Finlands education system ranked number one. #2 South Korea #3 Hong Kong.

When I posted before I admit that I hadn't actually read the article. Now I have and I understand the testing procedure better. The tests related to Maths, Science and Literacy -- all hard sciences. This supports my comment regarding rote learning.

To judge an education system on test results, is too simplistic. Is this what scholorship is about, rote learning? Memorizing facts?

reply to post by deessell


It is true that standardized tests are not a good measure for educational value
the problem is then how do you gauge educational value?

The USA educational system is broken because of greed and red tape
It is true that the classrooms and teachers don't have enough money
here in the USA I have heard stories of teachers buying school material for the students
because the school can't afford them
however the real problem is not that there is no money but that the money is not reaching them
school boards and the people profiting from the schools have made sure to make their paychecks a priority

I saw the program Jimmy Oliver's food revolution
he tried to bring healthy food to a Los Angeles High school cafeteria
He failed and the kids are still eating heated pizza, mac&chess and soda

It is sad but I think the USA education system is not different from any other greedy corporation

America ranks number 1 in.........

Rewarding stupidity!

Stupidity is considered a virtue in America.

reply to post by deessell


Nope, kids gets a lot written math questions, like " farmer had three chicken and in the morning farmer gathered nine eggs, how many eggs each chicked layed" question was about multiplication.
Multiplication, they start with 1,2,5 and 10 then they start filling 3,4,6,7 and 8, not much memorizing most of the questions are written.
Many times their homework can be drawing a picture or writing what items you can find in kictchen cabinet, what can you do with these items etc

Teaching has gone a little bit to steiner school (walford school ) type of eduacation where learning is more dynamic and child friendly.
Learning to read goes with sliding alphabets in the words rather than learning exactly how each alphabet sound alone. This speeds up reading and every kid had learnt how to read at the first grade if they had not learnt yet before school.

Thank you all for the thoughtful and well typed out replies

stars for all


SS

Yet one of the most significant things Sahlberg said passed practically unnoticed. "Oh," he mentioned at one point, "and there are no private schools in Finland.

^^^^^^^^^

But isn't the right wing talking point that the market and privatization makes everything better?

Finland values and rewards its teachers--that's its secret.

Koreans are obsessive compulsive--that's theirs.

Can't vouch for Hong Kong... possibly the communist robot automaton influence from China.

Originally posted by TheOneElectric
I wonder how much money these places put in their school systems and how qualified the teachers are?

Call me crazy, but there just might be a correlation.

You think?

Part of the problem I see with Americas educational system is what they are taught. A friend of mine is from the Philippines and her daughter was taught way more advanced stuff at her age than my kids are being taught.

Originally posted by dollukka
Mostly the classes are about 20 pupils in size, no one is left behind, ...

Sounds like a good thing....but it nevertheless reminds me of this:

Education in America has traditionally been left up to each state. Each state could determine what is taught and who teaches. Beyond that, local school districts held control over education.

Thus, there could be huge differences looking at American schools from a national level. In one state, your child might be taught by someone with a Master's Degree, while in another (as happened to my friend in Alabama years ago) your high school student might be taught by a teacher who herself just graduated from high school.

Culturally, American schools are different. America families depend on schools to go beyond academics to providing sports and social activities. Thus, the emphasis on, say football for ex, and dances and clubs. In other countries, sports and social activities are provided outside of a school system. Also, American schools are too often seen by families as daycare.

Culturally, American parents are less likely to demand academic excellence, and the hard work to get there. In China and India, parents want tutoring so their student obtains an "A+" rather than an "A", whereas, American students see it as ok to slide by with a "D".

I might return with more to add, but I have to end here.

reply to post by Spike Spiegle





Read all about it!

reply to post by desert


There are clubs to kids provided by school, but its not focused at football or cheerleading or similar sport activities. There is games clubs which contains all kind of games physical ball games and classical like chess, dice and boardgames. But the difference even there is some sport related clubs, its sport in general unfocused.

Originally posted by dollukka
Lol now i have national pride

We do respect a lot teachers and they have a good eduacation to start with.

In Finland, a master's degree is required to be a teacher at any level, including the primary grades.

Here in the states a masters degree is required as well, but the problem is that these "teachers" breeze through college earning a "liberal arts" degree, then spend 1 year getting a "masters in education" or masters in teaching....they basically learned nothing this entire time...I think we should only hire teachers with a degree in a certain subject like math science or english!

reply to post by AnonymousMoose


It takes about 3 years to get Bachelor of Education and then 2 to 3 years to master's degree, so basicly it takes 5-6 years to qualification.

reply to post by dollukka


Your screenname sounds Finnish.

reply to post by rickymouse


Its a twisted word of doll and -ukka dialect spoken in Finland called savo, Tollukka means someone who is stupid so mine is a stupid doll good catch

Learning to read goes with sliding alphabets in the words rather than learning exactly how each alphabet sound alone. This speeds up reading and every kid had learnt how to read at the first grade if they had not learnt yet before school.

Back to subject tho, as i mentioned before all kids learn reading in their first grade they actually learns it in one month, so they start reading books for their first diploma 6 childrens books page count is from 30 to 60. its not heavy reading and diploma is more like a reward of job well done than actual diploma.

Sport is not taken too seriously in schools, kids have sport day when everyone at school have a "kids olympics" but everyone wins even the one who came last, there is no medals specially for winners instead every child gets one and every one is a winner.

reply to post by dollukka


"When kid has done his homework parents check them so teachers don´t have to waste teaching hours to check everyones homeworks."

This is not correct; teachers could very well be required to check the homework on own time as part of job description.

The important part is that parents will be engaged with their child, and have an understanding of how they manage. Even if the parents won't bother engaging, the student can easily look the correct answer from back of book them self and so not miss out anything but nice parent-kid interaction.

Not every parent is capable of that. The world is not fair.

This really shocked me:

The average starting salary for a Finnish teacher was $29,000 in 2008, Compared with $36,000 in the United States.

This is really a paradox, how can so badly paid people be so motivated and good at what they do?? Exactly because! If money motivates you to do any job, you are probably not such a person people want in that position. When you do it for the passion of doing it, it flows naturally from you.

Also the price level and taxes are much higher in Finland than in the US, so it is really much more noticeable in purchasing power yet!

reply to post by varikonniemi


There is no ready answers in the book pupils have, when kids do math work in the class and when finished teacher has a book with answers so every kid goes there and check themself.