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To quality through equity in a Finnish way
Pirjo Sinko, FNBE, Finland
Bridging Divides, 2009 AATE & ALEA
TASMANIA, HOBART 2009
Kirjoittajan nimi
Tilaisuuden nimi
Päiväys/
www.oph.fi
Finland – a land of forests, snow, lakes
and - high technology and good
readers
Finland´s Position in International
Comparisons; Reading Literacy
1991 IEA Reading Literacy Study
Finland was first
1998 OECD Adult Literacy Survey
Finland was first
2001 Pisa
Finland was first
2003 Pisa
Finland was first
2006 PISA: Finland was second
Finland's Position in International Comparisons:
Reading Literacy and Mathematics and Science
PISA SURVEY 2006
1.Finland, with an average of 563 score points, was the
highest-performing country on the PISA 2006 science
scale.
2.Finland was second in Reading Literacy among all
participating countries
3.Finland was second (after Taipei, China) in
mathematical among OECD countries
4.Finland was first in problem-solving among OECD
countries (Survey 2003)
PISA 2006 - reading
Korea, with 556 score points, was the highest-performing
country in reading. Finland followed second with 547
points and the partner economy Hong Kong-China third
with 536 points.
• Canada and New Zealand had mean reading scores
between 520 and 530, and the following countries still
scored significantly above the OECD average of 492
score points: Ireland, Australia, Poland, Sweden, the
Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland, and the partner
countries Liechtenstein, Estonia and Slovenia.
PISA 2006
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Korea increased its reading performance between PISA
2000 and PISA 2006 by 31 score points, mainly by
raising performance standards among the better
performing students.
Good results of Finnish students are particularly due to
relatively good achievements of the weakest quarter.
There are vast differences between individuals but the
results of learning outcomes between schools and
regions are small (among the OECD countries we have
smallest differences in learning results between schools
and areas).
FINLAND AT A GLANCE
• independent since 1917, member of the
European Union since 1995
• total area 338,000 km2, population 5.2 million
(17 inhabitants / km2)
• two official languages: Finnish 92 %, Swedish
6 %, (Sami 0,03%)
• religions: Lutheran (85 %), Orthodox (1 %)
• immigrants: 2 % of population
• main exports: electronics, metal and
engineering, forest industry
•GNP (61,598 AUD) and HDI (0.952) about
par with Australia
Background: The language situation of
Finland
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Finland is OFFICIALLY bilingual country
Two national languages: Finnish and Swedish
The Swedish speaking minority is small – only 6 % - but
they have full rights to the usage of their own language.
The second national language is an obligatory subject at
school (Swedish to Finnish speakers, Finnish to Swedish).
There are moreover two tiny ingenious language groups:
Sami (0,03 %) and Romany
Immigrants only 2,5 %– rapidly increasing
Many mother tongue syllabi
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Finnish and Swedish (official languages)
There is a personal right to study Finnish, Swedish,
Sami (only in the Sami region), Romany and Finnish
sign language as a mother tongue.
The importance of learning to read and write with own
mother tongue.
Characteristics of the Finnish education
Excellent learning outcomes
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PISA 2000, 2003 and 2006
drop-out during compulsory education less than 0.5 %
class repetition only 2 %
more than 96 % moves to upper secondary level
small between-school differences
Effective use of resources
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190 school days per year, 4 -7 hours per day
moderate amount of homework, no private lessons after school
6 % of GDP goes to education
Class repetition
percentages in OECD
countries
Source: Osaaminen kestävällä pohjalla,
PISA 2003 Suomessa, Koulutuksen
tutkimuslaitos 2006
Quest for success?
Do the Finnish teachers perform magic tricks?
Could the reason for Finland’s success simply be hidden
in healthy (and free of charge) school meals which
improve the brain capacity?
Both assumptions may be right but it is better not to
draw hasty conclusions before looking more closely into
the Finnish school. Unfortunately there is no clear
evidence available on the cause-effect relationship.
How are we coping?
Indeed it seems possible to have within one educational
system both equal opportunities for education and good
results.
What are the factors behind good results?
1. Finnish school system itself
2. High status of reading culture and learning mother
tongue
3. Effective education administration and partnerships
Is the Finnish school somehow
special?
