It's astonishing how there are videos that span nearly a decade talking about the same subject and always referring to the 'current system', nothing has changed significantly in that time and even leading up to this video and 8 months later, the state of the system is still the same. This man needs to be heard on a larger scale. Nothing makes more sense than what he Says.
International studies once showed that Finnish student performance was below average. The Government wanted improvement and sent educators around the world to see what worked in other countries. The government decided to abolish their selective system and grammar schools were replaced with comprehensive schools. The Government decided to have mixed ability classes with no streaming or setting. The Government introduced a law so that all children have a 15 minute break after 45 minutes of teaching. This prevents cognitive overload for pupils and teachers. It also provides time for the teacher to speak to misbehaving pupils and achieve good discipline. The Government sets out a curriculum that is short with only a few pages of text per subject. The curriculum is not overwhelming, leaving time in the year for teachers to plan local activities and innovate. The Government set out the number of hours of study per subject per year. The Government works with Universities to implement teacher training. Teacher training stresses the implementation of active learning strategies, monitoring, feedback and the idea of the teacher as a researcher. ‘Class teachers’ are trained to teach pupils between the ages of 7 to 13. They teach all subjects (Finnish, Swedish, Maths, Music, PE, Art, RE, Science and English) in a mixed ability class with less than 20 pupils. They keep the same class from year to year and soon know the pupils that need extra support. Science is taught to very young pupils as environmental science. This allows the opportunity for outdoor education, more relevance and integration with geography. The national curriculum for older primary pupils directs them to study ‘biology with geography’ and ‘physics with chemistry’. ‘Subject teachers’ teach pupils aged 13+ and science now becomes chemistry, physics and biology. Teachers on exchange visits comment that lessons are not drastically different to those in their countries and comment that Finnish teachers are not ‘super teachers’ but are very involved with individual pupil learning and pupil progress. Lessons have mixed activities with a focus on checking that learning has been successful. Teacher talk (passive learning) is balanced by pupil activities (active learning such as reading, careful annotation of text, making flashcards, making simple mind maps and writing summaries or essays). The lesson often ends with a short written test. Peer to peer discussions are sometimes used and a bright pupil is paired with a less able pupil and each has to explain what they have learned in the lesson. Continuous assessment for an older secondary school pupil using a textbook involves a range of assessments:- 1. Attendance and behaviour ...10% 2. Homework ...20% 3. Short tests at the end of each textbook chapter (one page of questions) ...30% 4. An end of term test includes one question from each chapter (or an essay) and an extra ‘problem solving’ question. The latter is very difficult for pupils and it tests the ability to apply a concept in a novel situation ...40% Teachers enjoy their jobs and few leave teaching. Girls and boys state they are very satisfied with their wellbeing in PISA studies. Finland is consistently towards the top in PISA tests for educational attainment. The Government approves science and mathematics textbooks for older pupils that have been tried and tested in schools. Textbooks have teacher guides and these provide lesson plans for teachers for every term. They also contain extension material, printouts and projects. Textbooks are supplemented with free internet material. Parents pay for these textbooks. Parents also pay for laptop computers for older pupils. These pupils do projects and research on the internet. Other pupils and the teacher comment critically on their progress at weekly presentations and a project may last for three weeks. It is assessed on a scale of 10 (excellent) to 4 (fail) by the teacher. The Government directs examination boards to set questions that assess the understanding of concepts and their application in novel situations rather than just factual recall. The application of knowledge (problem solving) is a higher order of skill in Blooms Taxonomy of Learning. There is a minimum reliance on multiple choice questions as these are viewed as only useful for testing factual recall. The possibility of guessing also reduces the reliability of this type of test. The Government believes that SATs testing is unnecessary as continual assessment provides sufficient data about pupil attainment. The Government introduced several layers of accountability. Pupils are made accountable to teachers through continuous assessment. Continuous assessment involves short tests periodically and end of term tests for all subjects. Copies of marked papers are sent home and parents have to sign a document to say they have read the report. Teachers input grades into a national database called WILMA. Teachers discuss pupil progress, behavioural problems and innovations with the headteacher every term. Parents can be invited to the school to discuss issues and the school psychologist and school social worker may be involved. The headteacher is made aware of their own school progress through external government tests. These do not occur every year for every school. Tests only examine a 10% sample of Finnish schools when pupils are 12 (end of primary school) and 15 (end of middle school). Pupils are informed of the test on the day and not before. For example English may be tested at 12 and Mathematics may be tested at 15. The school results are not published. The tests are designed to test whether pupils have reached a minimum standard rather than being designed to rank pupils. They give feedback as to how well the national curriculum is being implemented. Inspectors can visit and support a school if results are poor. The Government is now reviewing the curriculum to periodically introduce topics that require strategies which are needed in modern industry, such as working together, confidence with IT and creativity. It is compulsory to have one cross curricular project in each class in each year. Environmental studies are popular. The Government spends much less on education than many other countries despite having small class sizes and insisting that schools often provide extra support for the less able in the classroom. Schools also employ a psychologist and a social worker and these may be shared in rural areas. Finland does not have the enormous expense involved in SAT testing and the cost of hundreds of Government school inspectors. Finland does not have the huge costs involved for a national test in all subjects at 16. Parents pay for examination entries at 18. There are a few private schools in cities in Finland. They follow the national curriculum and they are directly accountable to the Government. The results of continuous assessment are used at 15 (end of middle school) to decide whether a pupil will follow an academic route or a vocational route. Counsellors meet with pupils to discuss their options. Some pupils opt to take some nationwide examinations in a few subjects to try to improve their grade. This could allow them access to the academic route or to a very popular school in a city. The first mandatory national examinations are for pupils aged 18 (end of upper secondary) and these allow entry to a university or a polytechnic. Continuous assessment grades are also considered in applications. Some universities also set their own examinations.
