Scottish Educational Review, 43 (1), 3-23. Paradoxes of educational improvement: The Finnish experience Pasi Sahlberg ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION 3
term remains controversial. FROM PERIPHERY TO LIMELIGHT 4
entire
Matti Koskenniemi Primary School Didactics lehrplan
THREE PHASES OF EDUCATIONAL CHANGE Figure 1. Three phases of educational change in Finland since the 1970s Phase 1: Rethinking the theoretical and methodological foundation of schooling (1980s)
Conception of Knowledge ), Conception of Learning About the possibilities of school change conception of knowledge, learning and their consequences to teachers work in school 10
Phase 2: Improvement through networking and self-regulated change (1990s) Facebook 11
12
pedagogy to administration FOUR PARADOXES OF FINNISH EDUCATION sisu First paradox: Less is more. (see page 14) 13
Figure 2. Total intended instruction hours in public institutions between student ages of 7 and 14 in 2008(OECD, 2010) Ages 7 to 8 Ages 11 to 11 Ages 12 to 14 Italy Netherlands Belgium (Fr.) France Ireland Portugal Greece England Belgium (Fl.) Spain Austria Luxembourg Iceland Denmark Japan Germany Sw eden Norw ay Korea Finland 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 other nations. quantity versus quality paradox 14
Figure 3. Total average teaching hours per year in lower secondary education in 2008 (OECD, 2010) Hours per year 1200 1100 1000 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 United States Mexico New Zealand Chile Scotland Russian Federation Australia Brazil Israel Germany Portugal Ireland Spain Belgium (Fl.) Slovenia Iceland Belgium (Fr.) Norway Denmark Luxembourg Czech Republic France Estonia Austria Italy Japan Finland Greece Hungary Korea Second paradox: Better learning with less testing
Figure 4. Finnish 15-year old students performance in mathematics in three 560 550 540 530 520 510 500 490 480 470 460 USA UK Canada Australia Japan New Zealand Finland 2000 2003 2006 Third paradox:
schools across Finland. Figure 5. National student performance variance within and between schools in 100 80 60 Performance variation within school 40 20 0-20 -40-60 -80 Performance variation between schools -100 Germany Czech Republic Austria Hungary Netherlands Belgium Japan Italy Greece Slovak Republic Turkey Switzerland Korea Luxembourg United States Portugal Mexico United Kingdom New Zealand Australia Canada Ireland Denmark Spain Poland Sweden Norway Iceland Finland Fourth paradox: The better secondary-school graduates are, the more likely they will become teachers.
teaching is consistently rated as Helsingin Sanomat, (Helsingin Sanomat, 20,000 each year.
programmes 2001-10 (Sahlberg, 2011) 7000 6000 5000 4000 Male 3000 2000 Female 1000 Accepted 0 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 research-based,
CONCLUSIONS Will the Finnish education system continue to serve a model in the future? status quo transferred to other nations. Indeed, there is not yet any evidence that ideas of the 20
Development Plan for Education and Research for 2007-12 complementarity Education Development Plan for Education and Research 21
Which measures should be taken to wake up Finns for future changes? REFERENCES Myrskyn silmässä Policy development and reform principles of basic and secondary Tavoitteista vuorovaikutukseen. Perusopetuksen pedagogiikan arviointi The information society and the welfare state: The Finnish model. The fourth way: The inspiring future for educational change Muutosote. Akvaarioprojektin pedagogisten kehittämishankkeiden toteutustapa ja onnistuminen, Ykkössuosikki: Opettajan ammatti 2004. Millä ammatilla pääsee naimisiin? Finnish teacher educators Oppikoulu 1880-1980. Oppikoulu ja sen opettajat koulujärjestyksestä peruskouluun Kansakoulun opetusoppi Opettajat Suomessa 2008 Artikkelikokoelma tutkimushankkeesta Sosiaaliset innovaatiot, yhteiskunnan uudistumiskyky ja taloudellinen menestys Oppimiskäsitys Koulun muuttamisen mahdollisuudesta Knowledge and skills for life: First results from PISA 2000 Learning for tomorrow s world. First results from PISA 2003 Education at a glance.education indicators Finland as a knowledge economy. Elements of success and lessons learned, Journal of Education Policy, 22
Journal of Educational Change, 11(1), (eds.) International handbook of educational change (2 nd Luovatietop oma: Tulevaisuuden kest v kilpailuetu Five steps for Finland s future Finnish success in PISA and some reasons behind it II Tiedonkäsitys Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 23