Guest Speaker Paul Grover- Lecturer in Education – CSU.

We have recently heard many Australian media commentators and politicians applaud the Finnish education system because of their results on international tests in literacy, numeracy and science – and then go on to say we should adopt certain selected parts of their system to ‘fix’ our own – but they are always selective about which parts according to their own agendas  (why ‘fix’? –  because the underlying assumption is that if we are not winning the international testing race then we must be failing). Last year we welcomed at CSU Albury-Wodonga Finnish research fellow  Dr Tuija Turunen from the University of Lapland – she trains teachers for the Finnish education system.

Key points she noted about the Finnish education system:

• very high status profession (but not higher pay scale)
•  rigorous teacher education selection – highly selective from top performers (in 2012 – 8000 applicants competed for 670 places in teacher education)
• selection is based on an entrance exam, then group discussions and then personal interviews – group discussions look at personality traits and aptitude for teaching – each applicant leads a discussion based on an educational topic…looking for leadership qualities, genuine teaching potential, not dominating types or shy or those who are ‘acting’ a role, want good listeners, contributors, team players
• basic qualification required is a Master’s degree for primary & secondary teaching
• each university offering teaching courses has a school attached to it with high-quality specially selected staff as mentors – very high level of in-school training
• very, very few private schools – virtually all students attend public schools
• no major exams throughout school career for students – only at end of school for university entrance  – not a spirit of competition, but collaboration/support among students, no streamed classes based on Maths or English or Science skills – but parallel classes with all students having equal access and opportunity, accept diversity and be able to work with all people.
• least number of class hours per student in developed world & high level of teacher support for students
• school decides its own curriculum – not the government or the education department. The school is given a curriculum framework and develops the subject curriculum for their own students in their own community – teachers are highly trained to research their own students and their education needs.
• Finland does not see education as a competition with other countries – just what works for Finland…and not much attention was given in the media to these PISA results.