We had an assignment to watch and read different kinds of articles and videos about Finnish school system and I chose a video named The Finland Phenomenon. The hour long video is in four parts and it covers the Finnish school system and things that other countries could learn from it.
The video tells us that Finland is the highest ranked country in the world and that we also have the highest Pisa test results. The Finnish school system is based on trust and the students here are successful and equal even though the school is relaxed and casual. The schools and the class sizes in Finland are both small and it’s free to everyone. Here the teachers are also really highly educated, for example. all the teachers need to have a master’s degree. Also, after ninth grade, at the age of sixteen, we can decide either go to an academic based high school or a non-academic vocational school.
As a high school student from Finland I agree and disagree with some of the facts that came up in the video. For example, they said that Finnish school system and teaching does not rely on testing and that students rarely have any homework and as a student here in Finland I can assure you that this is not the case. We do have homework every day and exam weeks five times per year. Even at the lower grades I remember that we had lots of homework almost every day and even though we did not have exam weeks, exams were held on regular basis several times a year.
Apart of these couple of things I disagreed with the video, there were some good facts too. For examples they said that technology in Finnish schools is high and advanced and it’s available to to students and teachers. This is true. We also use computers and other kind of technology at classes all the time. And as they told us in the video our schools give the students the responsibility to learn and do their homework, and I think it’s a good thing because this way we learn to do things by ourselves and take responsibility of our actions.
All in all I think that even though the video had some wrong information, it was interesting to hear about our school system from a different angle. Also, it managed to give us a basic view of the Finnish school system in a interesting way.
You picked good points from the video, and managed to also explain where they had perhaps got some misinformation. I wonder where and how the myth of no homework or exams originated. I have read it so many times! Good that you also added your overall evaluation about the video. It is interesting to see the outsider's view, isn't it?
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