Finnish Education Perspectives

William Doyle is an award-winning author and TV producer who has produced and programmed hundreds of TV shows for HBO, The History Channel, PBS, and A+E, and has written articles and opinion pieces for CNN, Fox News, Politico, Psychology Today, and the Wall Street Journal.

William has served as a Fulbright Scholar and Scholar in Residence at Finland's largest teacher training school, the University of Eastern Finland. He has also served as an advisor to the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. He spent much of his life in New York City and currently lives in Helsinki, where his child attends public school.

Michael Lawrence is an Australian school teacher with more than 30 years of experience. When he visited Finland to take a look at their world-leading education system, he came away in a state of shock.

"Finnish teachers looked at me like I was insane when I described the NAPLAN tests (National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy) given to children as young as eight. With shocked expressions, they asked why Australian teachers allowed this to be done to such young children..."

Michael felt that there was no reasonable answer to this. His investigation into what made the Finnish system so successful quickly became an inquiry into why his own (Australian) system wasn't working.

The next few years would see more time in Finland interacting with Finnish educators at all levels. Michael's research went deep. He held multiple formal and informal interviews and worked alongside Tampere University and Tampere University of Applied Sciences to bring training to Australian teachers.

A happy outcome of his profound interest in Finland also led to his book entitled Testing 3-2-1: What Australian education Can Learn from Finland: A Teacher's Perspective. The book tells the story of how Australian education fell behind the world’s best and why Finland came to lead. It's also a guide to how some of Finland’s ideas can be used by teachers and schools to begin to reverse this.

In today’s interesting free-flowing discussion, Melissa and Michael discuss:

• Testing in Australian schools and how Finland compares
• Creativity in schools and whether we can rank/grade it
• How teachers can be 'rebels' in their own classrooms
• Top tips for enhancing teaching and learning with a 'touch of Finland' in your own classroom

Linda Liukas is a programmer, storyteller and illustrator from Helsinki, Finland. Her book series Hello Ruby introduces the whimsical world of technology to kids and has now been translated into over 25 languages. Her fabulous TED talk about ‘A delightful way to teach kids about computers’ has been viewed over 2 million times.

Linda is a key figure in the world of programming and worked in edutech before it was called that. She’s the founder of Rails Girls, a global phenomenon teaching the basics of programming to young women all over the world.

She believes that code is 21st-century literacy and the need for people to speak the ABC of Programming is here. She also believes our world is increasingly run by software and we need more diversity in the people who are building it.

Linda has studied business, design and engineering at Aalto University and product engineering at Stanford University. She is the recipient of many awards including Ruby Hero, Digital Champion of Finland and the State Award for Children’s Culture.

In today's talk we listen to Linda's sharp intellect, and melodic voice, reflect about:

💎The best and most challenging parts of the Finnish education system.
💎The role of technology in growing and developing as a human being.
💎How curiosity and connection during childhood can make meaningful technology experiences regardless of the medium.
💎Bridging the gap between emotions and technology.

Kaisa Vuorinen is a doctoral researcher of positive education at the University of Helsinki. She is the founder and CEO of Positive Learning Ltd.

Kaisa has extensively studied the strengths-based approach to teaching and work, and trained school teachers and companies in this important field. The key themes of her lectures include creating a work culture of compassion and co-passion and building teams through the recognition of strengths.

In 2017, Kaisa was awarded the best innovation prize for her Positive CV work. The half a million euro prize helped her scale the idea globally. Kaisa’s wish is to help people identify their true potential and to encourage positive feedback in the everyday life of day-care centers, schools and companies.

In today's chat we hear all about these important topics:

• Positive Psychology and Positive Education
  
• Why character strengths need to be taught
  
• Top tips for positive education interventions that you can use in your own classroom
  

Dubbed ‘the face of Finnish education abroad’, Pasi Sahlberg is a passionate educator, author and researcher. Currently, he’s the Professor of Education Policy at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. 

Pasi’s professional background is varied, but the common thread throughout his service is equity in education and trust in teachers.

He has served as a Senior Education Specialist at the World Bank, as a Lead Education Expert at the European Training Foundation, as Director-General at Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture, and as a visiting Professor of Practice at Harvard University.

He is the recipient of several awards for his lifelong service in education and also for his writing.

It was hard to contain my excitement (and chatter) while speaking with Pasi. In this podcast the themes discussed were:

• The concept of trust and how it works in schools.
• How to build a trust-based culture within a school.
• How Finland emerged as a trust-based education system after years of top-down control.
• Inequality and inequity in Australian and Finnish education.
• Accountability in education.

Today’s chat hosts two enthusiastic educators from one of the best international schools in Spain - British Prince School. Paloma Lopez is the Director and Debbie Musgrove is the Head of the Primary Department. Together with their staff, they’ve adapted to the sudden changes that COVID-19 brought, with openness, curiosity and flexibility.

In today’s chat, we hear all about this holistic international school where students have the opportunity to get their hands dirty in the school’s garden, participate in arts programs, as well as sink their teeth into digital learning tools (such as Eduten).

Is it possible that schools of today can include the spectrum of options in education?

