11 minute read
From snow to sea: An educational adventure
Riina Hämäläinen
It’s 5.00am and I am waking up to a rhythmic clap echoing around the caravan park. It is time to wake up and quickly get dressed. I can already hear the noises of awakening outside my hut. Moments later, I find myself huddled together with a group of people, peering out to the Pacific Ocean in the dim light of dawn. In front of the crowd, an Aboriginal man is decisively playing his clapsticks, an essential part of Aboriginal ceremonies. Then the clapping stops, and the man turns facing towards the ocean, now speaking intently in a language that has survived thousands of years to this day. Two white-bellied sea eagles emerge from the sea and start flying circles above him. We’re standing on Budawang Aboriginal area, an important area for the First Nations people and the same coastline where Captain James Cook made his first observations of Aboriginal people in 1770. The sunrise ceremony is one of the oldest rituals still practised today that celebrates life, nature and thanks Grandfather Sun for the start of a new day.
Regardless of the tangible beauty of the moment, I have not left Finland to participate in a spiritual retreat. Instead, we are on a week’s long school camp for outdoor education and experiential learning. Understanding and appreciating the Aboriginal cultural history is a central part of the Australian curriculum and integrated with studies for all grades. As a rule, every school ceremony, assembly, parent meeting or sporting event starts with a Welcome to Country. This practice recognises Indigenous people as the first custodians of this land, promotes awareness of Indigenous history and culture, and formally acknowledges Indigenous people’s ongoing connection to the ground. A good grasp of Aboriginal history and culture is also required when delivering the Australian PDHPE curriculum. This understanding is important, for example, when discussing health issues and inequalities between the different populations in Australia. With an overseas background, one has to do a decent amount of homework more than once to teach the topic sufficiently. I have lived in Australia for five years now and know more about the native people here than in my home country Finland. I really feel like acknowledging this has brought a new dimension to my life. Perhaps the history and culture of Scandinavia’s Indigenous people, the Sámi reindeer herders, could also be a more prominent and enriching part of Finnish school life.
The continent of Australia is estimated to be 23 times bigger than Finland. The differences in delivering the National Curriculum system between municipalities are not as significant as those between States. The Finnish curriculum remains very much united nationwide. The curriculum in Finland is updated approximately every ten years.
Long-distance skating on natural ice. This picture was taken in Lake Saimaa, part of the Finnish Lakeland area where I am from
The curriculum system has three key driving factors. Firstly, the portrayal of broad goals, like the learning of generic 21st century competencies following the national core values, such as human rights, equality, democracy, and natural diversity. Secondly, the autonomy of municipal authorities in providing education for the curriculum to best work at a local level. Thirdly, a focus on the competencies of using knowledge, instead of knowledge in itself. Metacognitive thinking skills are systematically improved at all stages and one important goal is to teach students to take responsibility over their learning. While Finland has earned a reputation as having one of the best education systems in the world, its PISA results have decreased in recent years. According to educational specialists, this could result from the remarkable reputation that has caused schools to hesitate to change anything.
Teachers as an occupational group are essentially not as highly regarded in Australia or looked upon as highly by fellow citizens as they are in Finland. The amount of recognition received here may depend on the reputation and status of the school where you are working. In the Finnish system, all teachers are considered highly respected professionals by all. Teacher education programs are popular and often more challenging to get into than medicine or law. The high status of teachers dates back for hundreds of years. In the old days, the most appreciated professions were priests and teachers, because they were educated people.
School days in Australia and Finland look different. In Finland, school days are short, and the homework is often not excessive. In secondary education, fulltime teaching staff will not necessarily be onsite when they are not delivering
Visiting home during 2019 Christmas break
lessons. There is an incredible amount of trust placed upon teachers, who are expected to use this additional time for assessment, planning and preparation of the curriculum. The system is heavily based on trust rather than control. Teachers are autonomous in their work, and an independent teacher may plan an entire unit with methods for assessment by themselves. There is minimal supervision and little evaluation of teachers.
