Regular universities and universities of applied sciences are the two types of public institutions in Finland. The fact is that in a country with one of the best education systems in the world, there is hardly any homework.
Thus, the Finland education system strives to emphasize equal educational opportunities imparting every pupil with the essential life skills and core knowledge of basic disciplines while giving them the necessary liberty at the latter stages to experiment, explore and follow their callings. If you are intending to study in Finland but are confused about how to go about it, let our Leverage Edu experts guide you in finding a suitable program and university as well as kickstarting the application process in a timely manner so that you get to embrace an incredible experience in the intellectual land of opportunities.
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Hi, Bame! Please contact us at 57 or write us an email at hello leverageedu. We will further guide you at every step! S Study in Finland. Courtesy: CCE Finland. Courtesy: New Nordic School. Elementary Education and Its Importance. The official start to quality education comes at the elementary stage where teachers are equipped with the responsibility of helping the little ones in the growth of social, cultural, physical, emotional and cognitive skills as per the best of their abilities.
Explore the Importance of Elementary Education. Finnish education system from OLEtark. Is Finland have the best education system in the world? Is Finland Number 1 for education? How many hours a day do Finland students go to school? Is education free in Finland? Do Finland Schools give homework to students? Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. I wish to apply for a scholarship in country ,I am very interested to study in country.
Take the first step today. You May Also Like. Read More 9 minute read. Read More 3 minute read. Helsinki is the most livable city in the world. The entire country of Finland stands out when the…. The current national core curriculum is a much leaner document—featuring fewer than 10 pages of guidance for all of mathematics, for example—that guides teachers in collectively developing local curriculum and assessments. The focus of s curricular reform was on science, technology, and innovation, leading to an emphasis on teaching students how to think creatively and manage their own learning.
There are no external standardized tests used to rank students or schools in Finland, and most teacher feedback to students is in narrative form, emphasizing descriptions of their learning progress and areas for growth.
As in the NAEP exams in the United States, samples of students are evaluated on open-ended assessments at the end of the second and ninth grades to inform curriculum and school investments.
The focus is on using information to drive learning and problem-solving, rather than punishment. Finland maintains one exam prior to attending university: the matriculation exam, organized and evaluated by a matriculation exam board appointed by the Finnish Ministry of Education. Although not required for graduation or entry into a university, it is common practice for students to take this set of four open-ended exams that emphasize problem-solving, analysis, and writing.
Teachers use official guidelines to grade the matriculation exams locally, and samples of the grades are re-examined by professional raters hired by the matriculation exam board. The national core curriculum provides teachers with recommended assessment criteria for specific grades in each subject and in the overall final assessment of student progress each year. Local schools and teachers then use those guidelines to craft a more detailed curriculum and set of learning outcomes at each school, as well as approaches to assessing benchmarks in the curriculum.
Teachers give students formative and summative reports both through verbal and narrative feedback. In a Finnish classroom, it is rare to see a teacher standing at the front of a classroom lecturing students for 50 minutes.
Instead, students are likely to determine their own weekly targets with their teachers in specific subject areas and choose the tasks they will work on at their own pace. In a typical classroom, students are likely to be walking around, rotating through workshops or gathering information, asking questions of their teacher, and working with other students in small groups.
They may be completing independent or group projects or writing articles for their own magazine. The cultivation of independence and active learning allows students to develop metacognitive skills that help them to frame, tackle, and solve problems; evaluate and improve their own work; and guide their learning processes in productive ways.
Improving Teaching Greater investments in teacher education began in the s with the expectation that teachers would move from three-year normal school programs to four- to five-year programs of study. Preparing teachers for a research-based profession has been the central idea of teacher education developments in Finland.
Prospective teachers are competitively selected from the pool of college graduates—only 15 percent of those who apply are admitted—and receive a three-year graduate-level teacher preparation program, entirely free of charge and with a living stipend. Unlike the United States, where teachers either go into debt to prepare for a profession that will pay them poorly or enter with little or no training, Finland made the decision to invest in a uniformly well-prepared teaching force by recruiting top candidates and paying them to go to school.
Slots in teacher training programs are highly coveted and shortages are virtually unheard of. These model schools are intended to develop and model innovative practices, as well as to foster research on learning and teaching. Within these model schools, student teachers participate in problem-solving groups, a common feature in Finnish schools. Indeed, the entire system is intended to improve through continual reflection, evaluation, and problem-solving at the level of the classroom, school, municipality, and nation.
