Finland amazed the world in 2001 when a Finnish student topped the Programme for the International Student Assessment (PISA). The world was amazed that how come a student from a small nation score the most? Then year after year, the students from Finland showed amazing results. This led the world study their education system and regard it as one of the best among the world.
The country now ranks fifth for the best educational system in the world. The topmost reason being that Finland abolished the traditional modes of teaching. Their students are not standardized and they have abolished competition. They believe in cooperation and not blaming the teachers for the student’s performance. They provide their children with a relaxed atmosphere to study and try not to burden the kids with homework.
Now, they are going a step further in breaking the stereotypical modes of schooling. They have abolished traditional classrooms and have come up with open plan learning.
The plan is set for the upcoming 10 years and has already been implemented in 100 Finnish schools. The program shall complement the new national curriculum. This curriculum which was introduced last year focuses on skills as well as subjects.
It is believed that one teacher does not know everything related to a subject, therefore Finland has adopted a way in which instead of one teacher, multiple will be catering to a class of students. This way students would be able to reach out to technical education along with focusing on their subjects and skills. Students can work in groups to learn cooperation.
When students are given the responsibility of learning, they become motivated and self-regulated, says the head of school in Oulu. Teachers in Finland have been given freedom of choosing how to teach. They say that the level of trust is high, they trust their students to learn what they are assigned and that is why their model of the open plan will not fail as it failed in Britain.
