FINNISH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM AND TEACHER EDUCATION · 2014-10-07 · • foreigners: 2.3% of...

www.helsinki.fi/palmenia

FINNISH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM AND TEACHER

EDUCATION

Palmenia Centre for Continuing Education

Sabine Vilponen 7.10.2014


OUTLINE OF THE PRESENTATION

• The Finnish education system

• Comparison Finland – other countries

• Finnish teacher education

• Subject teacher education




THE FINNISH EDUCATION

SYSTEM




FINLAND IN BRIEF



• Independence: Declared on December 6, 1917.

grand duchy in the Russian empire (1809-1917),

and before that, a part of Sweden for 600 years

• member of the European Union since 1995

• land area 304,086 km2, population 5,45 million,

density 18 inhabitants / km2

• eighth largest country in Europe and the most

sparsely populated country in the EU

In comparison: Netherlands

land area 33,893 km2

population almost 17 million

density 406.3 inhabitants / km2


FINLAND IN BRIEF



ECONOMIC STRUCTURE: Services 67 % of GDP, industry 30 %,

agriculture 3 %; exports account for 39 % of GDP

CAPITAL: Helsinki (population 596,000)

OFFICIAL LANGUAGES: Finnish 90.4 %, Swedish 5.4 %

RELIGIONS: Evangelical Lutheran Church 78 %; Orthodox Church 1 %; no

religious affiliation 19 %; other religious communities 2 %

SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT: Parliamentary democracy; presidential

elections every six years; Parliament (200 members) elected every four

years


FINLAND IN BRIEF



• foreigners: 2.3% of population (in Helsinki 7.5 %)¹

¹ Source: City of Helsinki, Statistics 6 2012

² Source: Statistics Finland 31.12.2012, retrieved 21.8.2014

• biggest language groups in Finland² rank language amount of

speakers rank language amount of

speakers

1 Finnish 4,869,362 5 Somali 15,789

2 Swedish 290,910 6 English 15,570

3 Russian 66,379 7 Arabic 13,170

4 Estonian 42,936 8 Kurdish 10,075


EDUCATION LEVEL

33% Basic Level

39% Upper Secondary Level

28% Tertiary (University) Level




Structure of

Finnish education

system

Source: National Board of Education,

www.oph.fi

President of the Republic

GOVERNMENT

Parliament

Ministry of Education

Local Authorities and Joint Municipal Authorities (Schools and other Educational Institutions)

Private Education Providers (Schools and other Educational Institutions)

State-maintained Educational

Institutions

The Finnish Education

Evaluation

Center (FINEEC)

-> From May 2014

National Board

of Education

Center for International

Mobility, CIMO

Matriculation

Examination

Board

Regional State

Administrative Agencies

Other Ministries

ADMINISTRATION OF BASIC AND UPPER SECONDARY EDUCATION

IN FINLAND - FINANCING THE EDUCATION


LEGISLATION OF SCHOOLS

7.10.2014

The Finnish

Government

The National Board of

Education

Local organizer of

education

makes decision about general national

aims, the division of time sharing between

different subjects and groups and in

addition about career counselling

makes decision about aims and main

contents of the subjects, the career

counselling and optional subjects in the

national core curriculum

FNBE also confirms general and special

supporting services and general

guidelines of assessment

creates the local curriculum for schools

and municipalities according to the core

curriculum


MAIN FEATURES OF THE FINNISH

EDUCATION SYSTEM



• Equal opportunities for education

• Regional accessibility to education

• Decentralized administration – local implementation and responsibility

• Education system almost entirely publicly funded

• Education free of charge


MAIN FEATURES OF THE FINNISH

EDUCATION SYSTEM



• Finns value and appreciate education

• Devolution of decision power and responsibility at the local level

• School draws up own curriculum within framework of National Core

Curriculum. This local curriculum may be devised for the

municipality as a whole or for an individual school.

• No school inspections, national exams (apart from the matriculation

examination), or pre-evaluation of learning materials.


FINNISH CULTURE AND THE CLASSROOM – IN A NUTSHELL



• Learners have great deal of autonomy

• Mutual trust predominates in Finnish culture:

• between teachers and pupils

• between teachers and the principal

• between parents and schools

• between government and schools

• Teachers are highly educated professionals

• academic freedom and professional autonomy

• Learning environments are non-competitive


EQUAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL



• Finnish school system guarantees equal learning opportunities

regardless of social background • mainly public schools provide education

• Instead of comparing students, the focus is on supporting and guiding

them (also special needs students)

• Finnish teachers are considered to be educated professionals


COMPARISON OF FINNISH EDUCATION POLICY

TO GLOBAL EDUCATION REFORM MOVEMENT



Source: Hargreaves, Earl, Moore & Manning (2001)


FUTURE CHALLENGES



• As the number of children decreases, the school network will

become even sparser.

