You know “big data”—petabytes of digital information, smart machines calculating with algorithms what’s likely to happen next. That’s how global financial markets are run today. Personalized advertisements pop up on your smartphone screen based on data from your web browsing history, or millions of others like you. Even in professional basketball, coaches set their game plans based on millions of data items caught by…
read morePublished in The Irish Examiner, Wednesday, June 07, 2017 IMAGINE reading this story in the year 2000. News about shining educational innovation included how literacy and numeracy strategies had caused steady rises of student test scores in England, how free schools had vitalised education markets in Sweden, and how higher external expectations for all children promised closing the achievement gap between those who have and those…
read moreSome say that schools don’t change. Many things may have remained the same but one thing is new: data. Today the walls of principals’ offices display performance results and data walls in teachers’ lounges highlight whether students have accomplished their learning targets. Data has become hot currency in school reforms. For some, making performance data visible promotes accountability and evidence-based practice. For others,…
read moreInterview in World Politics Review, 15-3-2017 Last year, schools across Finland began implementing the country’s new National Curriculum Framework, which was first approved in 2014. Though the country, long praised for its school system, has seen test scores decline in recent years, the reforms show the Finnish government is more focused on other problems. In an email interview, Finnish educator, author and policy adviser Pasi…
read moreOsaako kuka tahansa opettaa? Tämä kysymys on usein esitetty koulutuksen kehittämisfoorumeilla eri puolilla maailmaa. Toiset ajattelevat, että ainoastaan akateemisen opettajankoulutuksen saaneet voivat toimia opettajan ammatissa. Sitten on niitä, joiden mielestä älykkäät, koulussa hyvin menestyneet osaavat myös opettaa muita. Olisiko siis niin, että opettaminen ei vaadi mitään erityisosaamista ja jokainen asiasta innostunut…
read moreColumbian yliopiston tutkija Sam Abrams ehdottaa tuoreessa kirjassaan Education and the Commercial Mindset, että amerikkalaiset ottaisivat oppia suomalaista koulutusta. Hän tuntee kouluolot meillä oman tutkimuksensa kautta ja siksi nämä näkemykset kannattaa ottaa vakavasti. Suomalaisten ei Abramsin mielestä tule olla huolissaan, vaikka PISAssa ollaan menossa alaspäin. Hänen mukaansa oppimistulosten heikkeneminen on länsimaille…
read moreBy Joe Helm, Washington Post, Dec 8,2016 What has happened to Finland’s schools? That’s a question educators around the globe are asking in the wake of the latest results of an ongoing study that measures academic achievement in 73 countries. For much of the 21st century, Finland has been one of the very top performers in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), an ongoing study administered every three years…
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