Categories: NewsEducation

Finnish education system to abolish school subjects

<h2>In another bold move from Finland&comma; there will be no more maths&comma; literature&comma; history&comma; geography&comma; or any specific school subjects&period; Learning will occur in a project based format&comma; and students will have the opportunity to select their own areas of study&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The head of the Department of Education in Helsinki&comma; Marjo Kyllonen&comma; explained the changes to the <em>Independent<&sol;em>&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There are schools that are teaching in the old-fashioned way which was of benefit in the beginning of the 1900s — but the needs are not the same&comma; and we need something fit for the 21st century&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to the report in the <em>Independent<&sol;em>&comma; instead of individual subjects&comma; students will study events and phenomena in a cross curricular format&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For example&comma; the Second World War will be examined from the perspective of history&comma; geography&comma; and maths&comma; while taking a course &OpenCurlyQuote;working in a café’ would involve communications style customer service training&comma; as well as economic material and the Finnish students would also study the English language as part of this course&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&lbrack;pro&lowbar;ad&lowbar;display&lowbar;adzone id&equals;&&num;8221&semi;5852&&num;8243&semi; align&equals;&&num;8221&semi;left&&num;8221&semi;&rsqb; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This system will be introduced for senior students&comma; beginning at the age of 16&period; We are all familiar with the complaint&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;why do I even need to know this&quest;” and whether students will use this or that in the &OpenCurlyQuote;real world’ is almost a constant debate&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Lecture style classes will also be phased out&comma; in favour of a move towards small group work based learning&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Finnish education system encourages collective work&comma; which is quite a familiar refrain across the world&period; Team-teaching is frequently recommended by progressive educationalists&comma; and would seem to carry all the accepted merits of team work in any profession&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Around 70 percent of teachers in Helsinki have already undertaken preparatory work in line with the new system for presenting information&comma; and&comma; as a result&comma; they’ll get a pay increase&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The changes are expected to be complete by 2020&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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Suzy Barry

Suzy Barry is a freelance education writer and the former editor of School News, Australia.

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