Lecture 2 The Finnish education system; flexibility, standards, and evaluation; part I
Lecture 2 The Finnish education system; flexibility, standards, and evaluation; part I
The Finnish education system and policies have certain specific features, and during this lecture we will get to know three of them: flexibility, standards, and evaluation. The lecturer begins with explaining the features of flexibility in the Finnish education system discussing for example the issues of decentralization of curriculum, low competition between schools, flexible programs, and teachers’ professional autonomy. In discussing about standards, the lecture raises an important questions why we have standards – in order to control or to support. He also discusses the problem of the level of measuring and evaluation; should it be done on individual, school or on systems level.
Before any lecture either print or save to your computer the assigned PowerPoint presentation.
Assignment before the lecture: None.
Open or save the PowerPoint slides related to this lecture HERE.
Listen to the lecture, and afterwards do the assignment given below.
Write your learning experiences into your personal Reflective report
Assignment after the lecture: None.
Supplementary material: The full report of Finnish success in PISA 2003 can be read at:
Välijärvi, J., Linnakylä, P., Kupari, P., Reinikainen, P., Sulkunen, S., Töörnroos, J. & Arffman, I. 2003.
The Finnish Success in PISA and Some Reasons behind it. Available at: