Finnish lessons for Hamilton

Pasi Sahlberg: Finnish Lessons:

Notes from talk at Canadian School Boards Conference July 2014

In the last decade there has been a global education reform movement (GERM) to improve education built on the following assumptions:

·         Schools will improve if you increase competition between them

·         Need external standardization of education (particularly seen in Germany and USA)

·         Increase faith in the efficacy of testing

·         Strong accountability needed for education.

Also thought that kids are not working hard enough.

Countries that have adopted these assumptions have seen their student achievement scores go down.

Contrast between GERM and Finnish education reform movement:

GERM	Finland
Kid has to be prepared to be ready for school	School has to be ready for all kids
Student has to be prepared for college readiness	Youth have to be ready for life
Prescribed learning standards required	School-made curriculum
Teaching as an individual race	Teaching as a team sport
Need a good school for me	Need a good school for every kid.

OECD PISA international test results show that:

·         competition and school choice are not related to improved student performance;

·          greater autonomy over curricula and assessment seem to improve student performance

·         highest performing countries are those that combine equity with quality.

Equity

PISA uses different measures to demonstrate equity in schools. The first is socio-economic status; in equitable systems students do well in school regardless of their socio-economic background. PISA examines the achievement of particularly vulnerable youth including immigrants compared to those from other backgrounds as another rmeasure. Finally it examines the variation in scores among schools.  An equitable school system is where there is little variation in student achievement scores by school.

Finland is at the international top in equity and quality. There is little variation in the performance of its schools.

 Pasi reminded the audience that Canada scores quite high in equity, with immigrants achieving better than many European countries. Some Provinces in Canada also have equitable schools. There are variances between Provinces with Newfoundland and Manitoba doing less well, and Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia doing the best. Quebec has high quality and equity:  students who are in the bottom socio-economic quartile are performing at the top.

Pasi’s Final Comments

·         Children must play

Children spend less time in school in Finalnd and have less homework than in the USA, but achieve far higher in school.

·         Power to women

AS women play a large role in early child development and family support their status is important to children. Canada is 41 in the world in the power it gives women

·         Excellence in education can only be achieved if gaps are closed through equity.

See http://pasisahlberg.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/CSBA-Congress-2014.pdf

Relevance to of these ideas to Hamilton

Importance of play for children: play in kindergartens was nearly lost. Its importance is being restored through Every Day Kindergarten practices. Similar techniques need to follow into Grade 1.Where play is taking place actively in an educational environment , there can be real responsiveness to where children are in their development, as well as meaningful ways to raise expectations, nurture and increase creativity, and develop critical thinking skills in ways that are meaningful to children.

Preparing schools for the child not the child for the school, and preparing youth for life and not for college.

Schools need to be responsive kids’ needs.  We need to continue to foster ways to hear from students. The school’s emphasis should be on a large range of experiences and producing well rounded adults. So there needs to be greater emphasis on the Arts as well as physical literacy.

Equity:

Currently there are big differences in student achievement among Hamilton schools. As well students of lower socio-economic status often achieve less well in school than more affluent students. Both need to be improved if Hamilton is to become a more vibrant economic community and all students are to reach their potential. The gaps between high achieving schools and low achieving schools need to be reduced. The Secondary School Strategy, which has this as one of its aims, is a promising step in further work on equity in Hamilton schools. But more needs to be done to understand why some students are failing or dropping out, and stronger cohesion between community, agencies and schools is needed to support those students at risk. Strong efforts have been made to allocate resources in an equitable manner but this needs to be fully implemented and supported.  There will not be excellence in education in Hamilton until these gaps are closed.