My daughter went to St. Johns, located (original campus) in Annapolis, Maryland... she started out though for the first two years in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Just kudos to St. John from a happy parent. Meanwhile, what Ken said about promoting thought and sharing in the classroom, versus 'instruction' (forgive my translation) is one of the reasons I loved St. Johns so much. This may seem simple to some, but I really appreciated it - their class is usually conducted around a circular desk where everyone, including the instructor, sit equally apart. To make this quicker, they promote dialogue. St. Johns is very much a 'two way conversational college'. You will not be talked down to, but you will be discussed with... with everyone in the class that is. I loved it. Just like I loved Sir Robinson. I hope I see another person that can continue his legacy of informing all of us about what education is suppose to be.
This is so good . I don't want to watch it now, but to save it so that I can hear it for the "first time" a bit like saving the" best bit to last " because once I have heard it "for the first time " that experience will be over . I look forward to veiwing it later .
Encouraging empowerment in education by moving beyond old modes and encouraging the development of values like creativity, collaboration, creativity will be leading to increasing self directed learning and the development of intrinsic models of learning for students, especially in the era of Covid19 and beyond. How are we teaching ourselves to discover meaning, one of the greatest human freedoms, as Victor Frankl says? How are we teaching people the value of self directed learning? Now and beyond, stakeholders could ask ourselves more holistically: How might we identify what is truly meaningful in education? How are you identifying the needs of students in an evolving landscape, and encouraging them to communicate these? How might our approach to education be more adaptable and open to new ways, with an increasing capacity for wonder, for curiosity, for inquisitiveness? What might you do, today?
there's a lot of talk and discussion and i love that, i love sir Ken Robinson's speeches and everything he says has meaning to it. But if the world is not willing to come together and address this issue its useless. We need to start somewhere and not make excuses like " an education system cannot be changed over night" Well it'll change if we start making small changes ourselves Edit: Alot of people who are not even a part of the education system anymore are debating about what it means to them. No one seems to care to ask a 15, 16 or a 17 year old student what education means to him or her
I'm a senior in a k12 school and I hate it not just cause some students are mean cause that's just people sometimes but the system is so well wrong I have 4 classes from 8 to 2 50 90 min each class 5 min between each to get to the next class and about 20 min or less for lunch cause their are lines
The Way to Live, by 'Billy' Eduard Albert Meier (BEAM). This book has 500 passages. The first passage - "1) The Seven Steps of the Education. The happenings of the world depend on the thoughts. I) As the first step, the human being must search for and find the truth and, out of that, learn and widen the knowledge. II) As the second step, the human being must correct his/her thoughts, using control and direct them to the truth of his/her attained knowledge. III) As the third step, the human being must create his/her inner harmony by means of his/her knowledge and by means of his/her thoughts. IV) As the fourth step, the human being must - proceeding out of his/her inner harmony - correct, order, form and harmonise his/her own personality. V) As the fifth step, the human being must correct, order, form and harmonise his/her direct surroundings and his/her family life and life with his/her relatives. VI) As the sixth step, the human being must correct, order, form and harmonise his/her closer environment of the friends, comrades and acquaintances. VII) As the seventh step, the human being is then capable of correcting, ordering, forming, harmonising and leading a group of human beings, the mass of humanity, the country and the world in a form which is wise, which is fair to the human being and which is creational-natural-law-based."
