Ideas born in international winds

This year I have been privileged in many occasions to talk with people from many different countries. First at Lapland International Forum for Education (LIFE2017) in Rovaniemi, where we also had a workshop on Pedagogical Leadership – Empowering School Community. Last few days I have had pleasure to be part of Symposium of Turkish Private…

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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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Finnish preschool children learn through play and joy

My 6-year-old son started preschool this fall. In fact, he would have preferred to skip the summer vacation, because he had so much fun at the preschool orientation evening in May. In Finland pre-primary education became compulsory in August 2015. However, about 96 % of six-year-olds attended already when pre-primary education was voluntary. In Finland…

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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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Trustfully?

After some days in Finland, normally about 3 days, we start to talk with foreign teachers and education developers about TRUST. Trust is built in our systems. It is very important part of our culture. We trust our children, teachers and principals. Teachers trust their students and students their teachers. Principal trusts and respects his/her teacher…

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