Weiterentwicklung von Bildung und Forschung
Nicht erst seit der PISA-Studie ist bekannt, dass das finnische Bildungssystem beste Erfolge aufweisen kann und dies für andere Länder zumindest die Aufmerksamkeit wert ist, sich die wesentlichen Elemente dieses Erfolges zugänglich zu machen und auf Übernahmepotential zu überprüfen.
Mit diesem Hintergrund veranstaltete Fountain Park vor einiger Zeit in den Räumlichkeiten der nordischen Botschaften in Berlin Vorträge, u.a. durch Herrn Prof. Lavonen von der Universität Helsinki, und einen Workshop, der mittels eines Web-Dialoges vorbereitet wurde.
Die einführenden Worte zur Veranstaltung durch Frau Botschaftsrätin Saija Nurminen gaben die Hintergründe zum Erfolg des finnischen Bildungssystems sehr schön wieder, die Sie hier gekürzt vorfinden:
Finnish education system
The Finnish Government has set itself a grand vision for the future: we want to see Finland as a country where everybody wants to learn new things, all the time. Finland will be one of the top countries that promote modern teaching and learning. We want to encourage our education system to become a test bed for new pedagogues and digital learning.
– Finns have valued education for a long time.
– Education is a precondition for progress, prosperity and welfare.
– In order to be globally competitive and flourish as a nation, we need a well-educated population.
– Quality education is innovative and effective, and meets lifelong and life-wide individual needs, as well as the needs of the society and economy. We want to have it all.
There has been great interest in the Finnish education system over the past decade. It was first the PISA studies that highlighted Finland’s excellent learning results and the strength of our educational system. The good results were not achieved overnight, though. It has taken decades to make Finnish system what it is now.
– Our Education system is a big blend of national and international ideas, a mix of cultures and history, together with a vision of the future.
– Education policies are the outcome of innovations and consistent policy making.
The essential building blocks are:
Equity and equality (& holistic approach):
– Education is free from pre-primary education to higher education. Education providers must offer teaching materials, a warm meal every day, pupil health and welfare services and transportation.
– Variation in pupils’ skills between different schools is one of the smallest in the world. The effect of socio-economic background on learning results is also significantly lower than in other countries.
– Guaranteeing equal opportunities is essential for a small country with a small population. We want everyone’s success. We can’t afford anything less.
Teachers are in centre:
– Highly appreciated and trusted profession. Finnish teachers are all required to hold a Master’s degree. Teachers also enjoy extensive autonomy in their everyday work. National core curricula only indicate learning targets to be achieved.
– But we also require a lot from our teachers. Teachers have a central role in helping new generations to have necessary skills for being competent citizens in the changing world. Not an easy task.
– We are reforming the ways we educate our teachers and how we promote teachers’ lifelong learning throughout their careers.
Focus is on learning:
– Example: short school days which is good for learning even if less convenient for working parents.
– At the heart of learning is a student-centred approach. Binding decisions are not expected to be made at an early stage. No dead-ends.
The quality of education is guaranteed by legislation, qualification requirements and by national core curricula. High quality can be achieved without control mechanism (no ranking lists). Policy choices based on facts and research. Interaction between trust and professionalism. Which one comes first?
But here is also the need to constantly redesign and restructure our education system and being proactive. The current Government is carrying out several reforms which have an impact on all levels of education:
– A ‘digital leap’ as we are committed to making the best use of latest research in learning studies and in the ICT.
– Besides digitalization, or partly because of it, more sports and exercise. Studies have shown that learning results are better in classes where physical activity is an integral part of a normal school day.
– Foreign languages earlier. (Mind you, we are talking about age of seven – late by international standards…)
Education is of cause including the vocational education and lifelong learning. This is a challenge worldwide: how to ensure that young people have adequate skills and competencies for successful career building and for a good life also in the future.
We are very proud of our education system but of cause in general it’s impossible to copy or transfer education systems from one country to another. This doesn’t prevent us from sharing our expertise and best practices or you from borrowing the ideas, which are worth borrowing.
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Soweit die lesenswerte Einführung von Saija Nurminen. Wie das Bildungssystem mittels partizipativer Dialoge weiterentwickelt wurde und wird, führten die Redner in Ihren Vorträgen aus. Weitere Infos zur verwendeten Methodik finden Sie hier: New_innovation_in_education_2016 (pdf).