• Equal opportunities for education irrespective of domicile, sex,
economic situation or mother tongue
• Education totally free of charge
• Near to home (every school has its own catchment area)
• Comprehensive, non-selective basic education
• Supportive and flexible administration - centralized steering of the
whole, local implementation by responsible municipalities
• Interactive, co-operative way of working at all levels - idea of
partnership
”Culture of equity and trust”
Education for all
 Practically no ”elite schools”: any school can
afford good teachers from Helsinki to Lapland
 Flexible structure of the system – no dead-ends
 Comprehensive, inclusive policy – no streaming
 System is consistent and coherent
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common values, goals and high expectations
central monitoring and support
local implementation and responsibility
Flexibility
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Flexibility and school/teacher autonomy in curriculum
implementation: allocating goals, contents, time and
resources, selecting methods and materials and forming
study groups
Importance of goals which can be reached by means of
different contents, methods and materials
Goals and criteria for good performance are expressed
mainly as competencies, not as detailed knowledge
Teachers are encouraged to take into account the various
needs of their students and to emphasize good basic
competencies
In mother tongue instruction
this means:
Teachers are free to
 design school’s own curriculum;
 make their own materials or choose the “best”
text book;
 choose the reading materials with their
students; and
 devise own tests for their classes.
“Soft” evaluation
Development-oriented evaluation and student assessment
 No inspections
 No ranking lists (league tables) of schools
 In basic education only sample-based national
evaluation of learning outcomes; national matriculation
examination at the end of general upper secondary
education
 Supportive student assessment promotes learning and
learning-to-learn abilities
Importance of early learning and intervention
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Pre-school education for 6-year-olds (since 2000)
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Early intervention during pre-school and basic
education
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promoting children’s favourable growth and learning, healthy
sense of self-esteem and readiness for studies through play
and other child-centred activities
recognizing learning, linguistic and developmental problems
and organizing individual support as soon as possible
Children with special needs are allowed to start a year earlier
Multi-professional and community approach
Parents are actively involved in planning processes of
individual goals and support
Emerging literacy at pre-school
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pre-school year lays the foundation for learning to read and
write
a learning environment where to develop the phonological
awareness, vocabulary and literacy and where to get
experencies of different text types and genres
half of the pre-school pupils learn to read as if by chance
(earlier one third of seven-year-olds knew how to read when
entering the school)
a ”flying start” for a reader because of the shallow orthography
of the Finnish language
long childhood – the compulsory school begins at the age of 7.
Strong support for weak readers and
writers – we need everybody aboard!
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Our weak learners are better in basic skills than in other
OECD countries.
The underlying ethos is a strong sense of equality.
Every pupil has a right to get special needs education:
part-time or full-time + remedial (additional) teaching.
37 % of first-graders get additional support.
Early intervention is emphasized.
Diagnosis and rehabilitation as early as possible
Intensive cooperation between parents, teachers and
other experts.
All class teachers and special needs teachers have
knowledge and expertise concerning learning difficulties.
The philosophy of inclusion is strong.
Äidinkieli ja kirjallisuus
The Holy Grail of Mother tongue teaching?
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Changing the name to Mother tongue and literature
Broad concept of text; i.e. all kinds of texts
Competence-based curriculum
Emphasis on meta-cognitive and strategic skills
Focus on the mastery of genres and text types
Reading and writing seen as a process
Enforcing the motivation to read
No canon of books, free choice of reading
Problems to find a balance on teaching grammar and
skills (strong grammar tradition, starts too early)
DISTRIBUTION OF LESSON HOURS IN
BASIC EDUCATION (2004)
The minimum number of lessons in annual weekly lessons
Subject
1
2
3
4
5
6
Mother tongue and literature
14
14
A-language
---------------8
- - - - - - -B-language
---------------------------------------------------------Mathematics
6
12
Environmental Studies
Environment and nature
Biology and Geography
studies
9
3
Physics and Chemistry
2
Health Education
Religion/Ethics
6
History- and
- - - -Social
- - - - Studies
- --------------------------------3
Arts, crafts and physical
Music
4education
26
Visual arts
430
Craft,Technical work,Textile work
4Physical Education
8- - - - - - -Home
- - - - -Economics
----------------------------------------------------- - - - - - Student
- - - - - - Counselling
-------------- -------------------------------------Elective subjects
Minimum number of hours
19
19
23
23
24
24
Optional A-language
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7
8
9
14
8
6
14
7
7
3
5
7
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30
2
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30
(6)
30
New structure of mother tongue syllabus
– better intra-subject integration
Structured in 3 phases with their respective objectives, core
contents, and descriptions of good performance (credit
8) after the 2nd. 5th and 9th school year.
