Interviewing Finland’s Education Minister

Headmaster Kenneth Vella recently visited schools in Tampere, Finland, a country which has made huge progress in education over the past few years. There, he interviewed the country’s Minister of Education and Culture, Sanni Grahn-Laasonen. Times of Malta published this interview few days ago, read here! “Learning to learn, being able to acquire new skills,…

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Reading tips

Are you curious to know how The New National Core Curriculum for Basic Education in Finland looks like or what kind of principles The National Core Curriculum for Early Childhood Education and Care contains? Now you have a chance to order eBooks or books issued by National Board of Education in English! Follow the links…

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To be independent and capable

Last week we had interesting discussions about the goals of education. During tailor-made Study Tour our guests from Dubai were surprised to see how independently even our small pupils act in dining hall or were studying in a different room without teachers´ constant attention. They were surprised to hear that our pupils walk to school…

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World’s Best National Curriculum

Why to reform a well-functioning system? “Content of teaching, pedagogy and school practices should be reviewed and renewed in relation to the changes in the operating environment.” (Finland’s National Board of Education)  We have a new national core curriculum in Finland! Schools started to use the renewed curriculum in August this year for grades 1-6. …

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Gender equality in basic education in Finland

  Educational equality is a key premise of Finnish basic education. But what about gender equality in schools? Are girls and boys equal? Are they treated in the same way? Is there room for gender diversity? How gender equality is seen in textbooks and other materials? The Finnish National Board of Education has published a…

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Quality Education for All!

Last week I had the privilege of training Education experts from the Kingdom of Bahrain in cooperation with our partner Creative Council for Education. What surprises me – I know it should not! – is how easy it was for us to understand each other! The Bahraini experts told us about the activating methods they…

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Study Tour Finland: How much testing is really needed?

What a fine and international Study Tour we had last week! We at Learning Scoop team learned so much ourselves again, too. One very interesting talk we had was about evaluation and assessment. Our participant from USA started to think aloud, how much time it takes to have test after every chapter. Teachers in USA…

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The Finnish education system – equal opportunities for all

  I spent the holiday with my family at my parents’ on Haapasaari island. Haapasaari is a small island in the Eastern Gulf of Finland on the Russian border. It is located about 23 kilometers southeast from the mainland and it is the last passport checkpoint before Russia.     During our visit we went…

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