Fascinating International Study
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) wanted to find out the philisophies of Scandinavian countries, whose students have outperformed students from other countries in a recent test of math and science skills. They learned that educators in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark believe that teacher autonomy, project-based learning, and nationwide broadband Internet access are keys to their success. I read about this in April 2008 issue of eSchool News.
These three countries have vastly different philosophies from the USA. They do NOT have standardized testing, competitive grading, and top-down accountability. They also have pre-school programs between ages 4 and 7 that stress self-reflection and social behavior, not academic content. The pre-school programs help students take responsibility for their own learning. Additionally, the countries have social programs that provide families with support; poverty and extreme wealth do not exist.
Interesting, isn’t it?
