Recently Dr. Smirnova gave us an article to read about Finland's school system. Before reading this article I had an open mind on how other countries and places taught their students in a classroom setting. While reading this article, "How Finland Broke Every Rule" it was interesting to see how exactly the students learn. The first couple of paragraphs discusses what a fourth grade classroom in rural Finland looks like. William Doyle stated, "Instead of control, competition, stress, standardized testing, screen-based schools and loosened teacher qualifications, try warmth, collaboration, and highly professionalized, teacher-led encouragement and assessment." This aspect is completely different compared to the American education reformers. We require our teachers to be qualified when choosing them for the job, but not as highly qualified in Finland. Another attribute that is different is the standardized testing. Standardized testing is a big deal for New York. Students are required to either take regents and many other testing. America thinks that tests really measure the students capability of their cognitive skills, but in actuality it doesn't. Taking tests require students to memorize the material, but this doesn't help their higher order thinking skills. In Finland students are not immersed in technology as much as other places. They do have the high tech devices, but they are never really seen in the school system. There is usually just a smart board and a teacher's desktop. Comparing that scenery to our college; there are certain rooms that only have those two aspects. This can be seen in our lecture rooms with the desks facing towards the smart board. The one aspect that is different in Finland is the teacher only uses their smart board when he/she is delivering simulations of personalized teaching. This is unique characteristic that I have NEVER seen before in a school system. I'm not positive on what exactly it means, but the thing I take out of it is someone virtually teaching the students through technology. This is one aspect that I definitely am going to look into! If there is a simple way of creating the simulations, I would conduct it in my own classroom.
The classroom management is also done a little different in Finland. I like the fact that classroom is setup for student to slouch, wiggle and giggle for the students. Just that little movement allows the students to be kinesthetic learners. This is definitely one attribute that should be added to the classroom in America. Teachers in America refrain students to move around and "do silly things" because they think it will distract the other students from learning. I like having this attribute in the classroom because students need a moment to be silly and get all of their energy out in some way. The other major difference is the atmosphere. In Finland the students are encouraged to constantly experiment with new approaches to improve learning. The students are learning by doing which hits many points on the Bloom's Taxonomy pyramid. There are so many attributes in Finland that make me wonder about the American school system. Finland seems to have terrific success rates and the students seem to be more interested in learning new things. Right on the side of this blog, I added a video which includes more information on the Finland school system. The one thing that surprised me was the dropout rate compared to the American dropout rate. They mentioned that students DO NOT dropout in Finland and if they do then it is only 5% compared to half the students in America. This video really goes into depth about the school system and what you see inside their different schools. I recommend watching this video to anyone that is interested in learning about this AMAZING school system. Until next time bloggers :)
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