Finnish Style Subject Lesson (Gr.4-8)

Subject Selection Lesson

One lesson I have been taking has proved to be popular with students, many coming back the next day and enthusiastically speaking about the conversations it led to with their parents. Finnish schools have careers counselors who see students regularly and they believe that helping students find their passion is as important as grades. Indeed, it gives purpose to all schooling.

Like myself, my own children have gone through their school years with little or no career guidance. When I was at school, a career counselor was not part at the school staff; while my own children’s school did have a counselor on staff, there were some 1300 other students and the careers part of the Humanities curriculum was not considered necessary a few years back. Consequently, I could see that my own children were, at best, unsure of a career path and forced to make life-shaping subject selections based on minimal overall guidance.

This lesson is designed to get students between yr.5 and 8 thinking about the subject choices they will be making in the coming few years.

Firstly, senior primary students have little or no knowledge of the subjects they will have available to them when they get to secondary school.

Ask the class if any of them have been asked by relatives or friends about the career they would like to pursue in the future. Draw a table on the whiteboard like the one below with the 2 headings in bold text.

Explain to students that in the first years of secondary school they will study up to 15 subjects as the idea is to give them a varied experience.

Ask students what some of these compulsory subjects will be and add them to the table on the whiteboard, with years (stress that this is approximate as it can vary from school to school, with the exception of English).

Both the compulsory and elective subjects will vary from school to school depending on the size of the school and many other factors, however I like to put as many subjects as I can think of on the list as I can see the importance in a student being aware of what their school isn’t offering. Many students are not even aware that some of these subjects even exist.

As we add each subject to the list, I ask the students if they can tell us what that subject is about. I also explain how the Humanities heading includes subjects such as Legal Studies, Politics, Economics, Geography and History which all become stand alone subjects in the later years of secondary school. The list does not need to be exact, it is the thinking it generates which is most important.

While this is in some ways doing the careers counselor’s work, it is in no way prescribing a career, rather generating thought and discussion about the student’s talents, likes and passions. I also take the time to explain that the section of some subjects may cancel the possibility of studying some others, or of studying certain courses at university level.

When a list something like that shown below is completed, I inform the students that if they complete Yr.12 they can expect to have studied approximately half the subjects in the right hand column. Their final task is to select those subjects which they imagine they might choose to study.

If time permits, ask students to read their selections aloud and ask the students if they have any ideas on possible careers.

Compulsory Subjects

Elective and VCE/HSC Options

English (7-12) Mathematics (7-10) Humanities (7-9) Woodwork (7/8) Metal(work) (7/8) Language (usually 2 from French/Italian/Indonesian/ Chinese or other) Art (7-10) Cooking (7/8) Science (7-10) Physical Education/Sport (7/8) Religion (particularly in non-gov school 7-12) Computing (7/8) Drama (7/8) Music (7/8)

Mathematics (up to 6 different math subjects from 9-12) Legal Studies (11-12) History (Australian and ‘Revolutions ’ – which is Russian history) (11-12) Geography (11/12) Accounting (11-12) Geography (9-12) Foreign Languages (see left column) Graphic Design and or Visual Arts (9-12) Physics (11-12) Hospitality (9-12) Physical Ed. (9-12) Outdoor ed. (11-12) Automotive (9-12) Building /Woodwork (9-12) English Literature (11-12) Chemistry (11-12) Biology (11-12) I.T. (11-12) Drama (9-12) Dance (9-12) Music (9-12) Economics (11-12) Money (9-10) Media and/or Photography (9-12)