Key points to Finland's successful education:
1. Less can be more, because of quality. Quality includes "trust", getting used to "diversity" and learning to solve problems with "diversity" people.
2. No competition, no win or lose...learning is more like a team game! Everyone has a talent to spark.
- relax lesson
- many teachers teach a class, there are some who especially help the ones who are not good at some subjects
- the teachers are especially good at math, science, elementary teachers have master's degree
- teachers know where every child is at, and can help accordingly with their profession
- "I see the problems they have when they are small, and now I still do see what has happened in their youth and what is the best thing they can do."
- Learning is like a team-game, the best and worst in any subject are taught together, controversial maybe, but something works.
- Giving pupils extra help is standard practice
- Ease in achieving quality education
- "Trust" in the head educator
- every school has the same quality results!
- every school principle knows there are still more to improve upon "need more attention for those who have learning difficulties and those who are very talented, now we've started a pilot program for the students who are very gifted"
-NOKIA maintaining high standards in the cool subjects and consistency across the work force
- "diversity", the talented people can teach others, everyone can work with different people and to accept diversity
- education success if part "home-made", they have a culture here valuing education, and parents know they have a key role to play too; the parents kids and school have an "active dialogue"
** Why do Finland's schools get the best results? **
BBC World News America travels to Finland to see why the Finns are consistently top of the class. Tom Burridge reports from Helsinki
< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8601207.stm >
The Finnish philosophy with education is that everyone has something to contribute and those who struggle in certain subjects should not be left behind.
A tactic used in virtually every lesson is the provision of an additional teacher who helps those who struggle in a particular subject. But the pupils are all kept in the same classroom, regardless of their ability in that particular subject.
Finland's Education Minister, Henna Virkkunen is proud of her country's record but her next goal is to target the brightest pupils.
''The Finnish system supports very much those pupils who have learning difficulties but we have to pay more attention also to those pupils who are very talented. Now we have started a pilot project about how to support those pupils who are very gifted in certain areas.''
Primary and secondary schooling is combined, so the pupils don't have to change schools at age 13. They avoid a potentially disruptive transition from one school to another.
Teacher Marjaana Arovaara-Heikkinen believes keeping the same pupils in her classroom for several years also makes her job a lot easier.
''I'm like growing up with my children, I see the problems they have when they are small. And now after five years, I still see and know what has happened in their youth, what are the best things they can do. I tell them I'm like their school mother.''
Children in Finland only start main school at age seven. The idea is that before then they learn best when they're playing and by the time they finally get to school they are keen to start learning.
Teaching is a prestigious career in Finland. Teachers are highly valued and teaching standards are high.
The educational system's success in Finland seems to be part cultural. Pupils study in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.
Finland also has low levels of immigration. So when pupils start school the majority have Finnish as their native language, eliminating an obstacle that other societies often face.
The system's success is built on the idea of less can be more. There is an emphasis on relaxed schools, free from political prescriptions. This combination, they believe, means that no child is left behind.