What I did:

We went to the University of Helsinki to hear a presentation by Jari Lovren, Professor of Physics and Chemistry Education, Head of Department, Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki, Finland.

What I learnt:

• teachers responsible for local curriculum
• education is a basic human right in Finland
• education is free (books, meals, health care etc…)
• well-organised special education (inclusion) and counseling
• decentralisation of decision powers to the local level
• role of the principal is very important – leadership and management at school level
• teachers are responsible for local curriculum and assessment
• learning to learn is a big focus of the teachers
• schools that are having difficulty in Finland get more funding allocated and not the other way around
• Finland uses the term ‘professional teacher’ – they should be an expert in their field. Finland believes that you are not able to be a professional teacher without the education system and policies supporting the professionals.
• Master thesis is a very important outcome of the Finnish education system
• Finland makes macro changes to its education system every tenth year
• Teacher education programmes should help student teachers to acquire a high-quality knowledge base within the following key knowledge areas:
  • high-level subject knowledge
  • pedagogical content knowledge
  • contextual knowledge
  • knowledge about the nature of knowledge
• Teacher education programmes should help student teachers to acquire connections, networks & partnerships
• Teacher education programmes should help student teachers to pursue life-long learning
• A primary (elementary) school teacher i.e a class teacher teaches grade 1 – 6 (ages 7 – 13)
• A secondary (subject) teacher typically teaches grades 7 – 12 (ages to 13 to 19)
• every year the University of Finland takes in 3100 students into its annual teachers academic program
• teacher monitoring is done once every 2 years and it is done using samples. It is not to measure the performance of teachers it is more to look at the assessment of students by teachers because there is only one standardised assessment at the end of the basic education. i.e. at the end of Grade 9 much like our ANAs in South Africa
• there are 8 Universities in Finland
• the schools in the Eastern part of Helsinki are more multi-cultural than the rest of the areas.
• pedagogical studies the teachers undergo helps the student teachers…
  • integrate subject matter
  • become aware of the different dimensions of the teacher professional
  • be able to collaborate in different networks and partnerships
  • be able to reflect on their own personal pedagogical theory
  • act as an autonomous professional
  • develop the potential for lifelong professional development through research orientation
• The Primary success characteristics of producing high-quality education:
  • the professional teacher
  • local curriculum and environments
  • leadership and quality culture
  • interaction at many levels (interpersonal, staff, management etc…)
  • networking
• Finland education is not the leader in ICT use in classrooms. In fact, they are trailing. Leaps and bounds ahead of SA, though.
• challenges of teacher education in various contexts
  • teaching technology to teachers because it is changing so rapidly

What I thought:

• power distance in Finland is almost non-existent
• South Africa has one of the biggest education budgets in the world. How are we not correcting our system faster? It’s not like we are trying to reinvent the wheel here. It’s been done in countries like Finland.
• how could we (SA) measure if our teachers consider themselves professional teachers?
• I mean this with all due respect but the Finn’s really need to culture their design eye. Most of the slides I have seen have looked like they were made using powerpoint 2001.
• Finnish culture is based on trust. I feel that, on the most part, South African culture is based on distrust. i.e trust is earned over time. So it would be very difficult to take the Finnish education model and implement it in South Africa quickly and easily because trust does not exist by default.
• ICT in the classroom seems like a global challenge
• would it be more effective to fix schools or to fix the training of educators first? I asked this question and Jari mentioned that it was a difficult question to answer. I think we should focus professional teachers first, then attempt broader corrective measures in schools.