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Re: More on Scandinavian Academic Success
Let's not forget that it's the broader social
context in Scandinavian countries that makes
their superior public education possible. While
they're not "socialist paradises," they have been
Social Democracies since the end of
WWII. Progressive taxation raises the revenue
for social spending on the people, like national
health care, mass transit, etc The US right wing
liked to call them "welfare states." Invest your
wealth in your people and you get more educated, more sophisticated people.
Pete Farruggio
At 12:17 PM 3/3/2008, you wrote:
U.S. EDUCATORS SEEK LESSONS FROM SCANDINAVIA
HIGH-SCORING NATIONS ON AN INTERNATIONAL EXAM
SAY SUCCESS STEMS FROM AUTONOMY, PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
eSchool News -- March 3, 2008
by Meris Stansbury
A delegation led by the Consortium for School
Networking (CoSN) recently toured Scandinavia in
search of answers for how students in that
region of the world were able to score so high
on a recent international test of math and
science skills. They found that educators in
Finland, Sweden, and Denmark all cited autonomy,
project-based learning, and nationwide broadband
internet access as keys to their success.
What the CoSN delegation didn?t find in those
nations were competitive grading, standardized
testing, and top-down accountability?all staples
of the American education system.
As CoSN officials explained during a webcast
held Feb. 27, the delegation traveled to
Helsinki, Stockholm, and Copenhagen to talk with
the ministries of education in each country and
exchange ideas with local business and school leaders.
The group?s goal was to learn how these
countries are approaching education, reaching
students, involving teachers, and implementing
policy. Specifically, CoSN wanted to see how
strategic investment in information and
communications technology (ICT) was affecting education in the region.
As in the United States, most Scandinavian
classrooms are connected to the internet,
students and teachers have access to computers,
and there is an ample supply of online learning
resources and virtual-schooling programs.
However, according to Keith Krueger, CoSN?s
chief executive, ICT in that area of the world
?is supportive of programs, rather than a
driving force, and is viewed as important
primarily to ensure students? success in their future careers.?
Kati Tuurala, Microsoft?s education manager in
Finland?whose students scored the highest in
both math and science on the latest Program for
International Student Assessment (PISA)?said
there is a ?huge change in the knowledge economy
because of the global market. In order to ensure
future success, we need to know how to go from good to great.?
She credits Finland?s success to its major
reforms of the 1970s, which included an emphasis
on primary education for everyone in the
country. ?That?s the reason for our present-day success,? Tuurala said.
In all three countries, students start formal
schooling at age seven after participating in
extensive early-childhood and preschool programs
focused on self-reflection and social behavior,
rather than academic content. By focusing on
self-reflection, students learn to become
responsible for their own education, delegates said.
Barbara Stein, manager of external partnerships
and advocacy for the National Education
Association, said Scandinavian countries
?encourage philosophical thought at a very young
age. ? Grading doesn?t happen until the
high-school level, because they believe grading
takes the fun out of learning. They want to inspire continuous learning.?
In fact, educators and policy makers in all
three countries view accountability and
assessment far differently than in the United
States, delegates said. In contrast to the focus
on quantitative measures and standardized
testing found in No Child Left Behind (NCLB),
Scandinavian officials rely on a system that
produces highly competent teachers who use their
professional expertise to work with each student
and develop individualized learning plans.
?My teacher? and ?the teacher? are terms of
respect, not only when used by the students, but
also by the school leader or headmaster. The
teacher is most often viewed as a mentor,
someone who has both knowledge and wisdom to
impart and plays a key role in preparing students for adulthood.
In Finland, for instance, teaching is one of the
most highly venerated professions in the
country?and only one in eight applicants to
teacher-education programs are accepted. All
teachers there have a master?s degree.
Unlike in the United States, which has taken the
opposite approach, Scandinavian countries have
established national curriculum standards but
have set fairly broad mandates, letting
authority trickle down as close to the classroom
as possible. Local school officials have the
flexibility to provide education services
according to their students? unique needs and
interests, as long as the basic policy framework is followed.
Therefore, teachers are extremely autonomous in
their work. So are students. For example,
internet-content filtering in the three
countries is based largely on a philosophy of
student responsibility. Internet filters rarely
exist on school computers, other than for
protection from viruses or spam. As a school
librarian in Copenhagen said, ?The students
understand that the computers are here for learning.?
