The small Nordic nation's educational success and reputation can be irksome especially when it goes against the assessment focus of our own schools. There's a concept of 'Finnish envy' as the UK and US take Finland's success as an insult to our own exam-driven, competitive schooling culture.
Here's a brief summary of some ways in which Finland's schools differ from our own:
1. Shorter school day : fewest school hours in the developed world
2. Minimal homework : rarely any until their teens
3. Regular outside breaks : 75 minutes+ per day
4. Cross-curricular topics rather than subjects : see article below
5. No ranks, comparison or competition between students or schools
6. Minimal formal testing : just one standardised test at the end of high school
At an individual child level, the parallels to HomeEd are evident.
The article my sister sent was reflecting on Finland's system of 15 minutes breaks after every 45 minutes of instruction. Breaks have been embraced as a way for children to regulate their energy levels and improve engagement and knowledge retention. The UK and US education systems have moved the other way however - with an ever growing curriculum that puts pressure on teachers to utilise every minute of the day with longer periods of sitting coupled with ongoing suggestions of introducing a longer school day.
A shift in attitude is crucial to appreciate that length of time teaching isn't directly correlated to amount learned.
For the original article mentioned :
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/06/how-finland-keeps-kids-focused/373544/
For a more in depth discussion with research links, see :
For a comprehensive report on why Finland's schools are successful:
The news that Finland is replacing subjects with cross-curricular topics:
