PISA
Interpreting the results
Some general points
The most remarkable reason for Finland’s success in the PISA Survey is educational equality: the entire school system is based on it. Equality means that every citizen has an equal possibility to get education regardless of age, domicile, economic status/ wealth, gender or mother tongue. In the PISA 2003 Survey the clearest signs of equality were small-scale variations between schools and a minor impact of socio-economic background on the student’s performance. In Finland and in Iceland the variation between schools was actually minimal whereas in Belgium, Germany and Hungary there were considerable variations. The impact of the socio-economic background for its part came to light in mathematics and Australia, Canada, Finland and Japan stood out from the rest due to a minor impact.
The educational equality of our basic education can be seen in the relative lack of differences between the different parts of country. Our basic education is only controlled by the national core curricula and there are no school inspectors who would supervise the teachers or the headmasters in the Finnish system. In other countries where the school system is more diverse and where students attend different schools with different orientations and contents already in the lower classes the variation seems to be great. Comprehensive basic education is typical of other Nordic countries as well. The existing basic education system was created in the 1970’s and the result was a nine-year comprehensive school for all. Since the school reform the system has been developed so that it takes into account different challenges of the age groups. Developing the curriculum has been continuous and it has concentrated rather on consolidating basic values than on searching short-term solutions. Politicians from left to right have shared the idea of education as the basic right and a guarantee of success in the global market.
You can read more about the Finnish educational system in the FINNISH SCHOOL section.
Another important reason for success is the academic training of the Finnish school teachers: a qualified class teacher and subject teacher must have a Master's degree from the University. Class teachers are Masters of education and their main subject is Pedagogics and the subject teachers are Masters of the subject that they teach (for example Math’s teachers will read Mathematics as their major subject). Thanks to their education teachers know didactic methods well, they are able to use them variably and they are also prepared to encounter different learners with their different needs.
As a result of the teachers’ training and of the whole educational system the learning atmosphere at school is very positive: the focus of the basic education is on deep learning, not on testing which makes the atmosphere fear-free and relieve students from unnecessary stress because they do not have to face externally standardized tests except the matriculation exam. However, students’ learning results are controlled by each teacher.
It can also be said that the public atmosphere has had a certain effect: Finns have a positive attitude towards education which shows for example in the educational structure of population. Almost three quarters of people in the age group from 25 to 64 have at least a secondary level qualification and a third have a higher education.
What makes them so good?
The Finnish success has been outstanding in reading assessment but we have fared quite well also in mathematics and science. Our high level reading literacy and mathematical skills can be interpreted in several ways but the success in science cannot fully be explained until the results of the latest survey (2006) have been published. The following factors may however elucidate the issue:- Interest in reading among students is notable: according to the PISA 2000 Survey interest was greatest in Finland, Denmark and Portugal. Finnish young people like to read newspapers (61 per cent read a newspaper several times a week and 85 per cent read one several times a month), magazines and web pages on the Internet. Reading newspapers is very common among the whole population and it is characteristic that papers are subscribed directly to home. Young Finns also read fiction but somewhat less than young people in other countries. In the survey the researchers sketched different reading profiles and it came out that two thirds of Finnish students belong to a group who read papers and cartoons regularly.
- Finnish young people are highly committed to reading which means that they read willingly. They also like to share their reading experiences with others and they do not read only in order to gain information but also for fun. Commitment to reading which was assessed from different perspectives tells among other things about attitudes, time that is spent on spontaneous reading and the diversity of the reading material. Both commitment and interest are related to a good reading literacy.
- The reading activity of Finnish young people is supported in many ways:
- local libraries in many towns collaborate with schools
- libraries offer rich collections of books, magazines and periodicals etc. and if one’s own library at home is not comprehensive enough one can almost always find the item one is looking for at the library
- schools arrange a Newspaper Week and a Magazine Day every year which are supported by local newspapers and the Finnish Newspapers Association, different magazines and the Finnish Periodical Publishers Association
- some schools grant reading diplomas to studious readers
- subtitled TV programs may also have influenced young people’s reading literacy because in Finland foreign programs are always subtitled, not dubbed. In order to follow those programs one has to be able to read fluently.
- The good reading literature influences furthermore the success in mathematics and science because both of them include tasks with written instructions and open answers.
- Although the interest in mathematics is quite low among students their attitude towards math studies is positive: mathematics does not seem to create anxiety among students and that is one important reason for the success: in the 2003 survey the researchers found out that the lesser the anxiety was the better the results were. Students’ attitudes towards math teachers are also in general positive and teachers are regarded as supportive.
- Finnish students have well developed learning strategies: students who did well in mathematics used a strategy which is based on connecting new information with earlier information and applying earlier learned things. The same is naturally true for other subjects. Making up new and creative solutions instead of learning by rote is proved to lead to good results.
- The tasks of mathematics and science assessments fit well with the Finnish curriculum although the PISA Survey does not evaluate the implementation of the curriculum.
- Math and science as school subjects have recently been emphasized in the basic education: The Ministry of Education co-ordinated a project which focused on these subjects between the years 1996 and 2002. Thereafter the Ministry has continued to develop the instructions of math and science by another program.