Finnish schools plan to abandon subjects
However, as BBC notes, not everyone supports this idea, and there are concerns that its implementation will lead to a decline in the quality of school education.
Finnish education reform
For nearly two decades, Finland has held top positions in international rankings of school education quality. It prides itself on having one of the best education systems in the world. Finnish 15-year-old students regularly achieve the highest scores in the international PISA assessment of reading, mathematics, and science.
The ability of Finnish schools to successfully prepare students—who start school at age 7, have short school days, long holidays, relatively little homework, and no exams—has always amazed primary and secondary education experts worldwide. And despite these successes, Finland is actively reforming its education system, as the country believes that in the digital age, it can no longer rely entirely on mastering book knowledge at home and in the classroom.
In August 2016, all Finnish schools switched to more interactive teaching methods: students are now allowed to choose topics that interest them and shape their learning course based on that choice. The use of new technical tools and resources outside the school—such as museums or scientists—is a crucial element of the new system.
The goal of this teaching model, known as problem-based learning (PBL), is to give children the skills needed in the 21st century, says Kirsti Lonka, professor of educational psychology at the University of Helsinki. Among these skills, she says, the most important is the ability to think critically, identify false messages, and resist aggression on social media. This also includes purely technical skills such as installing an antivirus program and connecting to a printer.
“Previously, learning always meant studying specific subjects and memorizing a huge number of facts—for example, grammar or arithmetic, with other subjects like social studies added,” notes Kirsti Lonka. “But in real life, our brain behaves differently—we don’t think in terms of individual subjects; our thinking is synthetic or holistic. And if you think about the problems of the modern world—global crises, migration, the economy, the ‘post-truth era’—it turns out we are not preparing our children to face this new intercultural world.
“I think it would be a serious mistake to tell our children that they will live in a simple and understandable world, and that if they memorize a certain number of facts, everything will be fine. We want to teach them to think, to teach them to understand—that is the most important thing in our system. It also brings students pleasure and a sense of fullness and happiness in life,” says Lonka.
How Finland is moving away from traditional classrooms
Hauho Comprehensive School is located in a picturesque rural area, among forests and lakes, just a 40-minute drive northwest of Hämeenlinna. It is a small school—only 230 children aged 7 to 15 study there. The atmosphere is very homely. At the entrance, children take off their shoes and walk in socks; instead of chairs and desks, some classrooms use inflatable gym balls, and there are exercise bars in the hallways.
Teachers do not object to smartphones in classrooms; they believe it is useful for students to learn to use them to find needed information, not just as a means of communicating with friends. On this cold day, older students during the long break do not take their eyes off their phone screens, while younger children prefer to play outside despite the snowfall.
Deputy headmaster Pekka Paappanen is a big fan of the PBL system and is looking for new ways to incorporate it into the school’s curriculum. “I discuss different ideas with other teachers, and then I allocate time and space for them in the class schedule,” he explains. “I think that within the new system, teachers have more opportunities than before, but not in everything. We are abandoning some old traditions, but we are not in a hurry to abandon everything—we face a very complex task, and we cannot afford to make mistakes.”
Focus on real problems in Europe
One of the major projects last year was the topic of immigration—during the months when the flow of illegal migrants was overwhelming Western European countries. According to Alexis Stenhollm, this topic was chosen because many of the school’s students had never or almost never personally encountered migrants or immigration. This topic was included in German language classes and religious studies lessons.
15-year-old students conducted surveys on the city streets to find out local residents’ opinions on immigration, then visited a nearby center for illegal migrants, where they talked with its inhabitants awaiting decisions on their asylum applications in Finland. The results of their work were discussed via video link with students at a school in Germany, where a similar project was being carried out.
“Our students’ reaction to this topic was very strong; they seriously thought about many issues for the first time and began to question established opinions,” recalls Alexis. “If we had simply limited ourselves to the usual three lessons, the result would have been completely different.”
Is this method effective?
However, not all teachers share the enthusiasm for the problem-based learning method. For example, physics teacher Jussi Tanuanpää fears that the knowledge gained this way will not be deep enough to prepare students for higher education. He teaches physics in the town of Lieto, near Turku. According to him, up to 30% of high school students who enroll in an advanced mathematics course are forced to switch to a lower level.
He is also concerned that this method increases the gap between less and more capable students, whereas in Finland this gap has always been minimal in the past.
“This teaching model is good for the most capable children, who understand what exactly they are learning during the experiment. It gives them freedom in setting the pace of learning; they move to the next stage when they feel ready for it,” says the teacher. “But less capable children cannot always figure this out and need constant support from the teacher. The gap between the most capable and not-so-capable children is already widening, and I am very afraid that in the future it will become even larger,” notes Jussi.
Other teachers fear that the new methods lead to an increase in their workload, and older teachers find themselves in an awkward position because they lack the computer knowledge and skills that are natural for their younger colleagues.
Jari Salminen, a teacher at the Faculty of Education at the University of Helsinki, notes that similar teaching methods were tried in the past, a hundred years ago, and were not successful. “Many guests from other countries ask me – why do you need to change a system that produces such good results? For me, this is also a mystery, because we have no data at the school level that problem-based learning improves overall results,” says Salminen.
Anneli Rautiainen, an employee of the Finnish National Agency for Education, agrees that the new teaching model is not welcomed by everyone. According to her, it is being introduced gradually; schools are required to implement only one PBL project per year. “We want to encourage teachers to work with the new model, but we are rolling it out slowly. Subjects and grades have not disappeared from the school curriculum, but we want learning to aim at acquiring skills,” she explains.
What about the results?
“We are not very interested in statistics yet, but we hope that the effectiveness of the new method will show in our children's performance as assessed by international programs such as PISA,” she says.
Although the reform of school teaching is not supported by everyone, most schoolchildren and their parents in Hauho are positive. 14-year-old Sara says she has become less tired and finds learning more interesting. Anna, of the same age, says her older sister is jealous because in her time studying was not as interesting.
Kaisa Kepsu, whose children attend the local school, says that the parents she knows have reacted positively to the changes in the curriculum. “There was a discussion among us about the fact that children still need to memorize basic facts, and I agree with that,” she says. “But it is also important to increase their motivation and interest in the world. School can be interesting, I think.”
HOW ARE FINNISH SCHOOLS DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS?
• The teacher's work is respected in society and well paid.
• There are no school inspections or teacher evaluations.
• The school education system is centralized, and most schools are funded from the budget.
• The school day does not exceed 5 hours, and summer vacation lasts 10 weeks.
• Grades are given by the teachers who teach the students. The only state exam is taken by older students who study until age 18.
• The average school enrollment is 195 students; the average class size is 19 students.
• The success of the Finnish education model is explained by society's respect for teaching and literacy, as well as a small and ethnically homogeneous population.
• In recent years, Finland has not achieved as high scores on the PISA program as in previous years.