Education
Finnish lessons 11 February 2010 Finnish education expert Pasi Sahlberg on doing education differently After a long period of grace Scottish education has come firmly under the spotlight. The need to implement a new curriculum, recover Scotland’s position in the international rankings and ensure equality – all with a shrinking resource – is stirring up a fundamental debate. Cabinet Secretary Mike Russell came to office last year pledging a root and branch review of the system. But as the sector looks inward, perhaps it is also time to look outward. In seeking lessons from abroad Finland is an obvious place to start. Regularly topping the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) league table, the country’s education system is widely considered one of the best in the world for both quality and equity. In the 2006 PISA survey, out of 57 countries, it came first in science and second in both maths and reading. It also boasts one of the narrowest gaps between the highest and lowest achievers. Indeed in a recent interview with Holyrood about his plans for Scottish education the Education Secretary cited Finland as an “interesting model”. The Finnish education system has not always enjoyed such acclaim. In the 1960s the level of adult educational attainment was on a par with that of Mexico and up until the 1990s it achieved only average in international rankings. In the 1970s, however, a national consensus emerged about the need to overhaul education. And following the collapse of the Soviet Union and a sharp recession, politicians from across the spectrum decided Finland would be one of the leading knowledge economies with a world-class education system at its core. So what – if anything – can Scotland learn from Finland’s transformation? Having worked as a teacher in Finland, within the Finnish Ministry for Education, then as education adviser to the European Commission and the World Bank, Pasi Sahlberg is well versed to answer that question. Many of the factors in Finland’s educational success are unique, the educationalist believes, but the country demonstrates one vital lesson – education can be done differently. “I think a global trend now tends to be that there is one common way of writing education policies and designing education reforms and organising education and I think Finland is very significant in this regard and an interesting example because many things that Finns have been doing in the last 15, 20, 25 years are very different to this kind of popular way in the world to think about education. “So this is what I’m often trying to communicate to people – that there is another way in building a good education system,” he argues. Finland bucks a number of global education trends. Not least of these is the shift towards central control and accountability. Indeed the term ‘accountability’ is not even within the Finnish vocabulary, Sahlberg says. Contrary to the increasing checks and inspections common in many countries – not least south of the border where a teacher ‘MOT’ is being introduced – Finnish teachers enjoy a high level of professional autonomy. There is no national inspectorate and no external teacher assessment. “Actually, we don’t have this term ‘accountability’ at all,” Sahlberg explains. “So if you come to Finland and ask about accountability in the context of education people will be puzzled because they don’t know what you’re talking about. So rather than thinking about having stronger accountability polices, I think what Finns have been trying to do in the last few decades is to try to strengthen the shared responsibility in education, in schools and in communities, meaning that educators, teachers and principals would share the responsibility of providing good schools and good education for the young people in their communities.” The country has no national curriculum and unlike most OECD countries, its schools do not focus on the ‘core curriculum’ subjects of reading and writing, maths and science. Pupils start compulsory education at seven and follow a broad cross-curricular approach during the primary years.  But the key to Finland’s success, according to the education expert, is its attitude towards teachers. Teaching is a highly skilled and respected profession in Finland, attracting top calibre students. After a highly selective process – only 12-14 per cent of applicants are accepted onto the primary teaching programme – they study to Masters level and enjoy corresponding status in society. “Finland has always accepted the fact that teachers are the most important element in fulfilling all these dreams [of being a top performing education system] and there have been no mistakes in this understanding,” he says. “For example in 1979, all teacher education and teacher preparation was shifted from the colleges to the Finnish universities so that all teachers including primary school teachers have to study all the way up to the Masters degree to be able to get a permanent job. “And this of course shows the kind of respect and appreciation to the teaching profession that the politicians and authorities had, and that was very well received by society and by young people particularly. And now the situation is that teaching is the most popular future profession of our young people who are leaving school. One out of five of our secondary school leavers say that teaching is their dream job. This kind of sustainable respect and social valuing of the teaching profession has been very important and instrumental in this.” An interesting perspective in the context of the debate here in Scotland where some are arguing that the focus should be shifted from smaller class sizes to teacher quality. But how does the profession attract such top quality candidates in Finland? Teachers’ salaries are relatively higher than their international counterparts, but professional autonomy and the freedom to innovate are far bigger factors, Sahlberg argues. “Many Finnish teachers, young teachers when they choose their profession, they seem to expect that their working environment is open and providing opportunities for them to use their professional judgement and have professional autonomy to work like true professionals. “So I often argue that if we had a system where teachers would be inspected regularly, like they are in many other countries, or where students would be tested regularly, as they are in many other countries, and whereby the performance of the school would be determined by the inspectors’ reports and testing results among other things, we would not have these skilled young talented people wanting to come and teach in schools. They would become medical doctors or lawyers or economists, as easy as they could become teachers if the circumstances change.” Finnish education is a system of many paradoxes, according to Sahlberg, one of which is ‘less is more’. Teachers in Finland spend under 600 hours a year teaching compared to 1100 in the US, at the higher end of the range. Likewise pupils spend fewer hours learning. This approach may raise eyebrows in Scotland, but Sahlberg argues that ironically, it boosts learning. “I have argued that probably the less time for students to spend in a classroom may be even one factor behind the good performance, which is a kind of a paradox. The less you try to teach students, the more they will learn. They probably have time to think and do some other things that they like to do.” Another paradox of Finnish education is ‘less testing; better learning’. Whilst internal assessment is ongoing pupils experience no external exam until the age of 18 or 19, Sahlberg says. “I think one of the beauties in the Finnish school system is that because of the lack of high stakes, external tests or frequent national testing, teachers and schools can really focus on what is the most important thing and that’s learning and understanding and also learning to enjoy and like learning.” Internal assessment has caused a stir in Scotland of late with some of the forthcoming new qualifications to be assessed internally. Concerns have been raised that certain students will leave school without ever having sat an external exam. Sahlberg rejects the idea that pupils need external testing experience, however. He points to Finnish pupils’ performance in the PISA assessments, before which they have never sat an external exam. Finland certainly challenges some accepted mores of education. Of course any education system is a complex mix of social and economic conditions, culture and tradition, and the Nordic country’s success could never be replicated wholesale. But as Scottish education strives to improve, the Finnish alternative approach does provide food for thought. Holyrood Magazine - issue 228 | Previous article Related articles: Setting the path 25 June 2010 Independent voice 25 June 2010 Risk-benefit 11 June 2010 Parent power 11 June 2010 Grand designs 28 May 2010 See all articles in this category Submit a comment |
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