Michael Lawrence and Dr. Fabio D'Agostin | Creating Schools…

An award-winning school principal messaged me recently, concerned that his upcoming Finland education trip might be wasted as someone had told him that the Australian and Finnish systems will never be compatible because:

1. The Finnish language is easy to learn so kids need less time at school.
2. There is no immigration.
3. The social classes are much more equitable.
4. There is only one education system there.

When I visited Finland for the first time, I had similar things said to me, and I made it a goal to try to find the reasons exactly why the practices I would witness there could not be applied in the Australian context.

I quickly found another motivation for these answers as Finnish educators quizzed me about my own country’s practices. Did they work? I was asked about things such as standardized curriculum and testing, followed by: Well, why do you continue to do these things?

It quickly became obvious that, while we are quick to dismiss alternative practices, submitting them to ‘rigorous’ success criteria, we do no such thing with our own practice. Indeed, we make it quite difficult to change these practices.

But back to our earlier question.

‘Constantly evolving’: The secret to Finland’s top education system | Education Review