EdTech Workshop: Parent Connect: What's So Great About Finland

Monday, March 30, 2015

Parent Connect: What's So Great About Finland

Today, Karin and I shared a Parent Connect about education in Finland. It is not a topic about which I am very well-informed, so a lot of our preparation consisted of reading and learning. I have heard so much about Finland, and it was interesting to fill in some of the details and discuss with those in attendance.

We opened the session with this video, of which we showed the first 3:25 minutes.

We then shared some background information, including the following points:

50 years ago, Finland had terrible ed system
education was a key part of Finland’s economic recovery plan
Now they are hailed internationally for extremely high ed outcomes (reading, math and science literacy over the past decade)

as well as sharing some background information about PISA, including:

In 2000, the first results of the PISA revealed Finland’s 15 year olds as the best young readers in the world

In 2003, Finland led in math, In 2006 they were first (out of 57 countries) in science, 2009 they were 2nd in science, 3rd in reading and 6th in math out of half a million students worldwide

We outlined the innovations that currently seem to be working in Finland.

We then asked participants to categorize these ideas into two groups on a T-Chart, dividing them into things that are normally associated with "traditional" education vs. "non-traditional" education settings.