What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success
theatlantic.com
What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success
1–10 of 69 posts
Re: What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success
#2I think the article misses some of the scaling issues. Finland has, I think, 1.5 million school age children, while the US has ~84 million to educate.
I'm far more interested in the classroom "flipping" model[0] coming out of Colorado. It combines the scaling advantages of online video lectures with supervised group practice. I don't think it has been fully studied yet, but it sounds very interesting.
[0] http://www.npr.org/2012/12/07/166748835/more-teachers-flippi...
Re: What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success
#3I know I might be a bit pedantic, but Finland is not part of Scandinavia; only Sweden, Denmark and Norway are. Finland is part of the Nordic countries, along with Scandinavia and Iceland.
This tiny bit of research makes me concerned about the rest of the article's content. And as jared314 correctly points out; things are different in Finland compared to the United States. Moreover; remember, what is good for Finland, may not be good for Colorado. Hell, what is good for Colorado may not be good for Maine. Or Finland versus Denmark, for that matter.
Each country and/or state is different, and should - appropriately - be treated that way. Don't be too swayed by success, also learn from failure.
Re: What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success
#4I think the article misses some of the scaling issues. Finland has, I think, 1.5 million school age children, while the US has ~84 million to educate. I'm far more interested in the classroom "flipping" model[0] coming out of Colorado. It combines the scaling advantages of online video lectures with supervised group practice. I don't think it has been fully studied yet, but it sounds very interesting. [0] http://www.…
But doesn't schooling pretty much scale horizontally? Is schooling 84M really any more complex then schooling 1.5M?
If anything, I'd suggest there is a fairly large fixed overhead for a country to set up a school system (teacher training, set curriculum, exam structure etc) and beyond that it becomes fairly cookie-cutter to scale out each school.
Re: What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success
#5I know I might be a bit pedantic, but Finland is not part of Scandinavia; only Sweden, Denmark and Norway are. Finland is part of the Nordic countries, along with Scandinavia and Iceland. This tiny bit of research makes me concerned about the rest of the article's content. And as jared314 correctly points out; things are different in Finland compared to the United States. Moreover; remember, what is good for Finland,…
I'm not sure what you're saying... There's no point in making comparisons because the U.S. and Finland are different?
Canada is much closer to Finland in PISA rankings than the U.S., but probably has more in common with the U.S. in most respects than Finland. Of course, Canada is not Finland or the U.S., and what is good for Canada may not be good for the U.S. ...
Seriously, look no further than the text-book industry in the U.S. It's a friggin' mess. If I were designing a curriculum in Canada, my #1 criteria for choosing a text-book would be "must not be used in Texas or California".
Re: What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success
#6I think the article misses some of the scaling issues. Finland has, I think, 1.5 million school age children, while the US has ~84 million to educate. I'm far more interested in the classroom "flipping" model[0] coming out of Colorado. It combines the scaling advantages of online video lectures with supervised group practice. I don't think it has been fully studied yet, but it sounds very interesting. [0] http://www.…
But doesn't schooling pretty much scale horizontally? Is schooling 84M really any more complex then schooling 1.5M? If anything, I'd suggest there is a fairly large fixed overhead for a country to set up a school system (teacher training, set curriculum, exam structure etc) and beyond that it becomes fairly cookie-cutter to scale out each school.
My thoughts exactly, the article does explain that US schools are managed on a state level, and then it becomes much more comparable.
Re: What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success
#7I know I might be a bit pedantic, but Finland is not part of Scandinavia; only Sweden, Denmark and Norway are. Finland is part of the Nordic countries, along with Scandinavia and Iceland. This tiny bit of research makes me concerned about the rest of the article's content. And as jared314 correctly points out; things are different in Finland compared to the United States. Moreover; remember, what is good for Finland,…
According to an English dictionary, Scandinavia may also refer to Finland.
From Merriam-Webster, Scandinavia: 1) peninsula N Europe occupied by Norway & Sweden 2) Denmark, Norway, Sweden --sometimes also considered to include Iceland, the Faeroe Islands, & Finland
Re: What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success
#8I think the article misses some of the scaling issues. Finland has, I think, 1.5 million school age children, while the US has ~84 million to educate. I'm far more interested in the classroom "flipping" model[0] coming out of Colorado. It combines the scaling advantages of online video lectures with supervised group practice. I don't think it has been fully studied yet, but it sounds very interesting. [0] http://www.…
If you're going to indulge in flights of imagination, maybe try to imagine why what this guy, who seems to have every attribute of an expert in the field, says, might be true. Or even, attempt some introspection to see why you'd prefer to dismiss the article, even on a basis that is addressed in the article.
Here's a comparison that mostly factors scale out: http://www.indexmundi.com/facts/indicators/SP.DYN.IMRT.IN/co... - again, the primary intention of the medical system in Canada is equality.
Re: What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success
#9I know I might be a bit pedantic, but Finland is not part of Scandinavia; only Sweden, Denmark and Norway are. Finland is part of the Nordic countries, along with Scandinavia and Iceland. This tiny bit of research makes me concerned about the rest of the article's content. And as jared314 correctly points out; things are different in Finland compared to the United States. Moreover; remember, what is good for Finland,…
This comparison is way too vague to have any significant meaning. So what if Finland is different from Denmark/US? You're different than me (I'm not US), but we both need to eat to survive, exercise to stay fit and read to learn. We probably share similar ambitions (health, family, financial stability) and have similar fears (health, family, financial stability), so why not education?
Re: What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success
#10I think the article misses some of the scaling issues. Finland has, I think, 1.5 million school age children, while the US has ~84 million to educate. I'm far more interested in the classroom "flipping" model[0] coming out of Colorado. It combines the scaling advantages of online video lectures with supervised group practice. I don't think it has been fully studied yet, but it sounds very interesting. [0] http://www.…
> Finland has, I think, 1.5 million school age children
Fewer, I expect - their total population is around 5.4 million.