Finnish Lessons - What We Can Learn - Page 4 of 6

Finnish Lessons – What We Can Learn

Finland’s gains have been accomplished with almost exclusive public funding of education, which includes higher and adult education. In 2007 Finland spent 5.6% of its GDP on education. This compares to 7.6% in the US. Norway, another small, homogeneous Nordic nation spends almost as much as the US and performs about as well, which is way below Finland. Clearly, money is rarely the solution to the problems of education systems.

One way to save money is to effectively eliminate grade retention. Being sent back is also demoralizing and rarely produces the expected improvements as it doesn’t focus on those parts of the curriculum in which the student needs targeted help. Personalized learning and differentiation are the basic principles. Diversity of students’ personalities, abilities, and orientations has to be taken into account in crafting learning environments. This has been one of the most demanding challenges for teachers. The special education system discussed early is one reason the Finns don’t need grade retention. Secondary education is also more flexible as selected courses can be completed at different rates. This allows some students to finish in less than three years while others take longer. Lower performing countries still have significant grade retention. In France, for example, 40% of students repeat a grade at some point.

Finnish teachers spend less time teaching than their counterparts in other nations. This gives them more time for planning and professional development each day. In other countries, by the time teachers finish the longer hours of teaching, they are too tired to engage in anything professional. There is also less in the way of homework, which most students complete prior to leaving school for the day. After teaching ends the school stays open for other activities and students can choose to stay or leave. Like most countries in Europe, sports are run by sports associations. The schools cooperate but the cost is not part of the education budget like it is the US.

Sahlberg presents data showing how countries that rely on test-based accountability policies have shown declining performance in math and similar trends in reading and science. At the same time, Finland has emphasized teacher professionalism, school-based curriculum, trust-based leadership, and school collaboration. It is clear from this that frequent standardized testing is not a necessary condition for improvement. Finns do a lot of diagnostic and formative assessment, which each teacher is responsible for. He also sites evidence that standardized tests causes teachers to redesign their teaching according to the tests, give higher priority to tested subjects, and do more drilling and memorization.