Formative Assessment In Finland

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While four year old children are getting evaluated on their IQ results to have the very slim opportunity to attend these elite pre-schools, Finnish students do not take standardized tests until their final year in upper secondary, which is at the age of 19. Although they do not partake in standardized tests, there are three different forms of assessment that take place in Finland. The first form of assessment is the formative assessment. Formative assessment takes place within the classroom and it is mainly used for teachers and students to be aware of their progress and for teachers to give feedback to students in order to encourage them to continue growing. Tests will usually be provided by textbook companies or by teacher associations (Hendrickson, …show more content…

Students will not be given a numerical grade but rather, they have a scale which ranges from very good to needs practice. During the lower secondary years, students are aware that they are being tested. The next form of assessment is summative which is important since failure can prevent students from receiving their certificate of completion. Thus, this is more of an end of the year exam in lower secondary and upper secondary which will have verbal and numerical grading from four to 10, with five being a passing grade. However, teachers do not solely use the grades from the final exams. They will have a portfolio with the yearly assessments of students and the work students have done in grades eight and nine. The formal term for the exam given for upper secondary students is as I previously mentioned, the matriculation exam before the can attend university, polytechnic (university for applied sciences) or vocational schools (Tuovein, …show more content…

According to OECD, about “8% of Finland’s children are deemed as having special education needs” (OECD, 2011, p. 122). However, only about 4% of the students are placed in a special needs school. For children with special needs, the Finnish system focuses on early intervention where they will have a “network of child health clinics providing regular assessments of the social, physical and mental development of babies and pre-school children” (Perry & Wilson, 2015, p. 3). Hendrickson also mentions that “[n]ormative assessment takes place in early comprehensive school to identify students with possible learning disabilities and needs for special education support” (Hendrickson, 2012, p. 35). Rather than having these students feel different by placing them in special classes, the teachers and parents of the child with special needs will have a discussion with special education teachers and school psychologists as a way to find an education plan for the students and for them to remain in the same class as everyone else (Perry & Wilson, 2015). This way, the students can avoid stigmatization. Additional teachers may be a part of a classroom to help students who may struggling. (Hendrickson,

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