By Barbara Vokatis
The Finnish Educational Phenomenon
This year, in May, I co-led a trip to Finland. My colleague, Dr. Ann Frankin-Hayslip, the main leader, and I took 10 students majoring in education to Tampere and Helsinki in Finland. Finland has been in the international news for quite a while due to its incredible educational results. This fact created a world phenomenon that many educational leaders worldwide would like to learn more about.
After getting to know some of the major aspects and pathways to the Finnish educational phenomenon before the trip, I was curious to see how schools in Finland function without any high-stakes tests while maintaining high educational standards, except for the final exam at the end of high school. Many of these aspects such as teachers’ autonomy are described in literature devoted to the Finnish educational system. Teachers in Finland are trusted experts in education who decide about how to teach. This facet contrasts with education in many countries, including the U.S.A., where teachers are constrained by testing requirements.
The Secret of the Finnish Educational System
After spending a lot of time in Finnish nature, cooking a meal as a community in the woods, and experiencing a Finnish sauna with its benefits, a certain picture of Finland began to emerge for me. With that, a deeper understanding of the nature of Finnish education, as embedded in the way Finns approach life and work, began to appear. Attention to mental health and self-care struck me immediately. Self-care is so important for all Finns that they take the whole month of July off to disconnect from work and reconnect with nature during this pause. These ideas are also reflected in the way Finnish teachers treat children, with attention to their uniqueness, individual needs, and knowledge of child development.
In the United States, we have access to over fifty years of research that helps us understand how children learn, what motivates them to learn, and what type of activities could stem from this body of knowledge. But, because our educational system is constrained, teachers do not have much freedom and autonomy in making these decisions. In Finland, on the other hand, much of this research informed the Finnish educational system because of the trust Finnish teachers have in society.
This unique attention to mental health, well-being, and freedom in deciding how to teach allows Finnish teachers to connect many aspects of their approach to life and choose teaching methods that support children’s development. Children are not rushed to learn things they are not ready to learn or things that are not in synchronization with their development and well-being. A lot of attention is also devoted to early education and making sure all children have the best support for any needs.
Learning From Finland: Welcoming Spaces and Flexible Education
In addition, teachers in Finland focus on skills such as collaborating and developing everyday skills of independence. We have seen children cooking together and thoroughly cleaning the kitchen. Even the design of furniture and the ways it is arranged create a truly welcoming atmosphere that invites children and teens to either find a moment of reflection or sit together with peers and interact. This deliberate attention to detail and efforts to create a space conducive to children’s thriving academically and socially is truly remarkable. The same attention to a welcoming environment is devoted to the way teachers’ lounges are designed.
I was also impressed with the choices Finnish teens have regarding their educational pathways in high school. If a child is not interested in the academic pathway, he or she can choose a vocational one instead. Both pathways are present in the same building. It is also possible to return to the academic pathway at any step. Such flexibility truly relies on the premise that young people should have an opportunity to try and experiment and not be expected to make permanent choices at such early stages of their lives.
This is in stark contrast to education in the United States. In New York State, for instance, rigid requirements for high school diplomas force some neurodivergent teens to exit this pathway. However, if they decide to return to the high school diploma pathway, there is no flexibility in the system.
While it is never simple to just transfer an education system from one country to another, we can learn so much from the Finnish way of thinking and should pay more attention to which activities and educational policies contribute to children’s well-being and which do not. Our children deserve such reconsideration.
For more insights from Barbara Vokatis, check out her website!