Julie Walker, executive director of the American
Association of School Librarians, said these
countries see students as having ?the filter in their heads.?
Walker also noted that while ?the U.S. holds
teachers accountable for teaching, here they
hold the students accountable for learning.?
One school that delegates visited in Copenhagen,
Katrinedalsskolen, has students become
independent learners working across curricular
areas. Students stay with one teacher or mentor
from grades one through nine, moving freely
about the building?which is centered around the
school library, or ?pedagogical center.?
Assessment
In the Danish system, the notion of grading is a
foreign concept, with competitive grading
postponed until high school. Students are judged
in relation to their own growth, rather than
that of others, and they are continuously
evaluated. Teachers also write individual
learning plans for each student after these evaluations.
Project-based learning begins in the first
grade, and teachers work with students to
structure their learning through a process
described by one educator as ?dialogue and
trust.? Assessment is achieved primarily through
a dialogue with each student, as is
communication with parents about their child?s progress.
Exams tend to be limited as exit criteria to
grade nine, along with a project-based
assignment that requires students to plan,
research, present, and create around a broad theme.
Finland, which does not use standardized exams,
reformed its educational system in the 1990s to
remove the European school inspectorate system
of accountability. According to Walker,
?Students use progressive inquiry and are
educated through questions and problem solving.?
The change occurred because teachers felt the
system stifled them and hindered creativity in the classroom.
One school in Helsinki, Aurinkolahti School,
believes that learning should let children ?have
fun and know the joy of life.? Educational
technology is used to create a community of
learners who build knowledge together.
ICT abroad
It?s important to note that in all three
countries, neither abject poverty nor
ostentatious wealth are manifest, webcast
participants heard. This is owing to strong
traditions of social programs that provide young
people and their families with a robust support
system. ?Therefore,? explained Krueger, ?there
is no great digital divide like in the U.S.?
About 98 percent of homes in all three countries
have computers and broadband internet
connections. The communities in all three
countries also frequently have media centers
where students and teachers can receive help from qualified professionals.
Because of this high degree of home
connectivity, Sweden has decided that the
government is not in charge of implementing technology in its schools.
So, home connectivity does not necessarily
translate into widespread, sophisticated use of
ICT in schools. Said Krueger, ?We did not hear
expressions about the need to make a deep-level
change in the nature and structure of schooling
in the three countries ? nor did we get the
sense that ICT was provoking efforts to
reconstruct the nature and role of school in an extensively wired society.?
However, connectivity for all schools is still a
goal in Denmark, and its widespread
implementation is encouraged through district
competitions for winning technology prizes.
Denmark also has a national social-networking
portal and is a leader in terms of Web 2.0 applications.
Yet, none of the three countries has implemented
classroom technology to the scale of the United
States. Said Ann Flynn, director of educational
technology for the National School Boards
Association, ?Technology is less visible in all
classrooms?technology such as whiteboards,
student response systems, students
laptops?they?re just more focused on personal productivity.?
Technology tools, such as computers, have been
given primarily to teachers as a way of
supporting their instruction?but there are few
student-focused ICT initiatives, such as one-to-one computing programs.
Nobody?s perfect
Tuurala said that Finland, though ranked highest
on the PISA exam, still ?doesn?t have a clear
vision as a nation as to what constitutes our
national education policy. We need to ask
ourselves, ?What do we need in order to succeed
in this global employability market???
A reoccurring theme in all countries was the
need for policy makers and education
administrators to have a clear vision of how
technology can improve teaching and learning.
?We heard this in nearly every meeting, whether
it was being identified as the reason for a
success strategy, or its absence highlighted as
a core reason for lack of progress,? said Krueger.
He continued: ?There appears to be less focus on
the use of ICT for innovation. Clearly, it takes
strong and visionary leadership to promote new
uses of technology or other strategies, when you
have succeeded with traditional high-stakes measures.?
The webcast concluded by emphasizing that even
though these three countries are succeeding in
student achievement, they also grapple with some
of the same questions encountered in the
U.S.?how to ensure high-quality learning, how to
use technology more effectively, how to gain
digital maturity, and how to reenergize the use
of technology in schools on a continual basis.
Link: Consortium for School Networking http://www.cosn.org/
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=52770
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