A technology view from Finland
There was a misunderstanding about Finland’s teaching computer in the classroom as expressed by some people who attended the workshop on Finland’s education.One of my friends was so excited and wanted to buy more computers for his school’s classroom. I wrote him a letter expressed my view about education improvement and to get another view, I called another friend in Finland and inquired about it.
Dr. Elias Klauss, a Finn’s educator, told me: “We do not put the computer in every classroom. Our students do not have iPads with them all the time. Coding and programming are part of the curriculum in the Scandinavian country, and our children learn how to code very early in school. However, we do NOT consider coding as a special skill as some people may believe. Finnish children are taught to think of coding ONLY as TOOLs to be utilized across multiple subjects. For example, our children use a computer to access the Internet to view a video about nature, animals, or historical aspects just like they read textbooks. Our children learn to code just like they learn math or physics. The goal is for them to understand how technology works, and how it is relevant to their lives.”
“We do NOT think that our students are very good in technology as somebody may think just because they know how to access the internet or program an iPhone. Our education does not focus on developing a new generation of computer technologist. We only want out students to understand what a computer can do and what a human can do. We treat technology just like any other subjects such as history, arts, sociology, or geography. By teaching computer in our school, we do not focus on training our students to be programmers or software developers. We only see it as an opportunity for them to learn lots of related skills, such as how to collaborate, how to communicate, how to work in teams, how to solve problems, and how to think creatively.”
“We believe that our students learn effectively through active, direct experiences and NOT from teacher-directed rigid lecturing and forced memorization instruction. We know that students learn skills and concepts on very different paths throughout their school years; one size does not fit all, so we let them learn at their own pace. The traditional standards way pushed rigid requirements onto young students that they were not developmentally ready to meet resulting in confusion and stress among young students, creating anxiety and fears about learning. Our current education system reduced the emphasis on academic rigor in kindergarten and elementary school, and allow time for them to mature and ready to learn. We spend more time to focus on the needs of young children.”
When I asked him: “Why do you think Finland’s education is so successful compared to other countries?” He hesitated for a while before answered: “I do not think we are better than others. Our success is based on good teachers who devote to the teaching. All teachers are required to have a Master’s degree in both education theory and practice before they can teach. Each year we put a lot of training to all teachers so they can always update their method to be better. If one method fails, teachers consult with other teachers to try something else. Our society considers teachers as equal status with doctors and lawyers, not because of the salaries but because we allow teacher complete autonomy to teach whatever they think is best for the students. There are no required tests, only one exam at the end of students’ senior year in high school. Our students do not study to pass tests but to enjoy learning because there are no rankings, no comparisons, no competition among students. Why are we doing it? Because as teachers, we care about our students and want them to have a passion for learning.”
As I have written previously on my blog, to improve the education system, we must start with the teachers by raising their salary and provide more training so they can educate our students to be contributors to our society. It is more important to spend money on training good teachers than anything else, such as buying more computers or build more classrooms.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
