Open Access
The Finnish miracle of PISA: historical and sociological remarks on teaching and teacher education
Hannu Simola
- Vol. 17, Iss: 2, pp 153-169
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
In this article, the authors present some of the social, cultural and historical factors behind the pedagogical success of the Finnish comprehensive school and present two paradoxes that could be considered meaningful and important in attempts to understand Finnish comprehensive schooling.Abstract:
One of the recent tributes to the success of Finnish schooling was the PISA 2000 project report. As befits the field of education, the explanations are primarily pedagogical, referring especially to the excellent teachers and high-quality teacher education. Without underrating the explanatory power of these statements, this paper presents some of the social, cultural and historical factors behind the pedagogical success of the Finnish comprehensive school. From the perspectives of history and the sociology of education, it also sheds light on some ironic paradoxes and dilemmas that may be concealed by the success. The focus is on the problematic nature of international comparative surveys based on school performance indicators. The question is whether they really make it possible to understand schooling in different countries, or whether they are just part of processes of ‘international spectacle’ and ‘mutual accountability’. By way of conclusion, I will present two paradoxes that could be considered meaningful and important in attempts to understand Finnish comprehensive schooling today and in the near future.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Survey of expert opinion on intelligence: Causes of international differences in cognitive ability tests
TL;DR: Examination of expert opinions on causes of international differences in student assessment and psychometric IQ test results finds education was the most important cause of international ability differences, whereas other factors such as geography, climate, test bias, and sampling error were less important.
Journal ArticleDOI
Do PISA data justify PISA-based education policy?
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the soundness of the survey methodology and identify the conflicting interpretations and values fuelling the debate and conclude that the OECD should be more transparent in the documentation of the methodological choices that underlie the creation of the data and more explicit about the impact of these choices on the results.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Swedish comprehensive school—lost in transition?
TL;DR: The Swedish comprehensive school system was developed from 1950 to 1971 as mentioned in this paper and the system was radically restructured in the 1990s and the results of PISA and other international comparative tests are used to ‘scandalise’ the existing educational system in order to accelerate the introduction of change.
Study on Policy Measures to Improve the Attractiveness of the Teaching Profession in Europe
Alain Carlo,Alain Michel,Jean-Charles Chabanne,Dominique Bucheton,Patrick Demougin,Jean Gordon,Michèle Sellier,Jean-Paul Udave,Serge Valette +8 more
TL;DR: Carlo et al. as mentioned in this paper proposed a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not, which may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers.
Journal ArticleDOI
Disability or Learning Difficulty? Politicians or Educators? Constructing Special Education in Finland and the United States
Tiina Itkonen,Markku Jahnukainen +1 more
TL;DR: Institutional arrangements, disability constructions, and policy designs in Finland and the United States are examined, finding policies are more strongly shaped by educators than politicians.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
World Expansion of Mass Education, 1870-1980
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the role of mass education expansion in a world organized politically as nation-states and candidate states and found that mass education spreads in a S-shaped diffusion pattern.
Journal ArticleDOI
Comparative Research in Education: a mode of governance or a historical journey?
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce an interpretation of the current condition of the field of comparative education and discuss the current comparative practices, arguing that comparative educational studies are used as a political tool creating...
BookDOI
Critical Theories in Education : Changing Terrains of Knowledge and Politics
Thomas S. Popkewitz,Lynn Fendler +1 more
TL;DR: The authors examines the issues of critical thinking traditions within education and explores a broad range of 'disciplined theories that question the ways in which power works through the discursive practices and performances of schooling' Following an introduction by Thomas S Popkewitz, the monograph contains the following essays: A social epistemology of educational research, critical thinking and critical pedagogy: relations, differences and limits, Emergent identity versus consistent identity.
Journal ArticleDOI
An international comparison of equity in education systems
Stephen Gorard,Emma Smith +1 more
TL;DR: The authors used pupil responses to the PISA study in 2000 for all EU countries using indicators of the pupil intakes to schools and their outcomes and computes segregation indices for 15 countries, and then tries to explain the resulting patterns in terms of the characteristics of national school systems.
Book
The Finnish success in Pisa - and some reasons behind it : Pisa 2000
Jouni Välijärvi,Pekka Kupari,Pirjo Linnakylä,Pasi Reinikainen,Sari Sulkunen,Jukka Törnroos,Inga Arffman +6 more
TL;DR: The authors in this paper pointed out that the successful performance of Finnish students seems to be attributable to a web of interrelated factors related to comprehensive pedagogy, students' own interests and leisure activities, the structure of the education system, teacher education, school practices, and in the end, Finnish culture.
Related Papers (5)
The Finnish Miracle of PISA: Historical and Sociological Remarks on Teaching and Teacher Education.
Schools that Make a Difference: a sociological perspective on effective schooling
Christine Proudford,Robert Baker +1 more