I came across this interesting video Why Finland has the best education, and I’ve been thinking…
Finland has:
- No homework
- Less hours at school and shorter school year.
- Less standardised testing
- A focus on finding students’ joy and talent
- They teach art, poetry, civics, music
- Focused on a varied curriculum: allowing them to be children and develop their brain
- The neighbourhood school is no different from any other school
Where do NZ schools sit in the pendulum between a prescriptive education & one that is more personalised and free? This is particularly interesting with the Te Mātaiaho: Revised Curriculum. The changes that have been made centre around a Understand, Know, Do approach. It clearly outlines the Whakapapa of Te Mātaiaho, the Mātaitipu – Vision for young people, with a strong statement on equity and inclusion.
Mātauranga Māori will sit at the heart of the learning areas (no changes to these) with key competencies, literacy and numeracy woven through them all. It requires a localised curriculum: so students know where they stand so they can move into the future. It replaces curriculum levels with five broader phases spanning 3 years, but it is also providing more prescription about the learning progressions within these phases.
Will this revised curriculum propel our tamariki into the future, ready to take on the world? Or are there missing elements? Does Finland have it right? Or is this video over simplifying things? Finland pumps a lot of money into education and teacher salaries. Finland doesn’t always include all the children in their testing data further up the years.
It’s like a pendulum… it should never be purely prescriptive and test focused but there’s surely also a place for foundational learning, accountability and progress tracking.
As Aotearoa revises the curriculum, let’s hope that we don’t push the pendulum too far in either direction.