Finland in PISA

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Finland in PISA

• The Reasons behind the Results
• Markku Linna

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Education System of Finland
5
4
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SPECIALIST VOCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
POLYTECHNICS (AMK INSTITUTIONS)
3
3
UNIVERSITIES
2
2
1
1
Work experience
FURTHER VOCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLS
3
3
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
2
2
1
1
Work experience
10
16
9
15
8
14
7
13
6
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COMPULSORY EDUCATION
BASIC EDUCATION
5
11
4
10
3
9
2
8
1
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Pre-school education in schools or childrens day
care centres
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Age
School years
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PISA COUNTRY PARTICIPATION
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PISA PROGRAMME

• An OECD Programme for International Student
  Assessment, which produces data on learning
  outcome in an international framework.
• Surveys every three years, with focus on
• reading skills (PISA 2000)
• mathematical skills (PISA 2003) and
• science skills (PISA 2006)
• problem-solving skills
• The 2003 PISA focused on mathematical literacy

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• Pisa tests
• how well 15-year-olds master basic skills they
  will need in future society in order to respond
  to changes in working life and to lead quality
  lives ?
• what kind of factors influence these skills and
  how these skills develop ?
• Pisa does not assess learning of curricular
  content.

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PISA 2003 MAIN RESULTS

• Young Finns
• rank highest among the OECD countries in
• mathematical literacy (544 points)
• science literacy (548 points)
• reading literacy (543 points)
• are among the top in problem-solving (548
  points)
• performed well and uniformly in all the areas.

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• The proportion of poorly performing students was
  small and that of high-performers excellent.
• Differences across regions and schools were
  small.
• Gender differences have decreased in all the
  performance areas.

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COMPARISION OF THE NATIONAL AVERAGES
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Variance in student performance between
schools and within schools on the mathematics
scale Expressed as a percentage of the average
variance in student performance in OECD
countries
Between-school variance Within-school
variance
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Annual expenditure on educational institutions
per student in primary through tertiary education
(2003) In equivalent US dollars converted using
PPPs, for primary to tertiary education, based on
full-time equivalents. Source OECD 2006
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Cumulative number of intended instruction hours
in public institutions between ages 7 and 14
This chart shows the total number of hours of
instruction a student in public sector education
can expect to receive from the age of 7 years up
to and including 14 years. Source OECD 2006
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Background of Good Results

• Equal opportunities for education irrespective of
  domicile, sex, economic situation or mother
  tongue
• Instruction, books, school materials and welfare
  services at school free of charge
• Comprehensive, non-selective basic education
• Teachers highly qualified professionals (masters
  degree), profession valued, position autonomous

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Background of Good Results

• Individual support for the learning and welfare
  of pupils, student counselling. Special needs
  education based on inclusion
• Development-oriented evaluation and pupil
  assessmentsample -based national testing of
  learning outcome, no ranking lists
• Significance of education in the society, broad
  political consensus on education policy

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Background of Good Results

• Supportive and flexible administration
  centralised steering of the whole, local
  implementation. Strong autonomy of municipal
  authorities in providing and organizing education
• The role of home-school relations and
  co-operation between schools and other
  authorities and society important the idea of
  partnership
• Philosophy of education, core curriculum and
  teaching methods are learner-oriented

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Backgound of good results

• Good network of public libraries
• History and tradition
• Trust

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Future

• But what about the future