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Finnish education reform

Schools are moving online, but not all children start out digitally equal

By Amy Graham and Pasi Sahlberg More than one billion young people around the world are now shut out of classrooms due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even in Australia where many schools remain open, many parents have chosen to keep their kids home. Some Australian non-government schools have already shut their doors and moved classes online. Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania have ended the term early so teachers…

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A proposal for what post-coronavirus schools should do

This essay was written with William Doyle and originally published in Washington Post on April 8, 2020 The coronavirus crisis has shattered one of the most dysfunctional pillars of childhood education. On March 20, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos suspended the federal requirement for the mass standardized testing of children, announcing “Neither students nor teachers need to be focused on high-stakes tests during this…

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Healthy children learn better. So why don’t we feed them at school?

They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away. But having an apple or a sandwich for lunch when students are supposed to be doing well in school is not enough. We all know healthy children learn better. Healthy school lunch served free to every Australian child would be a simple way to improve education and child wellbeing. Some schools offer children breakfast or lunch daily, but the majority have to get by with what’s in their…

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We have a learning crisis but it’s not about the kids

When people overseas ask me about Australian schools, I tell them that we have some of the best schools in the world — but they are not for all of our children. International reviews have proved that the Australian school system is one of the most unequal and socially segregated among the rich countries of the world.  This is not a recent finding. During the last decade, evidence from abroad and findings in our own studies…

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We can fix Australian schools. But to rush the reform is to ruin it

Every three years around this time politicians, education leaders and pundits step up to call for fixing their education systems. This has happened for two decades now. Education reforms follow one after another. Still, according to the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (Pisa), school systems are not getting any better around the world. Indeed, in many countries, students’ test scores in reading, mathematics…

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Sleepless, distracted and glued to devices: no wonder students’ results are in decline

American journalist and social critic H L Mencken wrote that “for every complex human problem, there is a solution that is neat, simple and wrong”. "Back to basics" or phonics tests are such answers that have been offered to improve Australian schools. Alarm bells were ringing around Australia when the latest PISA results became public on Tuesday. Australia scored its lowest ever results in the global reading, mathematics…

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A three-point plan for healthier kids: play, play and more play

The biggest issues confronting parents these days all seem to have one common element: smart devices. We know for sure that children today suffer more mental health issues than generations before. We also know that kids now sleep much less than they should, and a lack of sleep affects their wellbeing and learning. Reading and writing skills have been declining in Australia over recent years and students’ learning in other areas…

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What is really going on in Finland’s school reform?

By Pasi Sahlberg and Peter Johnson Originally published in Washington Post on 30 August 2019 Finland has been in the spotlight of the education world since it appeared, against all odds, on the top of the rankings of an international test known as PISA, the Program for International Student Assessment, in the early 2000s. Tens of thousands visitors have traveled to the country to see how to improve their own schools. Hundreds…

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Australia must fix school inequity to create a top education system

About a year ago my life turned upside down, literally. My wife and I, with our two school-aged children, moved to Sydney from Helsinki. We soon realised that Australians do not walk upside down. But there were some things that we were not prepared for. Ever since we arrived in our new hometown, people were curious to know how we chose a school for our sons. For us it was no-brainer — the neighbourhood public school. But most…

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To Really Learn, Our Children Need the Power of Play

The U.S. can learn a big lesson from Finland’s education system: Instead of stress and standardized testing, schools should focus on well-being and joy By Pasi Sahlberg and William Doyle Five years ago, we switched countries. Pasi Sahlberg came to the U.S. as a visiting professor at Harvard University, and William Doyle moved to Finland to study its world-renowned school system as a Fulbright scholar. We brought our families…

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RECENT POSTS

  • Australia, Educational Lone Wolf?
  • Understanding Equity in Education. Part 2: What can we do?
  • Suomalainen koulu takaisin maailman huipulle
  • If Australia wants to improve school outcomes, we need to define what ‘equity’ really means
  • Understanding equity in education. Part 1: What is equity?

BLOGS I READ

  • Diane Ravitch's Blog
  • FreshEd with Will Brehm
  • The Answer Sheet by Valerie Strauss
  • Yong Zhao Blog
  • Martti Hellström Blogi

SUGGESTED READING

  • Education and the Commercial Mindset by Sam Abrams
  • Slaying Goliath by Diane Ravitch
  • What Works May Hurt by Yong Zhao
  • The Element by Sir Ken Robinson
  • My recent articles via ORCID
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