Why do we need Phenomenon-based Learning?

”Finland Will Become The First Country In The World To Get Rid Of All School Subjects!” I look at the headline in international magazine and think: ”Oh, really?” I glance at the current Finnish National Core Curriculum for Finnish Basic Education on my table and think, what are all the 16 different school subjects presented…

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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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Oi, tudo bem? A Training experience in Brazil

The Brazilian sun is hot and The Brazilian people are warm. When more than forty Brazilian educators are working in co-operative way, the loud and tension is high. I had a nice possibility to deliver three one-week training sessions for educators in Brazil, one week in Rio de Janeiro, one week in Natal and one…

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Finland’s Core Curriculum: Skills or Knowledge? Or Both?

Last week I was training international education experts from USA, Saudi Arabia, India, New Zealand etc. about Finland’s new core curriculum. In the beginning of the training I asked them: “How many of you have heard that Finland is getting rid of school subjects in the new national curriculum?” Many participants raised their hands. There…

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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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School and the working life

“No man is an island.” We all belong to our local communities and to the global community as well. We at Learning Scoop try to regularly exercise our social responsibility and give our input for developing our own community as well as contributing to the global development. As an example of this I recently took…

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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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What´s up in education?

For last few weeks there has been many interesting posts and articles on air about Finnish education. Are you empowering people to use their imagination in daily life? The Guardian points out that we spend our childhoods being taught the artificial skill of passing exams. Read more here “Everyone is born creative, but it is…

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