This book covers why Finnish education system is so great and what are the skills to provide for the 21st century.
Learned a few things about Finnish education:
- Charging for schooling is illegal, so even the few private schools are tuition-free (raising money)
- The Finnish education system relies entirely on highly educated teachers. E.g. in the University of Helsinki, more than 2 000 apply to the class teacher (grades 1-6) program every year, and only 120 are accepted.
- There are tons of different approaches to learning being researched, in Finland only. Most learning approaches connect theory and practice in some way.
About learning:
- Kids over school year ask less and less questions and soon learn more according to adults’ goals than out of curiosity and a joy of learning.
- Emotions play a key role in human coping and adaptation, since they help us to protect ourselves from threat (imagined or real) and engage in things that appear fascinating.
- Many pupils may feel that at school they regress into the knowledge practices of their parents and grandparents.
- Schools are no place to carry out mechanical tasks, since even cognitive routines will soon be automatized. Future citizens need creative thinking in their everyday lives to tackle increasingly complex and ill-defined problems.
- Phenomenon-based learning (by the author) means teaching through actual in-world phenomena.