REFLECTION ON MY DEVELOPMENT DURING THIS PROGRAMME
REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
This Reflective Journal is a useful means for your professional development. Please take a moment to reflect personally on the programme and write a few lines everyday on your thoughts.
Possible areas of reflection: My professional development today, communication development, cultural understanding, participation in study visits and field projects, conversations and debates, talks, group work, sharing of expertise, dissemination strategies, etc.
Date: Sunday 23/04/17
In the afternoon, we met in the Sokos Presidentti hotel where we were introduced to the course organisers and given an outline of the course.
We met other course members and we were given information about the learning portfolio.
Date: Monday 24/04/17
During the morning, we had a tour of the wonderful city. The guide was extremely well -informed, interesting and charismatic.
The tour really gave us a sense of the history of Finland and it´s geography between west and east.
During the afternoon, we attended a seminar about the Education System in Finland and Finnish History, Culture and Society.
The speak speaker was Anna Ikonen a university lecturer.
She introduced as to some key aspects about Finnish education:
- No school fees
- Free transport
- Free school material
- Free hot meals
- Psychological counselling
- Inclusion
- Mother tongue classes for immigrants
She introduced us to the cornerstones of the Finnish education system, promoting democratic values and practices.
-Education is free
-Children are involved in learning process, teacher are facilitators
-Children start school at 7.
-Maximising potential- every child is unique and has an individual study plan agreed upon by teachers and parents.
The second speaker was a secondary school teacher, he talked about Finnish History, Culture and Society.
He explained the global system versus the Finnish system.
Competition verses collaboration
Standardization verses personalisation
Test based accountability verses trust based responsibility.
Date: Tuesday 25/04/17
We travelled to on the outskirts of Helsinki to visit Meritori School.
The children who attend the school come from a mixed social background, there are a number of children from refugee families and a large group of affluent families who are attracted to the school because of its focus on maths and science.
There are 7 classroom assistants who work with the children with special educational needs.
The ethos of the school is based on positive psychology. Academic skills and well-being are taught together.
achievement = well-being
well-being = achievement
During weekly sessions, the children were encouraged to identify their character strengths and those of others in the class to enable them to celebrate and use these strengths in their daily life and in their studies.
We saw:
- Highly qualified teachers.
- A high ratio of learning assistants.
- Small teaching groups
- Team teaching
Included in the school project are:
- Peer mediation
- Anti-bullying strategies
- Aggression replacement therapy
- Maths therapy
- PE in other subjects
Evaluation
The children receive qualitative evaluations until the 5th and 6th grades (12 years old). And after that quantitative evaluations.
Date: Wednesday 26/04/17
Visit to Valkeakoski, in the lake area of Finland.
In the morning, we visited a school in the Valkeakoski area.
We visited the day care area of the school and were amazed by the space, facilities and resources.
Play, fun and social interaction is the focus.
We were told that well- being, happiness, social skills and personal growth were more important than the curriculum.
Special needs
In the special needs classes, there are up to 10 students.
There was little inclusion in the main stream classroom. The students mainly joining the class for music and project work.
Class work
When we visited the classes, we saw a variety of teaching styles from book based work in maths to investigative project work.
The children do tests and have homework, but not as much as in Spain.
We were impressed by the children´s art work which is displayed all over the school.
The children do not use cursive handwriting the class teacher explained that a few years ago, they stopped teaching handwriting and the focus is on content not on presentation.
We were told about the new curriculum in Finland which focusses on teaching method i.e. teacher as a facilitator and investigative learning.
There are standardised tests in 6th grade.
During the afternoon, we attended a seminar: Finnish Education and day care in a small town context.
The speaker explained to us some key aspects about:
- Early childhood learning and care.
- Pre-primary education
- Basic education
- Upper education
He also explained the less is more ideology in the Finnish education system.
less is more
- late school start ( 7 years)
- short school year
- short school days
- small schools
- short sessions
- stress culture
Date: Thursday 27/04/17
Today we visited Saunalahti school, the Flagship school of the Finnish education system.
We were amazed by the award-winning design of the school, the high- tech installations and incredible facilities. The building houses the primary and secondary school, a day care centre, the public library and a youth centre open to all the community.
The school has many open plan areas and children can choose to work in a variety of areas depending on their needs. There is a real sense of trust.
Values
The school values of the school are made alongside the parents
- Focus is on the child
- Integrity and Fairness
- Sustainability
- Sense of community
- Holistic well-being of the children
The main principals of the school
I really liked the main principals of the schools:
- Every child is unique
- Love and limits, care and safety and enough welfare before learning
- Teachers require knowledge on each child´s individual needs
- Sense of community
- Educational partnership with parents
- Co-operation between teachers, planning together
- Learning by doing
And the mission of the school…
“A child is not brought up so that he can be as pleasant and effortless as can be, but so that he can be healthy and strong to fill his future place in the world and discover himself.”
Maria Jotuni
We saw many similarities between Saunalahti and the previous schools that we visited.
Date: Friday 28/04/17
Today we visited the beautiful city of Tallin, the capital city of the Republic of Estonia. First, we had a guided tour of the old town, one of the few European centres that has fully preserved its structure of medieval and Hanseatic origin. Medieval. We amazed by its gothic church spires, winding cobblestone streets and enchanting architecture.
During the afternoon, we sampled traditional Estonia food including, herring pate, traditional cold meats and cheese and elk stew. Followed by a cold Estonia beer.
Date: Saturday 29/04/17
On the last day, we attended the forth seminar: Dissemination strategies and presentation of Learning Portfolios
Group by group we presented 3 slides depicting what we had learned about Finland and its Education system and how we were going to disseminate this information back at school.
It was really interesting to see what others had learnt (many sharing same ideas and experiences) and it gave me lots of ideas about dissemination activities.
A final overview of my experience in this European training programme:
On the whole I was extremely happy with this European training programme.
I met some wonderful teachers from all over Europe and have plans to carry out geography and art based projects between our schools.
I was very impressed with the Finnish schools, the creativity, the calm, the design, the space, the trust, the good manners, the kindness of the teachers…
I will take back to my school a changes vision of what education can be and many new teaching ideas.
I loved Helsinki and the people who live and work there. Smart, bright well educated and discreet people with a genuine smile.
Annabelle Picton.
CEIP Juan Armario.
