Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Article: Why do Finland's schools......

Finnish test scores are impressive. There is a 3-4% separation between them and they 2d best.

From the article:

- There is a culture of reading with the kids at home

- families have regular contact with their children's teachers.

- Teaching is a prestigious career in Finland. Teachers are highly valued

- teaching standards are high.

- There is an emphasis on relaxed schools, free from political prescriptions.

- Primary and secondary schooling is combined, so the pupils don't have to change schools at age 13.

I'll bet if you look at the best US schools, regardless of economic background, most of these would apply as well.

Also, it sounds like kids spend very little time in school (both by delaying schooling and fewer hours per days). I doubt kids are spending hours upon hours being bored and are probably taking more time to learn from outside environments.

Does this mean centered on the self? Or focused on cars?

Your comments about self-reliance are interesting, particularly given the current phenomenon in this country of highly-intrusive helicopter parenting. Maybe allowing plenty of trial and error is beneficial for achievement.

LOL.

This is what it means. At least to the Finns I know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisu

Another link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_resilience

Yes it is! See one of my favorite blogs. The guy writes about self-learning (a lot about free-schooling but also that kids need much less intrusion than more).

My D is a "Finn wanna-be" -- studied the language for several years, spent a summer there on exchange, and hopes to study there fall semester next year (if her application can get through the volcanic ash to the University!). She is also considering applying for a Fulbright to study education policy in Finland after graduation. To be fair, Finland is an extremely homogeneous society with a very high literacy rate. That simplifies the task of teaching a lot.

I would like to pick up on this point.

I believe this has been the success story of my children's education. It came about more through luck than anything else. We live in a small rural town and as such the schools here tend to be central schools, that is K-12, approximately 400 students. Very small turn over rate of teachers, I guess this could be good or bad, but it does help that as your child progresses all the teachers know them, know what to expect and what they are capable of.



Thank you for posting this. Although my son does attend school, outside of school he has always self directed his learning. I have questioned myself as to whether this is the right thing but always let it go as he is happy and contented doing it this way, I virtually have no input unless he comes and asks me. Maybe I was on the right track all along and didn't know it.

A big part of why Finland does well is probably demographics -- it is fairly homogeneous, white, and affluent. Outside the Boston public schools, the same could be said of Massachusetts -- and "TIMSS Results Place Massachusetts Among World Leaders in Math and Science" http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.aspx?id=4457 .