The lecturer begin this section with a brief analysis of Finnish education. Knowing, that an education system cannot directly been transformed from one country to another, but one can learn the key factors, which are behind the success of high performing countries like Finland. Mr. Spinks first emphasizes the fact that in Finland the success of a student cannot be directly linked to the affluence of the parents as in many other countries.

Then, Mr. Spinks compares the Finnish case to the other countries and strongly argues that if we need to enhance and change education, we need to change the situation of poor families. He, then argues, that the best teachers and principals are needed in the rural areas where the learning outcomes are poor – they are not needed in the cities with rather good students.

1. Reflective report. Write your learning experiences into your personal reflective report. The reflective report for session 7 will be submitted after lecture 5.
2. Power Point Presentation Briefly present how in your country educational administration addresses the situation of poor learning outcomes. What are the results? Give suggestion for improvement. Submit your presentation as a PDF copy on the discussion board. Please look at the presentations of others and comment at leat one other presentation.