.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane . . . nothing less than a breath of fresh air. . . .
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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These principles constitute an excellent rebuke of neoliberal orthodoxy (ie., that markets solve all production and distribution problems). Too bad so few Americans speak Finnish.
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We are fortunate, though, that many Finnish people speak American.
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I found the article unconvincing. He didn’t describe the new national core curriculum (NCC) in any detail or what it entails in terms of digital learning, and merely repeated a lot of general remarks in very broad, abstract terms . He claims that the problem is “foreign education observers and commentators” who are “unable to follow the conversations and debates taking place in the country” when most of what has been criticized and cited is coming from Finnish teachers, parents and researchers.
I guess he’s implying that this one school, Lappeenranta, is an outlier, described by the Finnish press as “one of the first in the country to fully implement the new core curriculum” here: https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/parents_file_complaints_over_failure_of_new_school/10924016 . But then he doesn’t explain what is happening in other schools. Even in this one school he minimizes parent concerns by writing:
“But according to Lappeenranta education authorities, there have been only two complaints by parents, both being handled by Regional Authorities. That’s all. It is not enough to call that a failure.
What we can learn from Finland, again, is that it is important to make sure parents, children and media better understand the nature of school reforms underway.
“Some parents are not familiar with what schools are doing,” said Anu Liljestrom, superintendent of the education department in Lappeenranta. “We still have a lot of work to do to explain what, how and why teaching methods are different nowadays,” she said to a local newspaper. “
This kind of condescension is all too common with adherents of corporate reform and online learning in the US as well, among ed tech adherents who are set on a certain path and aren’t really interested in listening to the concerns of parents or others.
Are these young children really “encouraged to become autonomous learners, for example by creating their own study plans.” as the article claims? He doesn’t say.
Moreover, he doesn’t mention or engage with these survey results, which show that Finnish teachers themselves are sharply divided over the new curriculum, with only 21% saying the new curriculum will improve learning: https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/basic_education_providers_divided_over_new_core_curriculum/9357019
Are there more recent surveys that show that Finnish teachers have come around and now support the new curriculum?
Here’s yet another critique of the online curriculum, which a Finnish researcher says may be responsible for a decrease on Finnish PISA results: “Finland’s digital-based curriculum impedes learning, researcher finds.”
https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/finlands_digital-based_curriculum_impedes_learning_researcher_finds/10514984
If parent opposition is due solely to their misunderstanding the new curriculum, it appears that many teachers and researchers do as well.
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“This kind of condescension is all too common with adherents of corporate reform and online learning in the US as well,”
There is plenty of condescension to go around. I have been on the receiving end of it as a teacher since 1979, when I started teaching. I probably have been guilty of that as well.
Business leaders have the C attitude toward teachers. College professors often come across the same way. Journalist do the big C as well. Then there are parents with those attitudes.
I think condescension is what we do when we do not wish to listen to each other.
No one has ever come to me and asked me what I need in a word processor, a presentation platform, or a classroom. Plenty of people have criticized me when I could not use their preferred platform.
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To leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson):
You are very knowledgeable and also detailed oriented. However, In found that the post is reasonably logical to my humble opinion.
I am very happy to learn that “”They identify the three cornerstones of Finnish education:”””
1) successful education systems rely on collaboration, trust, and collegial responsibility in and between schools.
2) school leadership that requires advanced academic education, solid scientific and practical knowledge, and continuous on-the-job training.
3) to emphasize whole-child development, equity of education outcomes, well being, and arts, music, drama and physical education as important elements of curriculum.
In short, do we really need to know EXACTLY what is in its curriculum? The truth is all teachers in each state can have their own special type of art, music, drama and physical education related to their regional weather, culture and environment according to their liking. For example, martial arts, dancing, painting, or making pots for art…; classical, folk, pop or rock and roll for music…Back2basic
Sincerely yours,
May.
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Leonie,
I share your concerns.
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Me too. I’ve always been a Pasi skeptic. He sounds too much like a conventional School of Education professor –the type that trucks in highfalutin’-sounding jargon that masks progressivist ideology, not doctrine based on sound evidence and reasoning. I have a feeling that Finland’s erstwhile success was due to knowledgable teachers and traditional pedagogy, and that Pasi’s recent progressivist innovations are actually debasing the system, not making it better.
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The Finns are working in a way that many American schools worked before NCLB and test based accountability was imposed. Curricula were evidence-research based and whole child oriented. Professional teachers were collaborative and had much more autonomy. Many districts had some degree of project based learning, and some were moving towards portfolio assessment. NCLB and CCSS came in like a wrecking ball laying waste to some many progressive plans school districts were working on. Education has been a political nightmare for public schools since the advent of NCLB..
Finland’s notion of a “common core” is not a list of discrete content or skills. It is simple list of elements that instruction should include.
The Finns see education as a creative process that is social and collaborative in nature. Their “common elements” are not a straight jacket of micro-management as is common in US schools. The Finns are wise enough to know that market based education is harmful to public schools. The Finns care too much about their students to inflict a free market plague on their schools. They only have to look no further than Sweden to see the failure and havoc of market based education.
The US will never be Finland, and we will never get the highest scores on the PISA, but we can learn from what the Finns value and work to achieve. The US is much more diverse than Finland. More than half of students in America live in poverty. As Sahlberg has said before, “America does not have an education problem; it has a poverty problem.” Market based education destroys public schools for poor students. Our politicians need to work on addressing poverty instead of trying to privatize our best hope for educating the poor.
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Professor Sahlberg’s emphasis on the professionalization of teaching is spot on. People do their greatest work when they have superb educations and are left the heck alone to do their jobs. That’s how you really get continuous improvement and innovation, not via data chats and data walls and other tools of micro-mismanagement. Here, suggestions for what might be covered in an English teacher preparation program:
Notice that I didn’t say, “an English teacher TRAINING program,” as in “roll over, sit, good boy.” If I had an IQ of 45 and a dollar for every inane “teacher training” class I’ve sat in, I would make the Danes an offer for Greenland.
Many years ago, at the beginning of my career, I went to a cocktail party and, standing with a group of people, drink in hand, had the following conversation:
THING 1: So, what do you do?
ME: I’m a teacher.
THING 1: Which university, and what do you teach?
ME: I teach high-school English.
THING 1: Oh. But, you’re bright. I suppose you have other plans for the future.
For a long time, K-12 teachers haven’t had the autonomy or respect (or pay) that they deserve, but under the Ed Deform regime of the Common [sic] Core [sic], standardized testing, VAM, all-test-prep-all-the-time, etc., things have gotten much, much worse, almost unbearable for anyone with a brain. At least in the old days, you could close your door and do interesting, important work. Gates, Bush, Coleman, and the many other Vichy collaborators with deform have trivialized ELA and made teaching so obnoxious that bright, independent, intrinsically-motivated people are leaving it in droves.
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So-called reform treats its associates like Pavlov’s dogs. I cannot use the term “teacher” in the TFA model. It is absurd to assume that anyone can be effective after five weeks of training. Teachers are professionals that have adequate preparation to teach with some level of autonomy and clear mastery of what is needed. The distinction you make is necessary to understand the absurdity of deform. Would anyone want a plumber, electrician, dentist, lawyer even a beautician with five weeks of training? The whole notion is an affront to professional teachers that have spent years developing the craft of teaching. Plus, the craft is continuous and evolving as there is always something new to learn. That is what makes the profession interesting.
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OK. WordPress needs an “I freaking love this” for your post, retired!
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I think I went back to school (&, also, workshops, conferences & meetings of sp.ed. organizations for sure, not to mention working w/teaching assistants & student teachers) every year I taught, & even beyond retirement., (&, no, these valuable experiences/skills cannot be learned/ gained by just taking online courses). Continuing education, knowledge, world experiences are needed to teach, & to be the best teacher you can be.
(Understood, not everyone can afford all of the aforementioned, but the teachers I know who couldn’t did make the extra effort to get grants, scholarships & other means.)
My point here is that the thirst for knowledge should never end.
&–BTW–my best teachers were always my students (of course, most all of us will say that!).
rbmtk, & not being redundant.
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Bob . . . in spades for K-6 teachers. There is still this idea that, because you speak English well (or even not so well), you can walk in off the street and start teaching the little ones. BTW, last time I looked, Montessori schools still require at least several college-cred classes in child development to even get an interview. CBK
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Amen to that, CBK!
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I think that the corporate vampire wrecking balls of public education ignore Finland like it doesn’t exist. In fact, if those vampires controlled the publication of world maps in the U.S. (virtual and on paper), they would erase Finland so no one in the U.S. could find it. They’d move Russia’s border to make it happen.
The fact that Finland has had great success doing what they do with their public education system proves everything, I repeat, “EVERYTHING”, that the greedy, power hunger, lying, manipulating, corrupt, corporate vampire wrecking balls of public education have said and done in the United States to public education is nothing but a foundation built on lies and greed.
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Vampires, exactly. They refer to European education systems only as part of making the specious argument that American schools are “failing” and need a lot more standardized testing, test prep, depersonalized education software, private and corporate management, etc.
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What is the standard procedure for getting rid of vampires?
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Hanging garlic strands from teacher doorways?
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LOL
I was thinking of sharp-wooden stakes pounded through their unbeating hearts.
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That would be effective, and the inclination is entirely understandable. But . . . ahimsa, Lloyd.
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“ahimsa” doesn’t apply here. Vampires are not living things.
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Standardized testing. It has utterly failed. It has not improved outcomes by the Deformers’ own measures. It has not closed achievement gaps. It has dumbed down ELA instruction and wasted enormous resources in time and money that could have been profitably used, for example, to provide wraparound services for poor kids.
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Standardized testing. Put a stake in it.
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Make that “standardized” testing; has to be in quotation marks, because there’s no such thing as standardized (valid & reliable) testing.
E$pecially not that Pear$on ccrap…
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Ah, yes, Pear$on, which has committed itself to spreading the GERM of depersonalized education worldwide
Pear$on, not Persons
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Parts of Sahlberg’s article really concern me.
Given Finland’s success, why does he think it “needs” these new reforms?
What evidence does he have that interdisciplinary teaching is beneficial?
Blending hitherto distinct subjects or topics is often disastrous. Look at Common Core math –it’s “integrated” meaning it jumbles together lots of topics. It leads to hasty, insufficient treatment of each topic, leading to mass confusion. Same with Next Generation Science Standards –it muddles together all the scientific disciplines leading to poor, inadequate teaching of the individual parts.
He should read the Kirschner, Clark, Sweller paper about inquiry learning. It makes a powerful case that simplified direct instruction is the best way for novices to learn. Blending topics complicates rather than simplifies.
Sahlberg seems to be peddling to Finland exactly the same type of snake oil that’s wrecking American education. Finns, beware!
It’s also worrisome that Sahberg is the only Finnish speaker we hear from. He’s at liberty to spin Finland’s system to us however he wants. I’d like to hear other Finnish perspectives before I credit what Sahlberg tells us.
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