The Finnish Education as an Individualized Service System with a Reference to Students with Special Educational Needs

The paper deals with some educational aspects of going to school in Finland concerning students with special educational needs/services. We proceed from empirical observation. Then, the general context is given to interpret the data and extend the observed added value of individualized educational support. The latter, in its turn, requires the identification of a special need and the existence of suitable educational options. These two pieces of information need to match optimally: early birds get the biggest harvest, and even if special education is never too late, the service needs become more challenging and the solutions - more expensive. The core of this complicated dual process is the decision making with more or less complete information of both the needs and the available palette of educational actions. The fundamental dilemma is to navigate between two poles: if a pupil is left out by such educational measures which could have helped him/her to become a full member of society and economy, we have a moral problem. If the economical-educational complex is not providing the best research-supported educational tools, we also have a pedagogical problem. However, it is not universally proved that full integration is the best way; neither is it proved that we need an entire set of segregated and specialized schools for several different kinds of special needs.Peer reviewe

Three Studies on Learning to Learn in Finland : Anti-Flynn Effects 2001-2017

Finland is known for its high-performing educational system, but local assessments have shown that performance has declined during the past decade. We report the results of nationally representative learning to learn assessments in which 15-year-olds took an identical test in the same schools in 2001, 2012 and 2017. The results show that the level of both domain-general cognitive performance and learning-related beliefs dropped dramatically from 2001 to 2012, but the negative trend has stopped since then. For learning-related beliefs, the 2017 results were approaching the 2001 baseline level. The findings indicate that we may not be dealing with a true anti-Flynn effect, but the decline can possibly be explained by reduced motivation and effort in low-stakes assessment and schoolwork.Peer reviewe

Tiede, teknologia ja opetus: tiedekeskuksen valistustehtävää hakemassa

The article deals with the dissemination of knowledge concerning the methods and applications of science. This kind of knowledge is of importance to the whole population and the task cannot be carried out properly by telling only individual bits of information. This aim also encompasses the teaching of science subjects at schools. Science Centres may be seen as being extramural science teaching facilities which have sprung up with museums of natural sciences and technology as their basis to serve the population as a whole as science education establishments, providing the visitor with information concerning the latest achievements of science and its applications.Artikkelissa tarkastellaan tieteen menetelmistä ja sovelluksista kertovan tiedon välittämistä. Tällainen tieto on tarpeellinen koko väestölle, eikä tehtävää voida ratkaista kertomalla vain yksittäisistä tiedoista. Tämä vaativa tavoite ulottuu myös tiedeopetukseen, jota annetaan koulu ikäiselle väestölle. Tiedekeskukset ovat koulun ulkopuolisia tiedeopetuksen järjestelyjä, jotka ovat kehittyneet luonnontieteiden ja tekniikan museoiden pohjalta koko väestölle tarkoitetuiksi tiedeopetuksen laitoksiksi, joissa kerrotaan uusista tieteen ja sen sovellusten tuloksista

Perusopetuksen tuen tarjonnan muutokset 1970–2016 – erityisopetuksesta oppimisen ja koulunkäynnin tukeen

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Suomalaisten suhde instituutioihin ja tieteeseen

Tiivistelmä. Tutkielma käsittelee suomalaisten luottamusta kirkkoon ja mediaan sekä suomalaisten käsitystä tieteen kyvystä vaikuttaa ilmastonmuutokseen ja rauhan edistämiseen. Tehdyt analyysit perustuvat tutkimukseen nimeltä Tiedebarometri 2019. Tilastollisina menetelminä tutkielmassa on käytetty ehdollisia prosenttijakaumia, ristiintaulukointia, khiin neliö -testiä sekä logistista regressiota. Selittäviksi tekijöiksi valikoituivat sukupuoli, ikä ja asuinalue. Tutkimuksessa kävi ilmi, että vanhemmat ikäluokat vaikuttaisivat luottavan kirkkoon nuoria enemmän, mutta yleinen mielipide vastaajien välillä on kuitenkin melko kielteinen. Naisten osuus positiivisissa vastauksissa oli suhteessa miehiä enemmän. Suomalaisten luottamus mediaan painottui selvästi positiivisen puoleen. Naiset näyttivät luottavan mediaan hieman miehiä enemmän. Vastaajat näyttivät uskovan tieteen kykyyn jarruttaa ilmastonmuutosta. Nuoremmista ikäluokista vanhempia kohti mennessä trendinä oli uskon väheneminen. Suomalaisten mielestä rauhan edistämisessä tieteellä ei vaikuttanut olevan kovin suuri merkitys. Naiset näyttivät uskovan tieteen kykyyn hieman miehiä enemmän ja iän kasvaessa usko tieteen kykyyn näyttäisi laskevan. Asuinalueilla ei juuri ollut merkittäviä eroja mielipiteissä, mutta Länsi-Suomen asukkaat vastasivat muita hieman negatiivisemmin

