response 3 712

100 word response 1 reference due 6/24/2023

Blackman

Finland believes that one of its most precious natural resources is its children. They focus on student well-being in all of its facet holistically, making learning student-centered, and focused on teachers as the main driver of quality as a way to “support pupils’ growth into humanity, to produce ethically responsible members of society, and to provide them with knowledge and skills needed in life after school. Nevertheless, 3 points I feel would be of value to American educators from what the Finnish educational system has proposed are equality, play based learning, and autonomy.

· First, the focus Equality is getting the right people to become teachers, developing them into effective instructors, and putting systems and supports in place to ensure that all children benefit from excellent instruction. In Finland all the students have equal amount of access to education, all schools are 100 percent publicly funded (Durbanzanrik,2012).Each student has equal access to free school meals, health care, psychological counseling and individual student guidance, regardless of socioeconomic background creating an environment of holistic learning.

· Secondly, play based leahrning is essential because in Finland, there is no failing school, they play until succeed. They have a system where allow students to learn through play as a context for learning. Teachers encourage students to actively discuss and share their thoughts and perspectives on the topics and themes of the lectures. They also allow room for students to share their experiences of the topic's relevance to their lives and allow the children to decide how they want to spend their break times creating a balance between school and work. (Durbanzanrik,2012)

· Lastly, autonomy is a great value for American’s because in Finland teachers have voices in policymaking and School boards by law, must include teachers alongside parents, classified staff, and students. Teacher are free from teaching to the test, so that they can focus on project-based learning, and other, deeper learning approaches that can work for students. They also have more time, due to school days are shorter and can spend fewer hours in classroom instruction and devote more time to preparing lessons, collaborating with colleagues to create engaging projects, and meeting with parents and students. (Durbanzanrik,2012)

 However, 2 challenges to incorporating what Finland has successfully implemented into the US educational system it the autonomy for teachers to have more time to build curriculums and the use of nationwide test to evaluate students, teachers, and schools. For example, in Finland teachers spend fewer hours at school each day and spend less time in classrooms than American teachers. Teachers use the extra time to build curriculums and assess their students. However, teaching in Finland is seen as a very desirable career and have researched based master degrees paid for by the Finland government. Thus, Finland's educational success is driven by a culture with a strong, unifying social contract, whereas, the United States lacks such a social contract and teacher are likely to pay for their own education. Another challenge is that Finland schools does not have nationwide tests to evaluate teachers, students or schools, instead relying on sample-based testing and school principals to identify potential problems whereas, the United States relies on nationwide tests to evaluate teachers, students or schools. With this notation, implementing Finland ideal school success into the United Sates School System become even harder to convert. In Finland, the national government plays the central role in the education policy, whereas the states are given the autonomy to decide their educational policies. However, in order to meet a minimal of what Finland schools are doing, the United States is going to have to take a more cultural stance on reconstructing a school system that will improve the education system on a more uniformed and researched based criteria rather than focusing on test scores to determine the success of student learning.