1. Education in Finland “Why Finnish kids are so smart?”
Virpi Sanders
FFFC April 6th, 2009

2. Content Pisa research Background for Finnish PISA success
History of education in Finland
Education and the Finnish society
Education Development projects
Science, Math, Literacy and Teacher training
Future of Education in Finland
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3. PISA in a nutshell = Programme for International Student Assessment
Collaborative project of the OECD countries (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). The project came into being when there arose a need to develop indicators for cross-national comparisons in education. In 2006 there were 57 participating countries and 31 of them were OECD-countries.
Finland has participated each time; 2000, 2003 and 2006
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4. Background for Finnish PISA success
Equal educational opportunities
An integrated nine-year structure intended for the entire age group
The education system is flexible and its administration is based on intense delegation and provision of support
Co-operation between different levels of administration, schools and other sectors of society
Focused on individual support for pupils’ learning and well-being and relevant guidelines
Master degree required
Pupils active involvement and interaction with teachers and fellow pupils. Pupils process and interpret the information that they absorb on the basis of their prior knowledge structures.     
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5. History of Education
* The Finnish school system has been intentionally developed towards the comprehensive model, which guarantees everybody equal opportunities
* Education reforms 1964 and 1968
* The parallel school system would be replaced by national nine-year basic education. In practice, the renewal was realized in Finland step by step between 1972 and 1977
* In 1985 the ability group system was abolished so that eligibility to further studies would be open to everyone.
* 1990s: the role of central administration diminished
* National Core Curriculum for Basic Education was introduced as from 16th January 2004
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6. Education and the Finnish society
An education system whose characteristics consist of uniformity, free education, school meals and special education by using the principle of inclusion.
Small differences : the definition of admission areas, the lack of ranking lists, the even distribution of good teachers between schools.
73 % of the year olds have at least gained a certificate from upper secondary level and 33 % (the highest in the EU) have had a university or corresponding education.
Slightly over 1% does not receive a comprehensive school leaving certificate
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7. Education Development projects
EU-funding from “Lifelong Learning” – programme
The teachers are usually enthusiastic participants in the projects even if no additional funding is offered in their implementation. One of the reasons for this is their willingness to raise the status of their subjects, and their interest in improving the quality of their own work. Schools and their teachers can also easily be reached thanks to the good ICT infrastructure.
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8. Science teaching and curriculum
The revised National Core Curriculum pays more attention to knowledge structures of different natural sciences, as well as ways of acquiring information and their applications. The aim is to achieve in-depth understanding of knowledge by means of exploratory learning. According to the National Core Curriculum, instruction in natural sciences is characterized by a problem-based approach and experiential working methods. In terms of natural sciences, the objectives, core contents and the description of good competence set out within the curriculum emphasize a diverse learning environment.
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9. Mathematics and curriculum
The guidelines given by the expert group on mathematics established in 1992:
Mathematics teaching would strive after goal-directed studying, classification of mathematical information, emphasizing acquisition of mathematical knowledge and use, problem solving and paying special attention to learning styles. Many of these recommendations and principles were included in the 1994 framework curriculum for mathematics.
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10. Teacher Training Competent teachers
Master degree required for class teacher or subject teacher post
Lack of Math and Science teachers > in-service and conversion training
Continuing teacher training
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11. Literacy in Finland High esteem of reading in Finnish culture
Large and dense network of public library
The social status of mothers as an important role-models for girls
Foreign films on TV provided with Finnish sub-titles instead of dubbing
Net-surfing, SMS, role games
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12. Future of Education Teachers professional skills
Developing new teaching methods
Guaranteed sufficient resources
Benchmarking
Pupils well-being
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13. Sources and Contact info:
Sources of Information:
VIRPI SANDERS:
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