The Varying Educational Methods
While the United States, the most influential and powerful country in the world, struggles for educational excellence, perhaps a huge role model to look up to would be Finland’s. America’s school system offers education that is consistently changing, while as Finland offers a steadily unique approach to the educational school system. Finland’s school system and the American school system differ in the ways students are taught, the different fees, and the various extracurricular activities.
The first major difference is that in the Finland school system students that struggle the most are the ones that receive the most help. In America’s school system, students are all taught equally, and every student’s education is valued, whereas Finland’s school system has a much different approach, students education there are not all equally valued. In Finland, they put their focus on students who aren’t currently passing and doing well in their educational career. For example, in the article "What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?" Gamerman mentions Fanny, a straight-A student that still supports her struggling peers. This way, Gamerman shows how Finland focuses on the struggling students instead of the gifted. Teachers in America create lesson plans severely based off various different standardized testing, and other testing material making what students learn based on what’s appearing on those tests. On the contrary, teachers in Finland tend to be more realistic, seeing as they are mostly entrepreneurs; they create their own lessons plans that help engage and encourage students. The different educational ways being taught in both countries really impact students because each individual student learns at thei...
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Although, we learn many interesting and different things from both America’s school system and Finland’s school system, they both have a lot to offer. While, we can learn that one system works better than the other, each approach to learning is a valuable asset. The educational school system benefits not just only the students, but also the teachers and parents as well, because they know they are making a difference in someone’s life. One call to action could easily be to revamp the way teachers are creating the curriculum, making it more reasonable so that students will be able to easily comprehend. With the education in Finland being more of a rigorous approach in helping struggling students, and with the education system in the America being less aggressive focusing more on the gifted, we can see that a more relaxed type is better than a more severe one.
In the article “Teachers as Leaders in Finland,” by Pasi Sahlberg, it is clearly explained the major differences in the education system of not only Finland and the United States. In the article it is explained how in Finland there are many differences that students in the United States and would appreciate. In Finland there are also no standardized tests; the teachers are responsible for determining how well the students are doing themselves.
Reforms in education always occur when the educational system is in a period of unrest or crisis. Century after century show how hotly debated this topic is. Moreover, individuals, including, business leaders, parents, school boards and presidents feel they have the right ingredient to solve the problems of our educational system. It is unfortunate, but history is repeating itself, and we are now in a period of crisis in the education system in the 21st century (Tyack and Cuban, 1995).
For years, people have always felt that the Japanese school system was superior or more effective than that of the United States. Although some feel this way, others feel that the Japanese system is too strict and not flexible enough for those who may need extra help along the way. Through researching two different case studies, and also reading other materials, I have found many similarities along with many differences between the two, including teaching methods, overall emphases, and student involvement. Both countries have developed very effective and intricate systems of teaching, which compliment, and clash against one another. The Japanese system is not in all ways superior to that of the United States; however, there are a few different reasons why people may feel that the Japanese are in fact “smarter” than us. To begin with though, one must have an understanding of both systems and a basic knowledge of how they work.
Every year a significant percentile of the American population struggle with finding access to a quality education that their finances can maintain. Finnish writer, Anu Partanen, contrast the American School Systems and their lack in accomplishments as compared to the educational programs in America. Along with her contrast in the two countries she offers a probable fix to changing the way America operates in her recent essay: Finland’s School Success What Americans Keep Ignoring. Partanen juxtaposes both Finland and America, utilizes ethos, and even provides a visual in order to reinforce her argument on the situation.
Schooling has a lot of problems that need a lot of solutions. Many of these problems stem from the fact that the American school system is notorious for wasting the time of students and teachers. Students rarely get the chances to learn and experience topics that not only interest them but are also topics that have the potential for being important in their future careers. Time is also wasted during standardized tests that do not give American students an accurate representation of their intelligence compared to the intelligence of others worldwide.
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...
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
Americans strive toward having the best education system in the world. There are even lists published each year naming the best and worst schools in the country. The flaws in the education system become unveiled upon a close inspection of the nation’s worst schools. The natural competitiveness of Americans pushes the culture into attempting to fix any flaws through the agenda of education reform. Education reform is currently a hot-button issue, with an exponential number of proposed solutions. One particular solution to America’s education crisis is the proposal of equally funded schools.
This assignment has discussed two examples of curricula and it has been concluded that the Finnish curriculum is more suited to preparing individuals to life in the modern society. It has been stated that Finnish schools are ‘the schools of civilisation in an information society’ (Sarajala, 2001b) and therefore, they arguably educate and prepare young adults more sufficiently than the schools of England, who simply provide basic foundations for future development after education.
The information that I read about Finland’s child care is completely different than that of the United States. “We guarantee equal and universal day care for children, and we subsidize according to how much income you have. We believe that the day-care system is not just about taking care of kids, but it’s also about their education” (Chandler, 2014). In Finland, parents have the option to stay home and raise their children with benefits until they are three years old, although most parents only stay home for around one year. However, in the United States, mothers only have six weeks of paid maternity leave, which means that more infants are being placed in daycare earlier (Chandler, 2014). Also in the United States, parents have the option to put their child in preschool from the young age of three. On the other hand, Finland does not start compulsory schooling until the age of seven because “We have a lot of research showing that starting school earlier does not bring better results” (Chandler, 2014). I was not able to find any similarities between the United States and Finland regarding
The education system has been a controversial issue among educators. Requirements of school do not let student choose what they want to study for their future. It’s a big issue to force student study specific curriculums, which don’t help them improve, and what they like to create something. Educators choose a general system for education to all students which based on general knowledge. Intelligent or genius students have to be in that system of education, which doesn’t let them improve their creativity. Educators attempt to change that system to make it better, but their changing was not that great to be an example for the world. Also, did that change qualify education system to compete other systems or not? In some examples and reasons have been made me agree with some of points from Gatto’s and Edmunson’s and disagree them.
Why would one hypothesize a change is needed? First, international comparisons show the decline in education. Tests show American high school students rank much lower than other nations on standardized math and science tests (United States 66). On a test given in twenty-one nations, American pupils only outperformed Cyprus and South African students. These results seem more devastating when one sees Asian nations, usually ranking high in competitions, did not participate (McNamara 73). Examinations also reveal pupils' performances decline as students climb up the educational ladder toward college. "We seem to be the only country in the world whose children fall farther behind the longer they stay in school" ("Nation" 1). Yet, just comparing our students to international standards does not divulge the whole story.
The Americans system of education has many advantages compared to foreign countries. Students receive an education and along with it come endless opportunities. With the education system improving, students continue to succeed. According to the Washington United Press International, the graduation rate in America is at 71 percent: a 4.8 percent increase over 1995 (“Graduation rates improve in U.S. cities”). This modest increase happened for many reason. The teachers in America usually teach one subject area and are masters of there skills. This gives an advantage to the student, for they can master their skill and learn form different styles of teaching. One might infer that the diversity in school allows the American system of education to succeed. Diversity in schools impacts the education; for, students learn more form there surrounding. Racial diversity is not common in foreign countries like Japan.
In conclusion, in Finland,the teachers teach students with the aim of helping them learn,not pass tests.
Haven’t you ever wondered why Japanese students continually score higher in academics than the rest of the entire world? Education and schooling in Japan varies greatly than the schooling in America. Japanese students have a greater advantage over their American counterparts in such a way that they are gaining more of an education than the Americans. The Japanese students have to study diligently and work hard to gain a hope of getting a continued education. Japanese children have a greater opportunity to seize hold of their education than the American children.