The reasons behind the success of Finland in the PISA assessments

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The reasons behind the success of Finland in the PISA assessments

Course code: EDLS 420

Lecturer's Name: Lea Kuusilehto

Date: 20^th March, 2011

Institute of Educational Leadership

University of Jyvдskylд

“Quality is not accidental” is a very famous Jukka's saying in our department. And Finland's results in PISA do prove it. The results what we see, the statistics, diagrams, tables and figures will not tell us about the work behind them. All these is the outcome, consequence or just statement of fact, but quality is what happens before it, the process and time.

In order to understand the Finnish success in PISA one needs to go to details, to history, country's curriculum, people's values, system of education, to understand its peculiarities and many other factors. It is impossible to take one of these components, introduce in another country and expect great changes; all of them in summary give this success.

The birth of the Finnish education is considered to be given by the Lutheran church, while Finland still was a part of Sweden. Yet as far as in the 16^th century the church wanted people to be able to read at least some parts from the Bible. (EDLS 510, lecture on 9.03.11) It was a motivation for people and so church became the first educational institute, “house of knowledge”. But Finland is not the only one country with the Lutheran values and viewpoints; there are still some of them in Europe. Denmark, Norway, Germany also share this religion, but unfortunately do not perform in PISA on the same level, but with a great difference. So, the church gave a start, green light, but other factors played important roles as well.

People say that one of the factors can be the prestige of this profession and the following high level of teacher education. I suppose that respect to teachers began from the Lutheran reform. Even nowadays the Church plays an important role in the society. But the fact I wonder most of all is that what a great job teachers must be doing during these five centuries to save this prestige. And the possible answer might be high performance and requirements. Teachers must be always one jump ahead. Thus, today it is obligatory for them to have a Master's degree and in addition to this a lot of courses and seminars are organized regularly.

Teachers' Master's degree is also required by high level of parents' education. So that parents want their child to have only best teachers, as it will be so-called “joint surety” of student's high outcome. And as a result of this is high competition and selection of teacher recruitment. As Finns say, only 10% of the applicants are accepted.

It is not a secret that the XXth century was not economically lucky one for Finland. Finland was a part of Russia till 1917, then it suffered from the World War II and it took a long time to pay the debts to Russia. But in early 90-s Finland experienced crisis, when the unemployment rate was quite high, while country's GDP was comparatively low. But in spite all of these difficulties, education did take place. Thus, in 1921, soon after the country became independent, a 6-year education was proclaimed compulsory. And as a result of this, schools were established all over the country.

According to Salberg the performance of Finnish students in 1990s was not very high, it was mostly on the average level, only literary performance was better. (P. Salberg, 2009, p 12) But already in 10 years and till nowadays Finland is surprising the world with its high PISA results. Of course, historical background does take a place and there was made something superficial in these 10 years.

The interesting fact is that in 1995 soon after or even during the crisis, a new goal was established by the National Strategy of Education, Training and Research in the Information society. Beginning from this year “public and private investment in Finnish education increased 34% from 1995 to 2004” (Pasi Sahlberg, 2009, p.11.) Finland is also famous for its live long education, that there are no dead ends in it. But the idea itself was introduced on the national level in the year 1997. (P. Sahlberg, 2006, p. 14) The government's goal was to increase national competitiveness and decrease the unemployment rate.

But all these factors are background for the Finnish success. The greatest component of it is the system of education itself which was remarkably improved in resent years. The first factor here, which surprises even EU citizens, is the absence of teachers' evaluation. Every teacher, does not matter if he or she has just graduated from the university, was unemployed for several years or is a very experienced one, is free from any control. This is absolutely opposite to case in Germany, where just graduated teachers are targets of control. Finland used to have an inspector in education about 20 years ago or so. And teachers still remember how uncomfortable it was. While nowadays teachers do not feel stress, are not afraid of being fired if they fail some exams. And this feeling of confidence in their job, gives them more time to be concentrated on their subject, on students' learning and performance, it gives teachers a chance to plan their teaching long ahead. And the same free and friendly atmosphere is visible in the students' life. There are no tests evaluating their knowledge level except the matriculation exam, which takes place before leaving the school. The government aims to create an easy, funny, interesting, encouraging and stimulating atmosphere for learning, and teachers are tools for these goals. This free learning process is possible only if both, teachers and students are in the same situation and do not experience pressure from above. The idea of trust is fundamental in this aspect. (MCE0220, lecture on 11.03.11) Government trusts municipalities, municipalities trust principals, principals trust teachers and teachers trust students. And this trust goes not only up to down, but from down to up as well. Trust is the key for the whole society.

