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Comparing England and Finland schooling
Finland education system
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Education is one of the cornerstones and pillars to the establishment and preservation of democracy. In history, countless scores of philosophers and political thinkers believed that only an educated citizenry can take on the quintessential task of upholding democracy. Thomas Jefferson, the primary writer of the Declaration of Independence, stated that “an informed citizenry is the only true repository of the public will.” A renowned defender of public education, Jefferson proposed plans for an education system that included grammar schools in his presidency. As a result of these relentless policies for education, the United States expanded on the concept of public instruction through the establishment and upkeep of a practical education system. The United States continued this tradition and established a reputation as one of the best education in the world. Currently, this is no longer valid as other countries such as Finland, China, and South Korea are competing for the dominant position through rigorous reforms that aim to boost student performances (“Best Education”). Meanwhile, the American system is inefficient, inhibited by political obstacles and gridlock while Finland, the top ranked country in terms of schooling, is continuing to improve. According to the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) examinations that tested pupils across a variety of subjects such as reading, mathematics, and science of 2009, Finland’s students were ranked among the top (“PISA 2009”). The American students were ranked below average for industrialized countries in the world, revealing the reality of the educational crisis in the country. Finland’s education system, compared to the Americans, offers major differences that greatly ...
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After reading the article about the comparison of education system, one can easily tell some of Sahlberg’s main points. One of them being that the education system in Finland is very different from the one currently used in the United States; In Finland there is no external testing to determine the
In Rereading America Michael Moore entitled “Idiot Nation” focuses on the failing educational system in the United States of America. The American nation has decreased in their studies and have lowered their standards, yet America still claims they have their priorities in order, which is education. Moore attempts to persuade his readers that the people who are to blame are lack of education in politics and the budget cuts they are making, however, politics blame teachers for making America decrease in their schooling test scores. Americas have many opportunities and useful tools to be successful; however,
... to rigidity of the upper secondary school in the form of vocational education and training schools. The objective of vocational education is to foster students' development into good and balanced individuals and members of society and therefore provide them with the skills relevant to a specific career path (Sarjala, 2001) and thus relevant to the demands of the Finnish modern society.
The American government viewed the failing educational system as the root of several of America’s most pressing issues of the time. It was felt that America’s economic repercussions were directly linked to the lack of educational rigor and relevance. They believed that the decline in educational relevance was causing the American people to lose their competitive edge in the global market economy.
Education was believed to have also been a key to self-advancement in this society. Education then became important for political means, the social good, and the individual good of citizens, states, and the United States as a whole. With the creation of a new education bill and the building of new schools, Thomas Jefferson strongly believed that providing education was “the most certain, and the most legitimate engine of government” as the people are “the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty” (Urban, 2009, p. 83). While many theories of educational systems were proposed during this time, schools were ultimately created at the local level by small groups of individuals.
In “Finland’s School Success,” author Anu Partanen writes about the success of Finland’s education system, and the equity provided to each student, throughout the state. In her essay, Partanen compares the inequality of competition, school choice, private schools, and diversity in the ethnic identity of students, between the United States and Finland schools. She starts by describing Finland’s education system as the “West’s reigning education superpower…” (976). Partanen explains the Pisa survey, which is, “conducted every three years by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)” stating that it, “...compares 15-year-olds in different countries in reading, math, and science,” and that, “Finland has ranked at or near the top in all three competencies… neck and neck with
Recently, Finland is considered one of the best when it comes to education and how they have come to teach their children. Finland, is located in Northern Europe and main religion, is that of Evangelical Lutheran. In Finland their government is called a republic and their main language is Finnish. When it comes to how to act the Finnish people are very modest and will often downplay being praised, as they are modest people. When it comes to how one should behave the Finnish culture believes that you should always act in a proper and courteous manner as it is the most important to never to be disrespectful. They believe in talking in moderate tones and do nothing that would call attention, as this wa...
