Why Finland is top worldwide in Education rankings

[Anonymous]

Finland and most of the Fairfax and Arlington schools have similar scores on the PISA tests. What do you think is still missing in these school districts?

[Anonymous]

One of the pro-Finland articles I read compared Finland to Norway (which is closer to the US tracking) ... Norway is middling whereas Finland does quite well.

Also a country where heavy metal songs regularly hit #1 on the charts has to have something going for it, too! \m/

[Anonymous]

Big thanks to the Finnish poster! Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences. All the best to your kids.

[Anonymous]

In Jyväskylä University in Finland we have had some amazing results with a new play-based education method called salamapelimenetelmä in finnish. Regrettably I could not find any reference to it in languages other than finnish.

I am not directly involved in this business, but If I am to believe anything I have heard and read about the method from people working on it, it seems to work better than they had any right of dreaming. If I ever have children I will definitely try it out.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. Hopefully others will pick up on it here soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Finland: I like how they take care of their teachers. For some reason, our Conservative politicians and their followers have been attacking teachers in the U.S. But for that matter they attack science and intelligence too..

Top five were, South Korea, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.

It's funny how many have left South Korea and settled in Fairfax County. Why? The public schools here. And most want to get into AAP too. Why? It's an avenue to success and possibly happiness.

Seriously? AAP will have no bearing whatsoever on your children's success and possible happiness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Learning to read and spell in Finnish is easy. It is a phonetic language where the sounds of the letters don't change depending on what letter is grouped with another letter and the position of the letter in the word. English is a really difficult language to learn how to read and spell. They don't have spelling bees in Finland because everyone is a great speller after a year of school.

You kidding me right?! Another monolingual American? Language is not all about spelling...Google "Finnish" language.I speak 5 languages, Finnish being one of them-get lost!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've said this before on previous Finnish education threads here, but I'll say it again. This comes from some experience, as DW lived in Helsinki and I visited her often.

Don't look at PISA scores, look at the end outcome. What type of innovations come out of Finland? The only successful companies are Rovio (Angry Birds game), Supercell (Clash of Clans - also a game), and formerly Nokia which would be bankrupt already if not for Microsoft's huge cash injection last year. I suppose Marimekko is a Finnish "success" depending on who you talk to.

Yes, Finland has a small population, but even when scaled for that, why do we see so much more innovation coming out of the US? How can the US children, so poorly educated according to PISA scores, end up producing so many innovations compared to their counterparts in Europe and Asia? Why does the US dominate in terms of top universities and Nobel prize winners?

My theory (and it's a theory) is that PISA scores do measure one aspect of ability (math/science), but school systems who focus too much on it fail to teach creativity and teamwork skills.

Is there a problem in the US education? For sure. The kids at the lower levels of the socioeconomic scale lose out, and the teacher's unions put the best interests of the teachers and not their pupils as the priority. There is definitely room for reform, but the Finnish model is not necessarily the goal.

Look, I think the Finland worship is idiotic, too. But, you're really kind of wrong in stating innovation lacks in Finland. It has been puting more into R&D than the US, for example, by about 50%, for nearly a decade. To wit: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/13/AR2005071302227.html

It is also No. 4 in the world in the Global Innovation Index: http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2012/article_0014.html The US is No. 10.
Oops, suddenly we forgot we are not comparing apples to apples because of the size.
Many of the "innovators" in US are foreigners-the Russian physicists and Asians. They come here for the opportunity and money.Where are the "smart" Americans? Finland doesn't have the culture where all want to be rich or celebrities or both.Money is a good motivation for innovation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've said this before on previous Finnish education threads here, but I'll say it again. This comes from some experience, as DW lived in Helsinki and I visited her often.

Don't look at PISA scores, look at the end outcome. What type of innovations come out of Finland? The only successful companies are Rovio (Angry Birds game), Supercell (Clash of Clans - also a game), and formerly Nokia which would be bankrupt already if not for Microsoft's huge cash injection last year. I suppose Marimekko is a Finnish "success" depending on who you talk to.

Yes, Finland has a small population, but even when scaled for that, why do we see so much more innovation coming out of the US? How can the US children, so poorly educated according to PISA scores, end up producing so many innovations compared to their counterparts in Europe and Asia? Why does the US dominate in terms of top universities and Nobel prize winners?

