What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart? - WSJ.com
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Saved by 16 people (3 private), first by anonymouse user on 2008-03-02
- Digizen on 2008-06-17 - Tags lecturas_interesantes , aprendizaje
- Coolcatteacher on 2008-03-24 - Tags Import , administrator , curriculum_director , education , success , testscores
- Techicebreaker on 2008-03-20 - Tags 21stcenturyskills , School2.0 , leadership
- Jcmsousa on 2008-03-20 - Tags Finland , education , pisa2003 , pisa2006
- Merynstol on 2008-03-09 - Tags 2008 , analysis , article , education , europe , finland , learning , pedagogy , teaching
Public Sticky notes
"We don't have oil or other riches. Knowledge is the thing Finnish people have,"
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Finnish educators believe they get better overall results by concentrating on weaker students rather than by pushing gifted students ahead of everyone else. The idea is that bright students can help average ones without harming their own progress.
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Teachers must hold master's degrees, and the profession is highly competitive: More than 40 people may apply for a single job. Their salaries are similar to those of U.S. teachers, but they generally have more freedom.
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One explanation for the Finns' success is their love of reading. Parents of newborns receive a government-paid gift pack that includes a picture book. Some libraries are attached to shopping malls, and a book bus travels to more remote neighborhoods like a Good Humor truck.
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Finnish teachers with chalkboards instead of whiteboards, and lessons shown on overhead projectors instead of PowerPoint.
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Finland separates students for the last three years of high school based on grades; 53% go to high school and the rest enter vocational school. (All 15-year-old students took the PISA test.) Finland has a high-school dropout rate of about 4% -- or 10% at vocational schools -- compared with roughly 25% in the U.S., according to their respective education departments.
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Finnish students have little angstata -- or teen angst -- about getting into the best university, and no worries about paying for it. College is free. There is competition for college based on academic specialties -- medical school, for instance. But even the best universities don't have the elite status of a Harvard.
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the Finns don't begin school until age 7, a year later than most U.S. first-graders.
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