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We will be working with Dr. Pasi Sahlberg while in Finland. He was recently interviewed on Canadian radio. Here was his introduction:
"Dr. Pasi Sahlberg is the face of Finnish Education and one of the world's most sought-after advisors and thinkers on education reform. He sits on the board of several international education organizations and he's the Director General of the Center for International Mobility Cooperation in Helsinki. His most recent book is the award-winning Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland. A book that has attracted attention at the highest levels of governments around the world." Learning that I made from that interview:
Link: http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/shows/2013/02/17/finnish-schools/ Everything below can be found at this address: http://pennfinn13.wordpress.com/ Our Finland inquiry trip itinerary has been confirmed as follows: Monday-Friday, March 25-29, 2013 3/25 Monday – Day of Learning at the University of Helsinki in Teacher & Leader Ed Program
3/26 Tuesday – School 1 – Helsinki Normal Lyceum (Grade 7-9)
3/27 Wednesday – School Visit 2: SYK, Helsinki (Independent Grade 3-12)
3/29 Friday – Culminating reflection day across student, teacher, parent, leader lenses.
**Finnish Educators: Please add your contact information to this linked Google Doc as we would like to connect with you before, during and after our trip.
Links and Information for our group: Our names and flight information Proposed Inquiry questions The hashtag we will be using during the trip is #pennfinn13. The next planning meeting will be on Sat, Feb 9 at 1:15PM EDT. We will receive an invitation via Google Hangouts. My Homework:
My Essential Question:
How Special Education Differs in Finland... If you look at the 15-year-olds, or 16-year-old Finns who are leaving the basic school, most of them have been in special education throughout their schooling. Which means that special education is actually nothing special. We as subject teachers cooperate with the special teacher in cases where we see that an individual student has problems with their studies. It might be problems with concentrating on a theme. It might be reading and listening difficulties, especially in languages and math. What we do is that we contact the special teacher at the very early moment. We call it the first intervention. We talk with the special teacher, and try to arrange a time that she or he could be able to come and join me as a subject teacher to my classroom, and then focus on the problem. The special teacher is available for a couple of hours. And then she picks the student to a separate classroom and helps him or her there. And we also make an individual learning plan for that individual student. And by taking these measures, we try to guarantee that no one is lagging behind. Here are some quotes from the video above: Pasi: If you look at the 15-year-olds, or 16-year-old Finns who are leaving the basic school, most of them have been in special education throughout their schooling. Which means that special education is actually nothing special. So it's you are a special child or student if you haven't been, if you haven't ever used special services.
Pasi: We are putting a lot of emphasis on the early detection of any difficulties and problems that the students in our schools may have. And this is a very different policy to many other countries where these measures are designed in a way that they are implemented only when the problems have emerged and are too visible. But we don’t' think like this in Finland. I think we believe in this early intervention to make sure that those who are likely to be in trouble will be recognized early, and provided help and support as quickly as possible. Teacher: [speaking Finnish] Two times two times two, how is this value notated? Student: [speaking Finnish] Two to the power of three. Olli: We as subject teachers cooperate with the special teacher in cases where we see that an individual student has problems with their studies. It might be problems with concentrating on a theme. It might be reading and listening difficulties, especially in languages and math. What we do is that we contact the special teacher at the very early moment. We call it the first intervention. We talk with the special teacher, and try to arrange a time that she or he could be able to come and join me as a subject teacher to my classroom, and then focus on the problem. Outi: [speaking Finnish] And now we are going to read through all the words which we know already. Outi: [speaking Finnish] I have a feeling that the students come here because they want to, they like to come here. They are welcome here, they don’t feel that it is a punishment. Olli: The special teacher is available for a couple of hours. And then she picks the student to a separate classroom and helps him or her there. And we also make an individual learning plan for that individual student. And by taking these measures, we try to guarantee that no one is lagging behind. Outi: [speaking Finnish] Even in a smaller group she has difficulties concentrating on her work. Teacher: [speaking Finnish] Has she had these problems before? Olli: The student welfare team gathers on a weekly basis, and subject teachers inform the group with different cases. They might be bullying, they might be skipping classes, they might be learning difficulties, it might behavioral problems, all kinds of things. Teacher: [speaking Finnish] No, I don’t think so, and that’s why I’m very worried, because I can see that she is very talented. For instance, in her English class, she’s working very hard, she’s writing stories. Olli: And then these individual problems are dealt with case-by-case in this weekly meeting that every school in Finland has. Teacher: [speaking Finnish] It seems like she has a problem with her looks. She feels that she is too big. I was trying to tell her that she was not too big, I wanted her to understand that. Merja: Well, a student welfare group deals with any kinds of problems that we see in a school having to do with problems at home or at learning disabilities, multi-cultural problems. The main value of our student welfare group is to interrupt as soon as possible, problems involved. Pasi: With this policy, we are trying to really make it easy for everybody to say, "Yes, I have some areas where I need help now. Is there anybody who can help?" rather than trying to hide these things. And in many cases, when you do this in the later years they will come and accumulate even more difficult problems. So I think with this, we have been able to positively affect both the- the equity of the system, and also the quality of the system. |
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April 2013
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