Teachers learn how to create challenging curriculum and how to develop and evaluate local performance assessments that engage students in research and inquiry on a regular basis. Teacher training emphasizes learning how to teach students who learn in different ways, including those with special needs. The egalitarian Finns reasoned that if teachers learn to help students who struggle, they will be able to teach all students more effectively and, indeed, leave no child behind.
Teachers are well trained both in research methods and in pedagogical practice. Consequently, they are sophisticated diagnosticians, and they work together collegially to design instruction that meets the demands of the subject matter as well as the needs of their students.
In Finland, like other high-achieving nations, schools provide time for regular collaboration among teachers on issues of instruction. Teachers in Finnish schools meet at least one afternoon each week to jointly plan and develop curriculum, and schools in the same municipality are encouraged to work together to share materials. The result is that:. Just as the professional level of the teaching cadre has increased over the past two decades, so has the quality of teacher professional development support.
Most compulsory, traditional inservice training has disappeared. In its place are school- or municipality-based longer term programs and professional development opportunities. As a consequence of strengthened professionalism in schools, it has become understood that teachers and schools are responsible for their own work and also solve most problems rather than shift them elsewhere.
Today the Finnish teaching profession is on a par with other professional workers; teachers can diagnose problems in their classrooms and schools, apply evidence-based and often alternative solutions to them, and evaluate and analyze the impact of implemented procedures.
A Finnish official noted this key lesson learned from the reforms that allowed Finland to climb from an inequitable, mediocre education system to the very top of the international rankings:. Professional teachers should have space for innovation, because they should try to find new ways to improve learning. Teachers should not be seen as technicians whose work is to implement strictly dictated syllabi, but rather as professionals who know how to improve learning for all.
All this creates a big challenge. A lot of the blame goes to the teachers and rightfully so sometimes. Teaching programs are the most rigorous and selective professional schools in the entire country. The concept of the pupil-teacher dynamic that was once the master to apprentice cannot be distilled down to a few bureaucratic checks and standardized testing measures.
It needs to be dealt with on an individual basis. While most Americans and other countries see the educational system as one big Darwinian competition, the Finns see it differently. Sahlberg quotes a line from a writer named Samuli Paronen which says that:. Ironically, this attitude has put them at the head of the international pack. There are no lists of top performing schools or teachers.
Many school systems are so concerned with increasing test scores and comprehension in math and science, they tend to forget what constitutes a happy, harmonious and healthy student and learning environment.
Many years ago, the Finnish school system was in need of some serious reforms. The program that Finland put together focused on returning back to the basics. Instead, they looked to make the school environment a more equitable place. Here the Finns again start by changing very minute details. Students start school when they are seven years old. There are only 9 years of compulsory school that Finnish children are required to attend.
Everything past the ninth grade or at the age of 16 is optional. Just from a psychological standpoint, this is a freeing ideal. Finland alleviates this forced ideal and instead opts to prepare its children for the real world. The current pipeline for education in America is incredibly stagnant and immutable. Children are stuck in the K circuit jumping from teacher to teacher. Each grade a preparation for the next, all ending in the grand culmination of college, which then prepares you for the next grand thing on the conveyor belt.
Finland solves this dilemma by offering options that are equally advantageous for the student continuing their education. There is a lesser focused dichotomy of college-educated versus trade-school or working class. Both can be equally professional and fulfilling for a career. In Finland, there is the Upper Secondary School which is a three-year program that prepares students for the Matriculation Test that determines their acceptance into a University. Next, there is vocational education, which is a three-year program that trains students for various careers.
They have the option to take the Matriculation test if they want to then apply to University. Waking up early, catching a bus or ride, participating in morning and after school extracurriculars are huge time sinks for a student.
Students in Finland usually start school anywhere from — AM. Finnish schools start the day later and usually end by — AM. They have longer class periods and much longer breaks in between. There are fewer teachers and students in Finnish schools. Students in Finland often have the same teacher for up to six years of their education. During this time, the teacher can take on the role of a mentor or even a family member. During those years, mutual trust and bonding are built so that both parties know and respect each other.
Different needs and learning styles vary on an individual basis.
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