Pasi Sahlberg describes the history and changes that have helped make the Finnish school systems one of the most successful systems in the world today. Sahlberg uses his experiences as an educator, education professor, and policy adviser to identify key components of the Finnish system and how they were developed. Dr. Sahlberg also compares educational systems around the world to the Finnish system to show differences and areas that could be used to suggest change within those systems. Dr. Sahlberg describes how the Finnish system places an emphasis on the notion that all students can learn when presented with equitable opportunities within a system.
Another key component to the success of Finnish schools is the way educators and the
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Sahlberg identifies five common features of global reform. The five features are increased competition among schools, standardization, focus on core subjects, test-based accountability, and school choice. Finnish schools, on the other hand have chosen to focus on collaboration among schools, personalized learning, focus on the whole child, trust-based responsibility, and equity of outcomes. PISA data supports the Finnish model and shows the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) has not been as successful with increasing student performance (Sahlberg, 2015 p. …show more content…
In the United States, many people believe teachers go into education because they couldn’t cut it in the real world, which can be relayed through the expression of “Those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach”. The other common stereotype related to American teachers and the educational system is that they are “glorified babysitters” for families while parents are at work. Many educators feel undervalued and as though there isn’t any support for what they do in the classroom. These stereotypes and perceptions need to change before top candidates will once again choose to enter the field of education. The Finnish system shows how important it is to have quality teachers leading and working with students and colleagues in
All of this leads to obsessing over disciplining and having high test scores to compete with other school around the area. In Finland, they have no standardized tests that students need to take. When people are in trouble in Finland, an approach is taken to help them and support them. This is different in America. This supports the example of Harold as none of the teachers at the school took the approach to help Harold or even to support him. Many accusations were said that Harold is the problem and not the teachers. However, as Rose took a stand for Harold and helped him as he started to give up. With the standardized testing, it puts students with similar scores in the same classes. From this, Millie was put in a remedial class which was stated as an average class. As the schools soon start to care about the results of the standardized tests, the school start to focus on math, science,and reading which leads kids to being the same. This makes school not fun and the students end up dreading on going to school. In Finland, not only do the school focus on math, science, and reading they also focus on other important studies such as the arts, humanity, and physical education. Focusing on it all gives the students the ability to become creative and be their own individual person. Ken Robinson also proves that giving students the individual attention that they need helps them thrive to meet the goals that they have in education. Ken Robinson claimed, “Education does not go on in the committee rooms of out Legislative Buildings, it happens in the classrooms and schools. And the people who do it are the teachers and the students. And if you remove that discretion it stops working” (TEDtalks 13:15). When a teacher teaches a student will learn. Taking the actions to actually
Thomas Jefferson was a man who believed that all American citizens need to be educated so that they may exercise their rights. He saw public education as essential to a democracy. One proposal he made for public education would guarantee that all children could attend public schools for three years. However, much like other early school reforms, this proposal received much rejection and was never brought into being. Despite this rejection, Jefferson still believed that America needed public education. Eventually, he opened the University of Virginia. Even though his bills and proposals to benefit public education never saw the light of day, he still made many contributions to public education by providing the foundation on how a democracy should handle educating its
Kevin Kumashiro has many topics in his great book that explains why the school system is the way it is and why is not being changed in many ways. He shared his experience teaching in another country and how he realizes that the school system was bad in both countries. The common sense of what is the academic education needed for the students to know is how to read write, and do math and many other courses do not have a lot of value in our school system. There is more subjects than math, writing and reading that should be important to our society. His writing talks about how standardized testing is just making the teachers have to teach what is in the test and not actually teach the students the necessary information and skills needed to succeed in their lives.
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 assumptions that everyone can learn, and that schools have the potential to transform a country with a tradition of hatred and an unequal distribution of wealth, extend from the vision of education as a democratic practice where there is "a struggle for both change and the freedom to change" (Irwin, p. 51, 1991). The change is about transforming an exclusive, often oppressive and disempowering system into a more inclusive, equal, and equitable one that is accessible to children from ...
In The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way, Amanda Ripley investigates the education systems of three of the world’s highest performing countries offering insight into the components necessary to raise education in the United States from its current mediocre place on the world stage. By involving three teenage American exchange students, Ripley gained access to firsthand experience of the familiar US system as compared to the highly competitive systems in Finland, South Korea and Poland. The author proposes that, although the systems vary greatly, commonalities in cultural valuation of education, rigor and teacher quality have made students from these three countries the “smartest kids in the world.”
Mebrahtu, Teame, Michael Crossley, and David Johnson. Globalisation, Educational Transformation and Societies in Transition. Oxford: Symposium, 2000. Print.
West, Martin. "Global lessons for improving U.S. Education: international comparisons of student achievement illustrate the gains possible for students in the United States and offer insights on how to achieve them." Issues in Science and Technology: n. pag. Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 28 Jan. 2014. (“West”)
How to improve the K-12 education system in the United States of America has been a very discursive issue over the past few decades which have caused many debates and discussions. While researching on this topic I discovered a couple of effective ways to improve this system from various publishers and authors explaining the solutions on how we can improve the educational system as we can clearly see that other countries K-12 systems have improved drastically over the past years such as the Canada, France, Austria and Ireland and that America is below average when it comes to education. The publishers mainly focus on discussing and evaluating the important methods to create a better system in the United States by relating it to the factors and achievements of the current system. My main focus in this essay is to outline the factors on how to improve education by relating it to five different educational sources that I have found within different publishers and websites. By this method we can easily spot how each publisher has a diverse idea on refining this current generation’s schooling. (http://educationnext.org/whystudentsinsomecountriesdobetter/)
The world grows smaller and smaller as time goes on; maybe not literally, but definitely through some points of view. With everything and everyone being more connected than ever now thanks to advances in communicational technology and with the merging of cultures from all over the world, a suitable form of education needs to become the standard to accommodate such a world. Global education teaches students about the world’s different cultures, traditions, religions, languages and other important global factors contributing to our modern world. According to various recent studies, The U.S. falls behind many other nations regarding their global education standards (Webb). How then, can the U.S. or any other nation with similar education struggles
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.
In a society where kids must go to school up to the collegiate level, teaching is an impactful career choice. Teachers help contour the minds of future leaders of the world. Furthermore, teachers play a crucial role in guiding students to the knowledge, skills, and abilities they need to succeed in life, and teachers lead students to make informed decisions on any topic the meet in the future. As a teacher, a person must relinquish their knowledge onto students. Finally, they must prepare their students for all the obstacles they will face later in life.
There is no more critical role in our current society than that of a teacher’s. Teachers help shape the minds of the future. Tomorrow's engineers, scientists, politicians, and educators are all greatly influenced by today's instructors. Without teachers society would not be anywhere near where it is now, and only a select few would have access to learning. Sadly however important teachers are in human civilization, they are still drastically understated, unrecognized and under paid.
All in all, teachers need to be viewed as professionals and not as simply pay babysitters because most do care about the students. Teachers tolerate the low wages, long hours and repetitive disrespect because they desired to place attention on student success. Teachers should not enter that career for the money, but for the devotion they will place on the students. Luckily there are ways to make teachers more valuable in society. Teachers should be given the right equipment to teach the subject that corresponds to them, the two-year skill evaluation should be more precise and by surprise, so no one knows. Also, students should be allowed to evaluate the teachers to provide feedback. Also, teachers should be aware of the surrounding cultures. In conclusion, teachers should motivate students to reach levels they themselves never thought they could attain.
In conclusion, in Finland,the teachers teach students with the aim of helping them learn,not pass tests.