finland Archives - Voices in Education

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“Pedagogy of Love” and Assessments: Waldorf Model in Helsinki, Finland

By Maya Kaul on August 6, 2018

“I would die for [my students] and they know it.” — High School Teacher at Elias-koulu lukio, Helsinki, 2018 When I visited the Finnish Waldorf school Elias-koulu lukio with undergraduate students from the University of Helsinki this past spring, I was struck by so much of what I observed in that school: the autonomy of both teachers and students, the deep commitment to… Continue reading "“Pedagogy of Love” and Assessments: Waldorf Model in Helsinki, Finland"
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Demystifying the Finnish Education System, Part II: Is Finland abolishing school subjects?

By Maya Kaul on April 26, 2018

In the months leading up to my move to Finland, friends and family regularly forwarded me any links to news articles about the Finnish education system they came across. Those articles most often were about one of two things: the lack of testing and homework employed in the Finnish school system, and the rumors that Finland is “abolishing school subjects”… Continue reading "Demystifying the Finnish Education System, Part II: Is Finland abolishing school subjects?"
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To MOOC or Not to MOOC?: Creating Supports for In-Service Teachers

By Maya Kaul on April 3, 2018

One of the main projects I have been working on as a part of my Fulbright has been research examining the potential use of Massive Open Online Courses (i.e. MOOCs) as a means of delivering professional development supports to in-service educators at a scale. I’m excited to share that this work was recently published in the journal Education Sciences in the paper “Dynamics of… Continue reading "To MOOC or Not to MOOC?: Creating Supports for In-Service Teachers"
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A Story from Election Night in Finland

By Maya Kaul on March 21, 2018

Though this post is not strictly “education”-related, I wrote a piece earlier this year about my experience on the night of the Presidential Election in Finland, and I thought it would be worth sharing here because it helps provide a fuller context to situate my reflections on the Finnish education system. The article was recently published by the Embassy of… Continue reading "A Story from Election Night in Finland"
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Policy Evaluation in Finland: Mapping the Effects of Education Policy for the Ministry of Education

By Maya Kaul on February 11, 2018

One of my main research projects in Finland has been assessing the impacts and effectiveness of the LUMA Centre’s Development Project. As I discussed in an earlier post, the Finnish Ministry of Education has provided the LUMA Centre with a grant to support in-service teachers across Finland by developing and implementing new, interdisciplinary STEM curriculum. This program was created as… Continue reading "Policy Evaluation in Finland: Mapping the Effects of Education Policy for the Ministry of Education"
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Finnish Model for Professional Development: Educa 2018

By Maya Kaul on February 6, 2018

The question I am left with after all of this, is how do we create opportunities for this exposure and experience to new teaching methods/tools so that teachers feel comfortable and willing to challenge their current teaching methods?
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An Update on My Research

By Maya Kaul on January 15, 2018

While I have been reflecting more generally about Finnish education and culture on this blog over the past several months, I realized I have not provided any real updates on how my research projects are going. So–for those interested–here they are now: I am excited to share that I am currently in the process of submitting a paper I wrote… Continue reading "An Update on My Research"
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Finland 100: Education & the Construction of a Finnish National Identity

By Maya Kaul on December 15, 2017

Last Wednesday, Finland celebrated Independence Day (itsenäisyyspäivä)–marking 100 years since Finland declared its independence from Russia. A marked difference between the independence day celebrations I have experienced in Finland and those back in the States is that celebrations here seem to be touched by a level of melancholy. Because of the relative recency of Finnish Civil War (and the Continuation War… Continue reading "Finland 100: Education & the Construction of a Finnish National Identity"
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Demystifying the Finnish Education System, Part I: No Tests or Homework?

By Maya Kaul on October 31, 2017

When I asked a classroom full of Finnish 9th grade students how much homework they traditionally get every night earlier this month, they literally laughed at me. Around the world, there are rumors about the non-existence of homework in Finland, but I assumed this had been exaggerated, at least to some degree. The 9th grade students I was with had… Continue reading "Demystifying the Finnish Education System, Part I: No Tests or Homework?"
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What does bottom-up, teacher-centered education policy change look like?

By Maya Kaul on September 28, 2017

Now that I have been in Helsinki for over a month, I have had time to get situated within my research group, the LUMA Centre. Though I have a number of first impressions of the Finnish education, something I have been particularly fascinated by is the ways in which current Finnish education policy changes center the teacher and university researcher as… Continue reading "What does bottom-up, teacher-centered education policy change look like?"

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