• The future challenge will be to design teaching and educational

services in a way that guarantees a high standard of teaching and a

diverse supply of services for everyone, as required by legislation.

• The utilisation of information and communications technology and

online teaching will be a key.


FUTURE CHALLENGES



Number of Schools (Grades 1-6)

Source: Statistics Finland, 2013


COMPARISON FINLAND – OTHER COUNTRIES

1. SCHOOLS



In Finland, compared to other countries, schools

• provide education for free, including warm meals

• develop their own curriculum or join in the city level development

• are responsible for quality control and school improvement

• are responsible for organizing counselling and special education

(Lavonen 2013)



2. STUDENTS



In Finland students

• start school at age 7

• take few classes during comprehensive school

• have small amount of homework

• are rarely tested (no standardized tests)

(Lavonen 2013)



3. TEACHERS



Teachers in Finland

• have masters level education

• are respected as academic professionals

• are responsible for broad planning of teaching and assessment

• are not controlled but supported

(Lavonen 2013)


PRE-PRIMARY EDUCATION



• Pre-primary education is the systematic instruction provided in the

year preceding the beginning of compulsory education.

• As from August 2001, the local authorities have been obligated to

assign a pre-primary place to all six-year-olds. For families, it is

voluntary and free of charge.

• Pre-primary education is organized either in conjunction with a

comprehensive school or within the day-care system.

• At national level, pre-primary education is administered by the

Ministry of Education and Culture.


BASIC EDUCATION



• a nine-year basic education (7-16 years)

• single structure (primary + lower secondary level)

• voluntary additional basic education (1 year; 10th grade)

• 99 % of comprehensive schools maintained by municipalities

• no charges (instruction, learning, meals, materials, transport…)

• repetition (0,5%) and drop-out marginal


How are drop outs prevented in Finland?



• Special education in Finland is preventing drop outs

• 8.5 % of all students are with special education needs

• Special education need students:

• 55 % are integrated into normal classes :

• 30 % are attending special education classes, located in mainstream

schools

• 5 % in special schools

• Individual Education Plan


Special Education in Finland and

other countries - comparison



Estimated relative number of students in part-time or full-time special education in

Finland and other countries during primary and lower-secondary education

(Sahlberg 2012)




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsdFi8zMrYI

video clip Finland's Formula for School Success (Education Everywhere Series)


BASIC EDUCATION (CONT.)



• Number of schools 2 800 (2011)

• Average school size 193 pupils (2011)

• 45.1% of the schools enroll less than 100 pupils (equaling 11,9% of

the student population)

• 22.5% of the schools enroll more than 300 pupils (equaling 54.3% of

the student population)

• Average class size: grades 1-6 19 pupils, grades 7-9 17 pupils (2010)

Source: FNBE Education Indicators 2010


HOW MUCH TIME DO TEACHERS SPEND

TEACHING?

Koulutus- ja kehittämiskeskus Palmenia


(Education at a Glance 2012: Highlights, OECD Publishing)


Number of teaching hours per year in lower secondary education in 2000, 2005 and 2009 Source: OECD. Indonesia: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (World Education Indicators Programme).


Annual expenditure per student by

educational institutions for all services

(2010) Primary Education (Source: OECD, EAG, 2013


Annual expenditure per student by educational institutions for all services (2010) All Secondary Education (Source: OECD, EAG, 2013)


SUBJECT TEACHER EDUCATION




TEACHERS IN FINNISH COMPREHENSIVE

SCHOOLS



Primary school teacher

• teaches grades 1 to 6 (ages 7 to 13)

• is typically qualified to teach all 13 school subjects at primary school level

Secondary school teacher

• typically teaches grades 7 to 12 (ages 13 to 19)

• is qualified to teach only in his/her major or minor subject

• typically teaches one major and one minor subjects

(e.g., math and physics)


SUBJECT TEACHER EDUCATION IN

FINLAND



Source: https://sool-fi.directo.fi/@Bin/125365/okopa-kartta.gif


SUBJECT TEACHER QUALIFICATION

IN FINLAND



To be a qualified subject teacher in Finland, a person must have

• a higher University degree (a Master's degree)