The ability to distinguish the faults of a country and learn from others may decide the future of a nation. The ability to distinguish the faults of a country and learn from others may determine the future of a nation. Given the fact Finland’s academic system is one of the finest in the world, can the United States of America discover anything the country can profit from? By analyzing how Finland ‘s goal of assuring their students can apply education skills to the real world and the advantage this objective gives to the country on the PISA, one can deduce the United States can learn a thing or two.
President Ronald Reagan once described America as, “A Nation at Risk,” He was addressing this statement to the education department thirty years ago and meant it as a wake-up call. He was aware that the United States was falling behind in education and needed to take action in order to prevent the demise of the country. Reagan correctly predicted the grim fate of America if education did not see improvement. Today, research finds that American education is failing to provide the necessary skills to succeed in college and various careers. The quality of education in America is a growing issue and every year graduate students are finding it more difficult to obtain high paying jobs and start his or her career. According to studies conducted globally, the curriculum in America is not as advanced and years behind international schools in countries such as China and Japan. There is much controversy in government over what can be done to reverse the situation in public schools but possible solutions that have been suggested are hiring more qualified teachers, more classroom time, and investing more money into education.
Margaret Mead said, “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” In our society we value education over everything else. If one has a high education, then they will be able to make a better living for themselves. No school system is alike, some are better than others. The American education system used to be known as one of the leaders in education, having the highest graduation rate, and being innovative when it came to teaching styles. Now, it seems that it’s changing and other countries have taken it’s places as the best. This makes sense since the statistics show that most American students are losing to foreign countries. According to Paul Zoch in Doomed to Fail, Japan’s high school graduation was 90% whereas, the United
With the majority of students living in the U.S. attending public schools, the quality of the entire public education system not only affects each individual student’s ability to continue towards a secondary level of education if choosing to do so but also be positioned to get a good job utilizing the primary public education provided. The quality of public education from a much bigger perspective also shapes the nation’s ability to compete in a global economy. As many of the developing nations over the past 25 -30 years understand extremely well, quality investment in the public education system is one of the surest means to improving a nation’s economic standing and further growth.
Primary school teachers, active in the most sought out career, carry a large amount of prestige from the people of both the South Korean and Finnish societies (Dalporto). About a quarter of all Finnish students seek education as a career pathway (Pellissier). Students that train to begin careers as educators are not in it for the money, but for the honor to lavish the next generation with the knowledge of previous and present generations. The students can use the information that people of the past found for them and incorporate it into the field of work they choose to enter. Parents and other adult figures help students realize the importance of education attendance at an early age. This way, the students’ dropout rate stays fairly low and more of them seek further education past high school, such as college or trade schools.
According to an article entitled “What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success” in the The Atlantic magazine: “Since the 1980s, the main driver of Finnish education policy has been the idea that every child should have exactly the same opportunity to learn, regardless of family background, income, or geographic location.” Today I will be discussing to the objection to this argument that it is unfair to wealthy parents to deny them the option of paying more access to better education for their children. The merits of this objection are that it points out areas of unfairness and restricting access to minorities. The weaknesses of this argument are that it does not address the inequalities of the education system and how that
According to The Center on International Education Benchmarking (CIEB), Finland, Japan, and Canada are some of the world’s top performing countries. However, the education system of the United States continues to lag behind that of these three countries and many others. In order to compete more with these countries, one must look more in depth into these education systems and compare the many different factors that are contributing to the success of these countries such as their educational structure, curriculum and assessment, teacher quality, and accountability.
Education differs from one country to another because every country possesses its own system of education. However, it is commonly believed that Finland has the world’s best education system (Gamerman,2008). So, its education system differs in many ways from the other countries like the one in Germany. The Finnish education system consists of basic education, upper secondary and higher education (Vossensteyn,2008) whereas German education system consists of primary education, secondary education and tertiary education(Lohmar,2012). Even Though , 9-year schooling is compulsory in both countries, they differ in the types of schools, duration of the education and so on. In this paper, the similarities and differences between these two education system is going to be referred in more detail.