The objectives: The pupil´s
1. interaction skills will increase
2. skills in interpreting and utilizing various texts will
develop
3. skills on producing texts and utilizing them for the
different purposes will develop
4. relationship with language, literature, and other culture
will deepen
Finnish matriculation examination
Two parts (one day allocated to each)
Text competence (tasks to analyze and interpret texts:
fiction, factual texts, media texts, adds (picture + words),
figures, statistics . . .
Essay writing (material based or title or an assignement)
No oral test
Are Finnish mother tongue teachers
somehow special?
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Dedicated professionals:
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participating on their leisure time to in-service training
regardless of reduced lesson hours their weekly workload is
highest (due to endless homework)
often “therapists”
 “Cultural commissars” of schools and community
 One out of twenty are males only
Teacher profession in Finland in general
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The profession is valued high in society.
High quality of teacher education: university level
teacher training for all teachers
Class teachers have the same length of academic
training as the subject teachers
Kindergarten teachers have at least Bachelor’s Degree
and school teachers at least Master’s Degree
Class teacher training is attractive: talented young,
especially girls, choose teaching career. Teacher
profession is popular, only 10-12 % can be admitted.
Finnish society supports reading
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Most families subscribe home a daily
newspaper
One of the world´s best library systems
Number of books published or borrowed
annually from a public library is high
Especially women are keen readers and they
understand the importance of reading
Foreign tv programmes have subtitles instead of
dubbing – improves children’s reading routine
Effective co-operation
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Good results in reading literacy call for a strong co-operation
between homes, schools and in the whole society.
Interactive, co-operative way of working at all levels in partnership
Parents
Education
Administration
Schools
Other
stakeholders
-Media
-Libraries
Research
SCHOOL CURRICULUM
MUNICIPAL CURRICULUM
Municipal
strategies
National Core Curriculum
Government’s Decree on the General National
Objectives and Distribution of lesson hours
Education Act and Decree
Finnish Monitoring System 2008
Irmeli Halinen 2008
Ongoing work for literacy:
The READING FINLAND project
The objectives were
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to improve the reading and writing skills of the pupils in
basic and general upper secondary education
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to increase their knowledge of literature.
Current concerns
of Finnish mother tongue teachers
• low number of lesson hours when subject teachers get the students
• overly expanded syllabi – the area mother tongue teachers are responsible
for is continuously growing (media literacy, information literacy, internet
based work, new sources of information, new tools for writing etc.)
• poor school libraries: lack of topical reading materials at school
• book reading is reducing among youngsters
• deep gender gap in reading and writing skills: girls much better than boys
• the national recommendation for the usage of state funding e.g. to group
sizes not binding to municipalities
•English language (1 st foreign language) as a subject is more popular than
mother tongue lessons among pupils
Gender gap in reading literacy
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The largest gender gap among school subjects in
Finland is in writing (and reading)
In all OECD countries in PISA 2006, girls performed
better in reading on average than boys.
In twelve countries, the gap was at least 50 score points.
In Greece and Finland, girls were 57 and 51 points
ahead respectively, and the gap was 50 to 66 points in
the partner countries Qatar, Bulgaria, Jordan, Thailand,
Argentina, Slovenia, Lithuania, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia and
Croatia.
Recapping: The main factors behind
good learning results?
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Finnish school system itself
Curriculum and curriculum design process
Teacher education system
Status of teachers’ in the society
Ongoing development work
Whole culture which values education and learnedness –
teachers are not alone
Links:
www.pisa2006.helsinki.fi
www.oph.fi/english
[email protected]