When this issue comes up, I often hear the somewhat apologetic excuse that the countries at the top are there because of some combination of 1) rote memorization, 2) teaching to the test, 3) highly standardized systems which generally don't apply to the U.S. systems. Since my children were educated in the French system (in the US), I know there is some truth to these assertions. But, while it may be true in some or most countries that perform well in tests, I have read much about Finland's system that suggests in many ways the opposite approach is taken and yet with obviously good results (e.g. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/860...).
I'd be interested in hearing from Finnish HNers on their impressions of their educational system.
Well, the teachers usually have a masters degree and it is quite a popular profession, so it is somewhat hard to get into the University to be a teacher.
Finland is also very egalitarian, or socialist if you will. This means that there are not so many good or bad schools, all schools have pretty much the same resources. Of course there are differences, but nothing as flagrant as in the US.
Private schools are practically non-existent (less than 2%).
So while the Finnish system lifts the average, I'm not sure how much the top performers benefit from it.
Comments
When this issue comes up, I often hear the somewhat apologetic excuse that the countries at the top are there because of some combination of 1) rote memorization, 2) teaching to the test, 3) highly standardized systems which generally don't apply to the U.S. systems. Since my children were educated in the French system (in the US), I know there is some truth to these assertions. But, while it may be true in some or most countries that perform well in tests, I have read much about Finland's system that suggests in many ways the opposite approach is taken and yet with obviously good results (e.g. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/860...).
I'd be interested in hearing from Finnish HNers on their impressions of their educational system.
Well, the teachers usually have a masters degree and it is quite a popular profession, so it is somewhat hard to get into the University to be a teacher.
Finland is also very egalitarian, or socialist if you will. This means that there are not so many good or bad schools, all schools have pretty much the same resources. Of course there are differences, but nothing as flagrant as in the US.
Private schools are practically non-existent (less than 2%).
So while the Finnish system lifts the average, I'm not sure how much the top performers benefit from it.