Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Studies in Educational Research and Development, cilt.2, sa.2, ss.93-114, 2018 (Hakemli Dergi)
Finnish students have been showing outstanding achievement in each
domain since the very first The Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA) in 2000. Finland has consistently been not only one of
the top achievers but one of the countries with exceptional educational
equity as well. In other words, very high literacy scores are just one
side of the coin for Finland, what is more extraordinary is very little
between-school variation, very high academic and social inclusion, and a
high percentage of resilient students, which all point out the “Finnish
Miracle” in educational equity. In this paper, we analyze the Finnish
Education System to question the reasons behind this extraordinary
success. We use three different sources to do that; a literature review,
about 100 hours in-class observations, and the interviews with 11
teachers in an international school and a training school in Finland.
The literature review covers a variety of related documents, such as
articles, books and some official documents like national core curricula
and Finnish Basic Education Act. We also scrutinized some other
documents provided by The Ministry of Education and Culture, the highest
authority regarding the education, and Finnish National Agency for
Education (EDUFI). Based on the results of this study, we conclude that
there is no single and isolated factor but there exists a system of
interrelated factors to explain Finnish success. The quality of teachers
and teacher education seems to be the most prominent factor in this
system. Furthermore, the emphasis on the educational equity, long-term
educational policy, culture of trust, reading habit of Finnish people
can be the other reasons for this success. Finally, a high level of
cooperation helps the educational system to work smoothly.