Evaluation culture in organizational change of schooling

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Koulutuksen tasa-arvotaseet

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Measured Attention in Prolonged Over-Learned Response Tasks and its Correlation to High Level Scientific Reasoning and School Achievement

The relationship between attention and academic performance has been of interest starting with early studies on academic success and failure. In this study we examine how attention measured in simple and prolonged over-learned response tasks correlates with and contributes to scientific reasoning and school achievement (GPA). To study attention the Attention Concentration Test (ACT) was used and to study scientific reasoning, a modified version of Science Reasoning Tasks, tapping control-of-variable schemata, was used. Of special interest were the highest performing attention group (+ 1 SD) formed from the ACT results. We gathered our data from Finnish ninth graders (n = 358; including 166 girls) from the city located eastern part of the Finland. Statistically analysed results showed that attention contributed scientific reasoning and which in turn explained the largest share of the GPA variance. The highest attention group differed from the lowest two attention groups in GPA and from all attention groups in scientific reasoning. For educational practitioners the ACT seems to be a useful tool in assessing exceptional academic learning potential in students.The relationship between attention and academic performance has been of interest starting with early studies on academic success and failure. In this study we examine how attention measured in simple and prolonged over-learned response tasks correlates with and contributes to scientific reasoning and school achievement (GPA). To study attention the Attention Concentration Test (ACT) was used and to study scientific reasoning, a modified version of Science Reasoning Tasks, tapping control-of-variable schemata, was used. Of special interest were the highest performing attention group (+ 1 SD) formed from the ACT results. We gathered our data from Finnish ninth graders (n = 358; including 166 girls) from the city located eastern part of the Finland. Statistically analysed results showed that attention contributed to scientific reasoning, which in turn explained the largest share of the GPA variance. The highest attention group differed from the lowest two attention groups in GPA and from all attention groups in scientific reasoning. For educational practitioners the ACT seems to be a useful tool in assessing exceptional academic learning potential in students.Peer reviewe

The problem posed by exam choice on the comparability of results in the Finnish matriculation examination

The article by Kupiainen, Marjanen and Hautamäki focuses on the upper secondary matriculation examination in Finland as a school leaving and university entrance examination. The presented research addresses the question of whether increased choice of the subject-specifi c examinations has the potential to undermine the comparability of examination results and to direct students’ choices not only in the examination but already beforehand at school. The authors refer to Finland’s tradition of more than 160 years of a national examination connecting the academic track of upper secondary schools with universities. The authors explain the Finnish system by describing the adoption of a course-based (vs. class- or year-based) curriculum for the three-year upper secondary education and the subsequent reforms in the matriculation examination. This increases students’choices considerably with regard to the subject-specifi c exams included in the examination (a minimum of four). As a result, high-achieving students compete against each other in the more demanding subjects while the less able share the same normal distribution of grades in the less demanding subjects. As a consequence, students tend to strategic exam-planning, which in turn aff ects their study choices at school, often to the detriment of the more demanding subjects and, subsequently, of students’ career opportunities, endangering the traditional national objective of an all-round pre-academic upper secondary education. This contribution provides an overview of Finnish upper secondary education and of the matriculation examination (cf. Klein, 2013) while studying three separate but related issues by using data from several years of Finnish matriculation results: • the relation of the matriculation examination and the curriculum; • the problems of comparability vis-à-vis university entry due to the increased choice within the examination; • the relations between students’ examination choices and their course selection and achievement during upper secondary school.Peer reviewe