Benjamin ’s Reviews > In Teachers We Trust: The Finnish Way to World-Class Schools > Status Update

The importance of teacher autonomy. Communication between all parties. In 2014 FInland established a national framework but it wasn;t a Common Core as curriculum is determined at local level with involvement of teachers. Integrated multidisciplinary learning that was falsely reported by media as getting rid of subject. A key component is project based learning. Their positive mention of John Dewey makes me suspect

Talks about how teachers learn. There is a lot of practical training and not a lot of meeting with a professor at the education school. They directly meet students and their lead teachers. Masters degrees are required for teachers. They also have mentors (not professors). Secondary level a lot of preservice teachers come form background outside teaching. Constant feedback from mentor and kids. 3 years.

Previously it had mentioned how one of the issues in American education was how reliant they were on testing, and things like No Child Left Behind and race to the top only made it worse. Now they talk about what is expected of teachers in Finland. Saying it is harder to become a teacher than get into law school, with all teacher requiring a master's degree and how well they do academically not necessarily determine

Talk about how children in Finland are trusted with more independence at a younger age than many other places (age 9 shop at grocery store, 11 visit dentist alone, 13 start earning money). In the early 2000s Finland started ranking highest on education and initially the local experts couldn't explain it. Finnish teachers gained more independence due to budget cuts, less admin, less testing, less bureaucracy.

Culture of trust and how it is implemented in schools. Claim that Finland has a higher trust in teachers than anywhere else in Europe. They throw around the claims about how Finland is better in most metrics such as being safest , least crime, and most stable (several are completely false such as claiming to be the most free, but they do not have true free speech, and bets government which is really subjective).

The Foreword is written by someone who just seems to talk about how glad he is not to be in the US and doesn't seem to directly relate to the topic of the book at all. Then the authors give some background on the authors, one originally from Finland, the other from the US. They talk about the key to Finnish education is trust. Five elements: Benevolence, Honesty, Openness, Reliability, Competency.