Another one important factor is free, inclusive and equal education. Good education in Finland is not considered to be a privilege of high class society. Everybody has equal access to it. Education in Finland is mostly public and there is no difference between schools. The schools are free from ranking and do not have policy to advertise themselves as the best ones to have students. There is no competition between schools and even cities. Each school performs on the same level, and that is why many parents trust the school which is close to their house, as there is no need for them to search for a better one. Finnish schools also make the education as inclusive as it is possible. The social policy of the country is to make society united; do not hide people with special needs behind the walls. And that is why Finnish schools have good equipment for handicaps, so that these students attend usual schools and follow the usual curriculum. The gender aspect is not visible on the school level as well. Both, girls and boys have equal access to the education, materials and are free with their wishes and preferences. There is not a single subject organized only for girls or boys, everything is up to them. The case of free education is not a surprise for Europe. But almost the absence of private sector is not so common. And this has a great impact on people's equality; it narrows down the families' economic background and people do not try to emphasize it later, after graduation as well. During the difficult XXth century, when Finland experienced several crises, it was a good governmental decision to make people united.

In 2003 many educational researches mentioned that some of the key factors for Finland in PISA are good educated parents, and a popular reading habit. The more educated parents the better they understand the necessity of education, and they themselves are good examples for their children. Finnish people and students as well do read a lot. According the PISA's questionnaire more and more students prefer to read online; it can be a newspaper, a magazine, random articles or even forums, but real newspaper reading is still on the first place and while usual books are loosing their popularity. (The Finnish success in PISA - and some reasons behind it, 2007, p 28)

Finnish education itself and National curriculum are very flexible. Teachers have freedom in methods they use for their job. The idea to make a study plan for each student of the school is giving good results. Students have choice what, when and how much they want to study subjects and at the same time it helps to develop their personalities. Finnish education emphasizes on making different experiments, observations, practical classes, so that children learn through observing and feeling. Teachers are not focused on students' memorizing any more, but rather on understanding. (The Finnish success in PISA - and some reasons behind it, 2007, p 26)

Each school will have at least one teacher of special education. And each student can attend his classes at least once or twice a week. Special education here does not mean education for the weakest students, who are behind everyone. Any students, even one of the best performing still can attend these classes, and reasons for this may be different. Some students could be ill and did not go to school for several days and now it is difficult for them to understand the topic; some students might be very sensitive and can not work in a noisy atmosphere or maybe some students just can not understand the theory or rule, and they will prefer to see a special teacher. (The Finnish success in PISA - and some reasons behind it, 2007, p 48)

The important point for the whole picture might be a pre-school education as well. Almost 98% of children attend kindergartens or day care centers, but pre-school is taken by all 100%.

As it is seen from above Finland's success in PISA, Finnish quality is not a one-year programme, everything is planned and combined very properly. The start was given more than 10 years ago and now we can see the results. Free, flexible, accessible, never-ending, life-long, inclusive and free from any pressure education gives high societal competitiveness and helps in country's development.

Finnish success is possible to compare with a good cake, but this cake is only for Finns. And it is impossible to take only eggs or sugar and expect a cake. Any cake is a good combination of ingredients. But at the same time the same cake can smell or taste awful for others. And others will need to find other ingredients for their taste.

This last paragraph is not appropriate in an academic assignment, though a nice metaphor. As the focus is on education provision, you should clarify, what consequences each choice might have. In the case of Finland, the result with the education policy of equity and equality has been societal peace, low corruption, good governance, economic prosperity. As soon as you replace one ingredient = one aspect of policy with another, you get a different kind of outcome in terms of societal issues. To make the choice/decision between the “ingredients”, understanding what the result is in society, is called political decision making.

education lutheran church student assessment

List of references

Reference:

1. EDLS 510, Management structures and administration of educational reform, by Lea Kuusilehto, Historical Aspects of School Reforms in Finland, 9.03.11

2. Юха Ойанен, Финская система образования

3. П. Салберг, АНАЛИТИЧЕСКИЕ МАТЕРИАЛЫ Образовательные реформы для повышения экономической конкурентоспособности, 2009

4. Pasi Sahlberg, A short history of educational reform in Finland, 2006

5. MCE0220, Education in Finland, lecture and discussion on Peculiarities and Problems of Finnish Education, 11.03.11

6. Vдlijдrvi J., Kupari P., Linnakylд P., Reinikainen P., Sulkunen S., Tцrnroos J., Arffman I. (2007) The Finnish success in PISA - and some reasons behind it 2, Jyvдslylд: Kirjapaino Oma Oy

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