We answer this question and more while discussing:

• How to integrate digital tools into traditional settings.
• The priority checklist for choosing the right tools for students.
• How to move through the challenges digital education brings.
• The future of digital education post COVID.

Today’s guest is the very bright and interesting, Laura Tuohilampi. She’s a multi-award winning mathematics education researcher, a teacher trainer and the founder of Math Hunger. Currently, Laura is a research fellow and lecturer at the University of New South Wales, Sydney.

After publishing the Finnish version of the book entitled Math Hunger, she kick-started a global movement to make mathematics mainstream, or in other words- an enjoyable activity for all of us. Laura isn't afraid of discussing the tricky emotions that mathematics sometimes evokes.

In this chat we speak about:

• How to help students love maths again.
• The serious work of FUN maths.
• How maths is all around us, wherever we look.
• How Laura transferred the theoretical information from her PdD to create an inclusive and practical maths program for teachers.
• How to create richer mathematics interactions and construct knowledge together with our students.

Today we talk learning analytics with Eduten’s very own, Dr. Eikka Kurvinen.

Eikka is the Head of Pedagogy at Eduten and has trained thousands of teachers to use the Eduten platform both in Finland and abroad. He holds two master degrees in education and science as well as a PhD. His thesis was entitled “Effects of Regular Use of Scalable, Technology Enhanced Solutions for Primary Mathematics Education”. This guy holds learning analytics in the palm of his hand.

As one of the original brains trust behind the Eduten product, I took the opportunity to ask:

• What is learning analytics in education?
• Why is using learning analytics the future of teaching and learning?
• What is artificial intelligence and how is it used?
• How do learning analytics help develop schools and classrooms of the future?
• Why we need Eduten in our schools and classrooms and why it makes our students active :)

A great listen for anyone who wants to learn more about learning analytics in general, but also why research and analytics-based Eduten is the best tool for all math classrooms.

Episode eight takes us to India! Our guest, Raghav Podar, is the Chairman of Podar Education. Podar Education has hundreds of schools across India and 'strives to create modern citizens who are ready to make global changes'.

With a blend of global thinking & Indian values, Raghav is a senior educator and thought leader in constructing optimal learning environments. He has studied the education systems of Finland, Singapore, the U.K. and Australia, and has been most interested in upgrading the quality of schooling in India.

He is particularly fond of the Finnish education model and has spent a lot of time there meeting with key education stakeholders.

In this podcast we hear Raghav talk about:

• His learned observations about Finnish Education versus Indian Education.
  
• The key aspects that Podar Education has implemented directly from the Finnish education system.
  
• How Finnish and Indian systems can learn from one another.
  

Raghav is a bright and passionate educator and business person who has made it his mission to think globally when it comes to education in India.

In this episode, we're joined by the Head of Research and co-founder of Kide Science - Dr. Jenni Vartiainen.

This latest episode takes us to the United Arab Emirates. Jaana Wilkko is a Finnish pedagogical expert and education leader with a knowledge and understanding of a variety of cultures.

I asked Jaana on the show because I’m also interested in how Finnish education is being used outside of Finland.

Currently, Jaana is the principal of the Garden City British School in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi. Her school continues to receive the highest feedback from school inspections in the area and continues to be rated highly throughout the COVID 19 school closures.

Janna’s focus as a school principal is to promote and encourage her teachers to place students as active and innovative learners responsible for their own learning. This is implemented by what Jaana calls the 12 Cs of learning, which we will find out about during this conversation along with key conversation points such as:

• The importance of holistic, active and sustainable learning.
  
• Phenomenon-based learning that to redesign schools as learning hubs rather than siloed subject teaching.
  
• How to implement creative leadership during restricted times.
  

Jaana is an energetic and passionate educator who cares deeply about her staff and students.

Enjoy listening to a true professional.

In this podcast, I chat with the humble and very clever Jussi-Pekka Järvinen. Jussi-Pekka reports that only his grandmother refers to him as Jussi- Pekka (especially if he’s in trouble), so his name in everyday life and in the context of the podcast, is J-P.

J-P is a class teacher with special education proficiency. Currently, he is a teacher at the University of Turku. His focus is digital pedagogy. He works with both pre-service and in-service teachers, and his favorite topics are learning analytics, the effects of AI on education and computational thinking.

In 2019, J-P was chosen as the University Teacher Of The Year together with his colleague.

The theme of this podcast focuses on what makes a great teacher. I took advantage of this special opportunity to dig into what it means to be a great teacher and get to the bottom of what it is that J-P tries to embody every time he interacts with his students. Who better to give some pro tips than an awarded Teacher of the Year?

The interesting points that popped up during the conversation are:

• The best facets of the Finnish Education System (he also spent 5 years as a student of the US system).
  
• How to approach students respectfully and create good experiences and relationships for teacher and student.
  
• The importance of co-teaching, content knowledge and collegiality in education.
  
• The hidden magic of ‘seeing’ your students and taking interest in them.
  

By the end of this conversation, I felt emotional as I listened to J-P’s ideas and reflected on my own child's journey through the Finnish Education System. I realized that many parents can only hope that their child comes across a teacher like J-P.