Is Finnish education really so awesome?
Since 2000, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OEDC), which is highly valued by the international community, has conducted an "International Student Assessment Program" for more than 40 junior high school students around the world every three years. By 2006, there were about 400,000 middle school students aged 0/5 in 57 countries and regions around the world.
Since 2000, three evaluation reports have been published one after another. Finnish students rank high not only in reading and problem-solving ability, but also in mathematics, natural science and other projects, which is the same as Asian students who are used to thinking that they are strong in mathematics and physics.
The gap between middle school students in Finland is only 4.7%, but the gap between American students is six times that of Finland, and it is as high as 29.438+0%! In addition, the gap in Britain is 23.5%, Australia 19.8%, Thailand 25.6% and Mexico 25.5%.
The class hours of Finnish primary and secondary school students are quite few in OECD countries. When Italian and Dutch students aged 7 to 14 spend more than 8,000 hours a year on average, Finnish students have only 5,400 hours, less than 70% of them. In addition, 20.4% of Finnish middle school students study more than 4 hours a week, compared with 50.8% of American students. Only 2% of Finnish middle school students spend an average of more than 4 hours practicing mathematics after class every week, while the figure in the United States is seven times that of Finland, reaching 14%. However, the results show that the average scores of middle school students in Finland are not worse than those in Asian countries, let alone surpass those in the United States.
How did Finnish education achieve such results when children had less class time, didn't do any homework after class and didn't forget to eat and sleep?
Ms Chen Zhihua, the world's number one author of Finnish educational secrets, has lived in Finland for many years. Through the learning process and personal experience of her two children in Finland, she visited Finnish schools on the spot, participated in teaching and learning, and traced back to her history and educational reform. She concluded that Finland's education is so excellent because of the following points:
1. Finnish education: See the forest first, then the trees.
Finnish education makes good use of "look at the forest first, then look at the trees", which can let children see the general appearance of things and disciplines in step-by-step and diversified teaching, thus igniting their interest in continuous learning. When they cultivate the intention of continuous learning, teachers will sort out the "trees" that need special research one by one, and then teach them step by step.
What's the difference between "foresight tree" and "foresight forest"?
"Foreseeing the forest" can let children know the whole picture of the overall curriculum concept and learning objectives first.
The educational model of "seeing the tree first" pays attention to the details of the tree, practicing tests repeatedly and practicing mechanically one by one. This will make many students feel tired and give up halfway, or get lost in it, let alone find fun in learning.
2. Finnish education respects every individual.
When many countries in the world are educating the next generation by mass production, Finland chose to return to the most fundamental side of human nature decades ago. It is not to encourage and emphasize students to compete with others since childhood, but to inspire and assist each child to find his own life value and establish a positive learning mentality that can be pursued all his life.
Finland's education system respects every child very much, and also recognizes that students' understanding process is different. Therefore, it is hoped that in the normal teaching progress, students with different learning progress in the same course will be flexibly organized into different teaching teams, and students will be encouraged to work together towards the final learning results according to their learning ability by teaching students in accordance with their aptitude.
3. Pay attention to the foundation and trace back to the source
Finnish education pays attention to understanding and exploring principles. I hope that children can know the origin of most knowledge through education and learn to ask "why". They encourage children to ask more questions and know more about things, instead of training repeatedly to cope with exams, and never teach any quick success and instant benefit skills.
4. Focus on cultivating children's lifelong learning ability
Finland's education system pays attention to cultivating children's lifelong learning ability, combining theory with practice, and fully combining life with education, which gives children a foundation for sustainable learning.
For example, there is a family economics course in junior high schools in Finland. It is necessary to know a family's basic economic and budgetary concepts, how to buy goods in a planned way, how to handle and sort out ordinary clothes, how to take care of and clean clothes made of special materials, how to use washing machines and detergents correctly, how to tidy up homes and rooms, and how to sort out and discard garbage. Of course, the most important thing is to teach students the concept of how to use money correctly and how to save money and manage money. This is a very practical course.
5. Don't give up every child.
In Finland's education system, those special children have not been abandoned by society and teachers, but have enjoyed more educational resources and social care. Besides the vast space unique to our class, there is also a good teacher who is optimistic, flexible and knows special teaching. Down-to-earth, step by step through various learning methods to accompany the group of "different" children, learn textbooks and life knowledge, and at the same time establish students' self-esteem and self-respect.
6. Pay attention to the establishment of students' reading habits.
One of Finnish children's daily homework is "self-study for at least half an hour".
So, what should we do as China's parents?
The reform of the school education system cannot be achieved overnight, and it is beyond our control. But as parents, we can learn from the characteristics of Finnish education and make some useful supplements in family education.
1. When parents choose interest classes or extracurricular activities for their children, they can pay attention to whether the organization focuses on stimulating children's interest, cultivating children's problem-solving ability or mechanical training; In early education, we should choose more activities to stimulate children's interest.
2. In daily life, parents can also arouse their children's thinking in companionship and trace back to the source. Recently, I saw some simple friends sharing the wisdom of public transportation to cultivate children's choices, and some simple friends sharing mind maps to help children recite ancient Chinese. These are very good coaching companions.
3. When children fall behind or have some special circumstances, it will bring hope to parents and let them accompany them attentively. In the early years, I once coached an autistic child. He goes to a public school and can't keep up with the progress of the school. Parents accompany their children to repeat what the teacher said during the day, and then take him to practice. Although the amount that children can absorb at a time is limited, they persist day after day and are now preparing for the B-level college entrance examination for fine arts.
When children are young, parents may wish to list parent-child reading as a compulsory activity every day. It is easy to establish children's interest in reading and fall in love with reading from now on. Dabao began to show him picture books every night when he was 4 years old. Eight-year-old Dabao likes reading very much now, and he will read a book by himself as long as he has time. Bao Xiao, 2, likes to sit on my lap before going to bed every day and listen to me read him picture books. He has to read a book after reading it, and sometimes he can hold this picture book by himself.
In short, education is no small matter. Treat with care, irrigate patiently, fully respect children's personality and teach students in accordance with their aptitude. Over time, we can do what Finnish education can do!