Professional Blog
This week we had a guest lecturer from Finland in our
Education Studies class who gave us a presentation about the Finnish School
System. I was very interested to hear, as were all the other students and our
Education lecturer, what she had to say, as Finland is well known internationally
for having an excellent education system.
Finland has the highest scores in the PISA reading testing
system, therefore I was very interested
to find out the secrets of their successes. However, I discovered that there have
been no obvious reasons found, why Finland are the highest scorers in the PISA
testing and have such a prestigious educational position in Europe. As there are no definite conclusions about
the successes of the Finnish education system, it was handed to us to have group
discussions in class about why we think Finland are considered so educationally
prestigious, based on the guest lecturer’s information about the Finnish
education system, our new knowledge about the Danish education system and also
the education systems in our own home countries. It was a very valuable
activity as it allowed us to think about and evaluate different education
systems in order to reflect on what we think makes a ‘good’ and ‘effective’
education system. Since coming to Denmark and taking part in such activities,
evaluating and analysing different education systems, I have gained a more
heightened appreciation for our education system in Northern Ireland and for
the Northern Ireland Curriculum. The other Erasmus students have also shared
with me their appreciation for the Northern Ireland Curriculum as I have showed
it to them online and in fact some students have went on to use it within their
assignments as they like the ideas and suggestions presented. The Northern
Ireland Education system should be proud of this.
Our class came to various conclusions about the Finnish
Education System and its effectiveness. One cultural aspect to point out is
that the lecturer described Finland as being ‘educationally religious’ in that
there is a lot of focus placed on education and it is seen to most people in
Finland as part of their culture and way of life. In Finland, teachers are greatly respected and parents have a great deal
of trust in teachers. Being a teacher is a very prestigious job. This trust
between parents and teachers is something Northern Ireland could benefit from
as it is at the essence of school life and helps increase enthusiasm for
learning. It is perhaps the main, but less obvious, secret to Finland’s
success!
Another key to success for Finland may be the autonomy of each
school within the Education system, as there is only a loose framework set by
the government, then each school can decide what they are going to teach and
how to organise it. Each teacher also has more autonomy in the teaching styles
and resources they use and what decisions they make about their particular
class in order to manage and meet the needs of the particular children in the
class. There is less whole school management in Finland than in Northern
Ireland.
Having evaluated the effectiveness of Finland’s educational autonomy
and Northern Ireland’s Northern Ireland Curriculum and whole school approaches,
is education excellence then about getting the balance just right?
No comments:
Post a Comment