Schools are resuming classes amid parents' fears their children may have a COVID 'lockdown gap' in their education following the stresses of remote learning. The worry is children could not have possibly learnt as much at home, with parents as stand-in teachers, as they would have in usual school surroundings. But to a renowned international education expert, these fears betray a uniquely Australian attitude and could even harm…
read moreIf remote learning has shown parents anything, it is a renewed appreciation for the job that teachers do. Now as teachers return to school in the coming weeks, at least in New South Wales, it’s a chance to ask some consequential questions: Are the teacher policies what they should be to improve education in these uncertain times? Is teaching such an attractive career choice that there will be enough qualified teachers in all…
read moreThe following interview with Alyona Yurchenko of "The Teacher's Newspaper" was done in July 2021 about education in Finland. This is the original (rough cut) interview in English. Published Russian version is here: "Мы должны дать детям больше ответственности". Alyona: Finland and neighboring Nordic countries are quite similar in many ways, however, according to the results of global rankings,…
read moreWhat strikes me most about Iceland is not the coexistence of the hot volcanoes and the cold sea. While I continue to be thrilled about the sagas and the magic of the history, there is something else that makes Iceland a special place. I am always impressed when I think about how people in Iceland view education as a fundamental element of survival and community, and a condition of good life. What anyone arriving to Iceland needs…
read moreBy Pasi Sahlberg and Amy Graham More than nine out of ten parents think digital media and technologies are a negative distraction in their lives. And 83% think their children are also negatively distracted by digital devices. These are some of the findings from our Growing Up Digital Australia study. In 2020 we surveyed nearly 2,500 parents, grandparents and caregivers across Australia. This data set yielded data about over…
read moreIf you have children or grandchildren, I have a question for you: Do children today spend less time playing compared to when you were their age? This can be a hard question to answer accurately. According to my experience most people have a very clear response: Children today play less than they parents did in their childhood. Often much less. Recently we asked nearly 2,000 Australian parents about their perceptions of children’s…
read moreThis is an excerpt from Finnish Lessons 3.0: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland? (2021), pp. 167-172. --------- I have been privileged to meet and host scores of foreign education delegations to Finland in recent years in their quest to build higher-performing school systems in their own countries. What most of these visitors take away is that Finland has a highly standardized teacher education system…
read moreBy Pasi Sahlberg and William Doyle Two decades ago, Finland made big news in international education circles. Against all odds it became a top-performer in OECD’s first PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) study that compared 15-year-olds’ knowledge and skills in reading, mathematical and scientific literacies. Since about 2010 education experts and pundits in the United States have debated whether there is…
read moreWhen my friends overseas ask me what I think about Australian education, I tell them that we have the best schools in the world – but not for everyone. Indeed, according to internationally comparative evidence, the learning gap between the lowest and highest performing students in Australia is huge. At the age of 15, this learning gap equates to three years of schooling. It is an inconvenient fact that one of the wealthiest…
read moreThis post is based on the submission to the Independent Inquiry on Valuing the Teaching Profession in NSW that was released on 20 February 2021. My full submission to the inquiry panel is here. ========= The teaching profession is facing considerable challenges from more directions than one. Public school teachers in NSW and other parts of Australia work longer hours than before. They are teaching more diverse students in their…
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