What can we learn from educational change in Finland?

• In Event: Roundtable Session 25
  In Roundtable Session: Systems Learning From Educational Change

Abstract

This paper analyses transferability of educational change strategies from one educational context to another. It describes educational policies and reform strategies in Finland and compares them to the key drivers of educational change in the United States. Key finding is that the Finnish way of reforming its education system is almost orthogonal to the US. The paper concludes that borrowing single ‘items’ from the successful educational reform in Finland will not be wise. Instead, policy-makers should realize that the systemic drivers of educational change in Finland promote inspiration, motivation and engagement of teachers and leaders. There is only a little hope that current reforms in the US based on competition, testing or technology could be successful.

Author

• Pasi Sahlberg, CIMO