The Finnish culture and economic system may be central to the success of Finnish schools and the achievement of their children but there are many aspects of their culture that can be replicated despite our different culture and economic system.
Concrete Take-Aways
The food in Finnish schools is a priority. Every child gets free lunch at every school. The food we appeared to be homemade. In addition to being unprocessed, it was noticeable that there was no dessert and no chocolate milk offered. We did not get to experience school lunch at the high school and we certainly wondered if there might be more freedom for students to choose. According to the Finnish National Board of Education (http://www.oph.fi/download/47657_school_meals_in_finland.pdf), however, each school “guarantees a well-balanced meal for each pupil every school day”. In addition, the board promotes that a nutritional school lunch is part of the curriculum since it promotes health and well-being. There is a National Nutrition Council that outlines many nutritional guidelines. One of the most interesting comments was that school lunch “…should be tasty, colourful and well-balanced”. So even though we didn’t see a high school meal, it is clear that the country values food as an important part of learning. Money is certainly an issue that we have to contend with in the United States but I wonder if we got creative what we might be able to accomplish. How much money could we save if we didn’t serve dessert after each meal? How much do schools save when they grow their own food? Could we save any money by having kids clean up for themselves instead of paying wages for clean-up time? We do have control over some aspects of school.
As they consider nutrition a part of the curriculum and an important part of learning, Finland also values exercise, play and free time outside. They provide students with scheduled time to play outside and provide a good amount of space for this. Teachers told us that taking children outside for learning experiences, whether it be to complement book work in science class or to count items from nature, was a part of every unit. In every lesson we observed, the teacher mentioned a point in the unit when they would be going outside as a part of the instruction. We saw one classroom with yoga ball seats. Students had to take turns using them the yoga balls as their seats (equity and democracy cropping up over and over). Allowing time for exercise and fresh air is another area that we have control over. If the schedule can’t be changed, an effort can be made by teachers to get outside and incorporate nature into their curricula.
In addition to incorporating nature and the outdoors into all lessons, Finnish teachers integrate art, drama , and music into their lessons and units regularly. While there is a focus on design and creation through specific art classes, there is also a commitment to integrating art into all academic subjects. Art is used to reinforce academic learning. We witnessed music in learning the alphabet; drama to learn history and Finnish; painting to learn history, numbers, science, and geography. We only visited a small number of classrooms and still we were able to witness all of these examples.
More Abstract Ideas
In the United States, Carol Dweck has become a guru on growth mindset, the belief that intelligence can change based on deliberate practice and effort. her research on mindset shows that having a growth mindset can positively impact student achievement. In Finland, people don’t need to learn this theory; it is simply the common belief that everyone shares. When we talked to teachers, they had never heard of this term. So, maybe they are lucky in Finland because this belief is a part of their culture, but Carol Dweck has proven that it is entirely possible for people to change their mindset from a fixed belief, the idea that intelligence is unchangeable to a growth mindset. At Enosburg High School, we have been working on developing this mindset in both students and teachers for several years. We recently promoted a “being smart…it’s not magic” campaign at open house using an Einstein stand-in to illustrate that “anyone can be a genius”. We still have a lot of work to do. Kids still struggle with being okay making mistakes in order to learn. Teachers still express concern that if they try new strategies that don’t work well, administrators may use this to evaluate teachers negatively. While we have some work to do, we have seen many changes because of the work we have done. It is certainly possible to create a culture that promotes a growth mindset where there once wasn’t one. Creating a culture is probably the most difficult change to make. Something a little bit more concrete, like healthy food, has been taken on by many U.S. schools already.
Related to mindset is the idea of trust. This is certainly not as concrete an area to make change as nutrition but it is also an area that we have total control over. In Finland, there is trust between administrators, teachers and students alike. Teachers in Finland do not worry about whether or not their students will achieve. They assume that they will succeed. Teachers are committed to making sure each child succeeds so they trust that it will happen and they take action to make sure that it does. As a result, students get this message instead of a message that they are not performing up to par. In a first grade classroom, there is a democratic system for solving problems. This issue of trust is interrelated with the idea of equity which is extremely important in Finnish culture. Because there is an effort on everybody’s part to make sure all students achieve, all stakeholders trust one another. This includes students trusting the adults who are working to help them. Creating this culture in American society may not be quite as easy but as an individual teacher, you can focus on developing a trusting relationship with your students. Administrators can give teachers autonomy to choose the right methods to help their students succeed. I don’t think there is one easy trick to creating this kind of trusting culture. Every school has a culture already and every school ecosystem needs a different combination of organisms but finding ways to increase autonomy for students and teachers leads to trusting relationships. How do you provide opportunities for autonomy in your school or classroom?