The “Finnish Way” to Optimize Student Learning
The “Finnish Way” to Optimize Student Learning Lessons from a Fulbright Experience by Janet English Dedicated to Curtis Browne and Bobby English “The Finnish Way” to Optimize Student Learning is a valuable resource for those wanting to improve educational policy and practice. Finns have been combining high quality educational research and classroom practice for more than twenty-five […]
The “Finnish Way” to Optimize Student Learning
The “Finnish Way” to Optimize Student Learning Lessons from a Fulbright Experience by Janet English Dedicated to Curtis Browne and Bobby English “The Finnish Way” to Optimize Student Learning is a valuable resource for those wanting to improve educational policy and practice. Finns have been combining high quality educational research and classroom practice for more than twenty-five […]
1. The Frigid North
Chapter 1 The Frigid North My double prop plane touches down in eastern Finland forty-five miles from Russia, it is the dead of winter, the sky is overcast, and the trees and ground are covered with snow. It’s a little past noon and the sun is already low on the horizon. Yesterday I was living in sunny […]
2. Nine-Year-Olds with Power Tools
“If you have (a) main target, everybody learns.” Chapter 2 Down a short and gentle wheelchair ramp I enter a wide corridor into Joensuu Normal School. This is one of the teacher training schools at the University of Eastern Finland. On my left is the school cafeteria and on the right, a stuffed Finnish bear — one meter […]
3. Moonlight in the Finnish Forest
“I always give (students) problems to solve.” Chapter 3 Across the hall is a bulletin board with sketches of polar bears walking across the snow. Alongside it, pictures of the Finnish forest are painted in the moonlight, with most shadows placed correctly but some as if there is a second or third moon in the nighttime sky. I feel […]
4. Bridges, Chairs and Machines
“Problem solving probably takes place every day in the classrooms in Finland….” Chapter 4 Adjacent to the wood shop and next to the fireplace is a science lab with a ceiling two stories high. An image of the Joensuu night sky spreads across the ceiling and pinpricks of light shine as stars when the hanging room lights are turned off. […]
5. “Quit It!”
“We talk about what’s working and what’s not working … then we can have a discussion.” Chapter 5 Click below for story. I’d been in Joensuu about two weeks, maybe three, and I’d visited several schools, many classrooms, had several cups of coffee, met some people, and I went by my colleagues’s office at the University of […]
6. Teaching is Like “Sailing”
I think that teaching is like sailing. You have a target where you want to go but when you go to a classroom you don’t know which way the wind is going to go.” Chapter 6 The railway system in Finland is dependable, clean, and many cars have WiFi and power outlets for computers. Train […]
Chapter 7 Problem Solving in Music Class
“You have to be active in your thoughts when you are involved in music making.” Chapter 7 To get to Kuitinmäki Lower Secondary School I have to take bus 122 in Helsinki and get off at Kuitinniitty. I can’t say the word, “Kuitinniitty,” I can’t see the sign on the bus stop in time to […]
8. Swimming and Dipping in Icy Finnish Water
Chapter 8 Swimming and Dipping in Icy Finnish Water I hate the cold. I hate cold water even more. It takes my body a very long time to warm up after being chilled and because of this I was very nervous to live in Finland for a winter. I’m pleased to report that Finns are […]