Finns Set Teachers Free, with Enviable Results
The United States may still consider itself a superpower. But when it comes to science, we increasingly look like a 90-pound weakling.
The latest evidence that Americans are losing their dominance in a high-tech world lies in a comparison of science skills among 15-year-olds in 57 countries. U.S. students ranked 25th last year, far behind Hong Kong No. 2 and Canada (No. 3) and even worse than poorer countries like Poland.
And which nation did the best? Finland, whose students also ranked first in math skills and second in reading.
That superb performance could be expected in a country where everyone has access to a quality education, where teachers aren’t straightjacketed by standardized testing and where important research isn’t hobbled by religious dogma.
“Where I feel we’ve been really successful is that we have been able to create a creative environment,” says Pekka Voutilainen, minister counselor for economic affairs in the Finnish Embassy in Washington, D.C. “Finns are problem solvers.”
In the past three decades, Finland has remade its education system, eschewing elitism in favor of free education all the way through law or medical school. But except for SAT-like exams in high school, teachers don’t spend much of their time “teaching to the test,” a familiar lament in the United States.
“Schools in Finland have a lot of independence in terms of their programs,” Voutilainen says. “That helps motivate teachers, and with motivated teachers, usually the results are better.”
And Finland gets a lot of bang for its buck. Although it spends $30,000 less than the United States educating a student through high school, its graduation rate is 92 percent compared to the U.S. rate of 72 percent. (…)
Source: St. Petersburg Times, FL
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/12/12/Worldandnation/Finns_set_teachers_fr.shtml
