100 word response 1 reference due 6/23/2023
Smith
The focus on equality:
In Finland, all students have access to high-quality education regardless of their background. This is accomplished by investing heavily in education, creating a highly decentralized system that grants considerable authority to local authorities, and placing a premium on the professional development of educators (durbanzanrik, 2012). Educators in the United States should take a page out of Finland’s book by making it a priority to provide all pupils, regardless of race, income, or where they live, with a first-rate education.
• The emphasis on play-based learning:
Finnish children get a lot of recess time at school. This is due to the fact that it is generally agreed that play is crucial to the educational process (durbanzanrik, 2012). Children’s play is essential for their healthy mental, social, and emotional growth. Teachers in the United States might take a page from Finland’s book and make their classrooms more like playgrounds.
• The use of formative assessment:
Gathering data on students’ progress in order to offer them useful feedback and guidance is the goal of formative assessment. In contrast, learning is measured during a unit or course through formative assessment. Teachers in Finland rely heavily on formative assessment to monitor student growth and offer targeted interventions (durbanzanrik, 2012). The Finnish model of implementing formative assessment efficiently in the classroom is one that American teachers may learn from.
Challenges
There are two major challenges to bringing Finland’s excellent educational techniques to the United States. The first challenge is there is the issue of cultural disparities between the two nations. When compared to the United States, Finland’s egalitarian culture and little emphasis on competition are clear advantages. As a result, it may be necessary to make adjustments before directly importing Finnish techniques to conform with the cultural context of the US. Secondly, there is the difficulty of the United States’ education system’s extreme decentralization. In Finland, the national government plays a central role in education policy, while in the United States, states are given considerable autonomy in this area. State education agencies, guidelines, and funding structures vary from one another. Due to the necessity for coordination and cooperation among numerous state-level authorities, the adoption of standard reforms in the US education system becomes challenging. To overcome these obstacles, we would need to take cultural considerations and the decentralized nature of the US school system into account.