• completed at least basic and intermediate or equivalent studies of 60

ECTS* credits in a subject that is taught in comprehensive schools, general

upper secondary schools or other educational institutions

• completed at least 60 ECTS of teachers' pedagogical studies

*ECTS European Credit Transfer System

1 cr = 27 hours of work


SUBJECT TEACHER EDUCATION AT

THE UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI




SUBJECT TEACHER EDUCATION:

ORGANISATION AT UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI

FACULTY OF BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF

BEHAVIOURAL

SCIENCES

educational sciences

- psychology

- speech sciences

TEACHER TRAINING SCHOOLS

Viikki training school The Normal Lyceum of Helsinki

- comprehensive school - comprehensive school

(lower and upper level) (upper level)

- upper secondary school - upper secondary school

DEPARTMENT OF

TEACHER EDUCATION

- educational sciences

- home economics

- craft science

STRUCTURE OF THE MASTER’S DEGREE OF A SUBJECT TEACHER: 3 + 2 YEARS (300 CR)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

Major Subject

Minor Subject

Pedagogical

studies

Communication

and language

studies

Bachelor’s level (180 cr) Master’s level (120 cr)

Master-

thesis

cr

= 2

7 h

ours

of

work

Stu

dy c

redits

Ped. thesis

BSc thesis



THE CORE AIMS



The programme gives

• general teacher qualifications to teach children, young

people and adults in educational institutions offering

general, vocational and adult education

• the future teacher a starting point to develop into a

professional in the planning, implementation,

evaluation and development of teaching



THE CORE AIMS



Student teachers are to combine content knowledge, knowledge

related to education and different learners, pedagogical content

knowledge (i.e. knowledge of how to teach, study and learn the

subject), and knowledge about school practices into their own

pedagogical practical theory



THE AIMS



The pedagogical studies enable students to

• be pedagogically thinking planners, implementers, evaluators, and

educators of teaching and studying, who are able to partake in

conscious and well-grounded pedagogic decision-making, curriculum

planning, and other development of school, and interaction with

homes, where the goal is to enhance children and student groups’

overall development and attainment of the aims set for school

education



THE AIMS



The programme enables students to

• be society-oriented and know the social dimensions as well as

the philosophical, psychological, sociological, special

educational, multicultural, and historical foundations of

education, teaching and training

• be experts who extensively research and develop their own

work and perceive change flexibly, and who are ready for life-

long development of themselves



THE AIMS



The pedagogical studies enable students to

• possess skills of creative and flexible communal thinking, be multi-

professionally cooperative, and be prepared to meet and implement

changes in work community

• have interaction and communication skills, and master the use of

information and communication technology

• develop preparedness for further studies


STRUCTURE OF THE PEDAGOCIAL

STUDIES FOR SUBJECT TEACHERS


TEACHING PRACTICE AS PART OF

TEACHER EDUCATION



The subject teacher education contains three teaching practices:

• Basic Practice (7 credits)

• Applied Practice (4 credits)

• Advanced Practice (9 credits)


KEY FEATURES OF THE TEACHING

PRACTICE



Theoretical aspects are integrated with practice during the studies

at all stages. The aims of the teaching practice are

• to mature as a pedagogically thinking teachers

• to grow into the profession

• to become aware of their practical theories and views on educational matters


KEY FEATURES OF THE TEACHING

PRACTICE



In teaching practice, there are four participants whose interaction

with each other plays an important role:

• the student teacher him/herself

• peer student teachers

• supervisor from the university (university lecturer)

• supervisor at the school where the teaching

practice takes place


THE TASKS OF UNIVERSITY TEACHER

TRAINING SCHOOLS



• Organizing teaching of “ordinary”

school pupils

• Mentoring student teachers

• Educational research

• Organizing in-service education in

cooperation with the Department of

Teacher Education and other

instances




Finnish Education - Equal opportunities for all video made by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture http://youtu.be/Cx2f9OeV74c




Finnish National Board of Education. (2004). National Core Curriculum for Basic Education. [Available in English at http://www.oph.fi/english/curricula_and_qualifications/basic_education] Finnish National Board of Education. (2003). National Core Curriculum for Upper Secondary Education. [Available in English at http://www.oph.fi/download/47678_core_curricula_upper_secondary_education.pdf] Hargreaves, A., Earl, L., Moore, S. & S. Manning. (2001). Learning to change: Teaching beyond subjects and standards. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Niemi, H., Toom, A. & A. Kallioniemi (eds.). (2012). Miracle of Education: The Principles and Practices of teaching and Learning in Finnish Schools. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Sahlberg, P. (2011) Finnish Lessons: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland? New York: Teachers College Press.


THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

FINNISH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM AND TEACHER EDUCATION · 2014-10-07 · • foreigners: 2.3% of...

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