My theory (and it's a theory) is that PISA scores do measure one aspect of ability (math/science), but school systems who focus too much on it fail to teach creativity and teamwork skills.

Is there a problem in the US education? For sure. The kids at the lower levels of the socioeconomic scale lose out, and the teacher's unions put the best interests of the teachers and not their pupils as the priority. There is definitely room for reform, but the Finnish model is not necessarily the goal.

Many American innovations are actually created by foreigners who come here and go to grad school. Our ability to attract these innovators has more to do with our immigration policy than it does with our education system.

+100.
I'm surprised that people don't know that or they choose to leave it out conveniently. The smartest people I've met in US have all been foreigners.

[Anonymous]

Groups of teachers visit each others' classes to observe their colleagues at work. Teachers also get one afternoon per week for professional development.

And yet FCPS parents hate half day mondays!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've said this before on previous Finnish education threads here, but I'll say it again. This comes from some experience, as DW lived in Helsinki and I visited her often.

Don't look at PISA scores, look at the end outcome. What type of innovations come out of Finland? The only successful companies are Rovio (Angry Birds game), Supercell (Clash of Clans - also a game), and formerly Nokia which would be bankrupt already if not for Microsoft's huge cash injection last year. I suppose Marimekko is a Finnish "success" depending on who you talk to.

Yes, Finland has a small population, but even when scaled for that, why do we see so much more innovation coming out of the US? How can the US children, so poorly educated according to PISA scores, end up producing so many innovations compared to their counterparts in Europe and Asia? Why does the US dominate in terms of top universities and Nobel prize winners?

My theory (and it's a theory) is that PISA scores do measure one aspect of ability (math/science), but school systems who focus too much on it fail to teach creativity and teamwork skills.

Is there a problem in the US education? For sure. The kids at the lower levels of the socioeconomic scale lose out, and the teacher's unions put the best interests of the teachers and not their pupils as the priority. There is definitely room for reform, but the Finnish model is not necessarily the goal.

Many American innovations are actually created by foreigners who come here and go to grad school. Our ability to attract these innovators has more to do with our immigration policy than it does with our education system.

+100.
I'm surprised that people don't know that or they choose to leave it out conveniently. The smartest people I've met in US have all been foreigners.

Here's another qustion- do we measure a society's sucess based only on successful start up companies? Surely there are other metrics to measure success .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learning to read and spell in Finnish is easy. It is a phonetic language where the sounds of the letters don't change depending on what letter is grouped with another letter and the position of the letter in the word. English is a really difficult language to learn how to read and spell. They don't have spelling bees in Finland because everyone is a great speller after a year of school.

You kidding me right?! Another monolingual American? Language is not all about spelling...Google "Finnish" language.I speak 5 languages, Finnish being one of them-get lost!

Where are you from PP? Obviously you are believing a stereotype. More than 300 languages are spoken in the United States, and at least 20 percent of Americans speak an language other than English. However, the statistics only capture those who speak a language other than English at home. If the question were asked, "Can you carry on a conversation in a language other than your mother tongue?" I bet we would find this number to be higher.

For the record, my native language is English, but I speak fluent Russian and a bit of French, Spanish, Amharic and Korean.

[Anonymous]

Please see: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/opinion/sunday/are-we-really-monolingual.html

[Anonymous]

Hey, Jaakko from Helsinki, Finland ... thanks for your very informative post. I work in education and it is refreshing to hear from someone who is directly experiencing the Finnish system.

I really like what you said about teacher autonomy and support, rather than a culture of competition. I have taught in a couple of countries and I found huge differences in the way teaching is viewed as a profession. I quit because we ended up living in a place where the teaching profession was 'dull', so to speak. There was no vibrancy, which I saw as stemming from the fact that teachers weren't encouraged to create for themselves ... i.e. adapt curricula, create materials, contribute to the thinking in their subject's pedagogical circles, etc. A
culture of distrust means you don't retain the top teachers, IMO.

Thanks again!

[Anonymous]

Finland is awesome. I spent time in Turku this summer, loved the islands and the sauna and the beer. Didn't go to any schools unfortunately, though it was interesting that swedish schools and finnish schools were side-by-side and completely segregated. I gather there are many Finns who would rather they teach russian and not swedish ...