Typically, a school will have one or two teachers for each subject. These will depend on the size of the school and the popularity of different topics. For me, the experience of working in faculties with a team of likeminded professionals has been gratifying. The length of Finnish lessons may vary between 45 to 75 minutes long depending on the grade. A ten to 15-minute break follows each class. Until Senior School (Years 11 and 12) all students are required to go outside during this break, even in midwinter. When the weather reaches minus 20 to 25 degrees celsius, students are usually permitted to remain indoors.
In addition, all schools provide outdoor shelters where students can head in the occasion of wet weather.
Everybody gets a free meal – even in high school – and teachers may purchase meals at a discounted price. There are no school uniforms and the idea of having them feels distant. Having worked at a system with and without a school uniform, one cannot unsee that having a uniform might well prevent at least some self-esteem issues or bullying among young people.
Whilst Finnish secondary schools may be focused on sports, arts or music, Pymble offers co-curricular opportunities from Robotics to Equestrian. The co-curricular sports program is delivered not by PDHPE teachers but by a large team of specialised coaches. The College has a strong sporting tradition, and many of the students are talented in their respective sports. Students compete at different levels, from intraschool competitions to the Olympics. In contrast to the most famous Finnish school sports: Ice Hockey, Soccer, Floorball and various winter sports, the most popular sports here include Rugby, Rowing, Cross Country, AFL, Netball, Gymnastics, Swimming and Dance. There is a unique program called the Pymble Elite Sportswomen’s Program (PESP) to help young, high performing athletes to balance the demands of sport and academics. Similar programs also exist in Finnish schools that are exclusively focused on sports. As part of the Physical Education Curriculum, new sports for an overseas teacher have been Cricket, Hockey, Touch Football and many more. Due to the immediate closeness of the Pacific Ocean in the New South Wales area, lifesaving skills are taught in detail, and there is a whole term dedicated to teaching these skills in Year 9. The lifesaving unit at Pymble is a great unit to teach.
One of the significant differences when delivering the PDHPE curriculum in Australia, compared to Finland, is the role of sexual and consent education.
An essential part of a great cross-country ski or snowshoe trip: open fire sausages and glögi (non-alcoholic mulled wine)
Rest break at a Laavu during cross-country skiing. Finnish wilderness is filled with shelters for outdoor-minded people to rest, make a fire or sleep
The laws around consent in New South Wales are currently ahead of those in Finland. The country is likely to adopt improvements following the example of Sweden in the coming years. The Finnish Health education syllabus provides one course on sexual education during Upper School and one during High School. Generally, the outcomes in the Finnish syllabus are more generic than they are in New South Wales. The Finnish comprehensive syllabus does not exclusively mention a goal for teaching consent, as an example. Sexual rights are mentioned in the syllabus for high schools, but there is no specific outcome for teaching consent. The Respect Matters Forum on consent education that Pymble hosted at the start of 2021 would be very timely, also for Finnish high schools.
Pymble has an evident push for constantly improving the pedagogical practices, and the range of professional learning opportunities provided is extensive. The recently organised two-day Mental Health First Aid Course would surely be of great interest in the Nordic system. One of the most significant differences in professional development between the two educational systems is the process of mandatory teacher accreditation. It is difficult to get into teacher education programs in Finland, and subject matter teachers have traditionally completed a Master’s thesis and MA degree in their primary subject. Once teachers commence their working careers, opportunities for professional development are provided but optional, and there is no further accreditation unless chosen. Professional development courses are not mandatory beyond the induction phase, although career-long development is strongly recommended, and most teachers will participate in such opportunities throughout their teaching careers. There are many non-profit associations for different subjects that organise annual courses, seminars and events for members. Prior to the time of COVID-19, the Association of Physical and Health Educators of Finland used to organise an annual international seminar and a trip to somewhere in Europe.
Finland does not use external standardised student testing to evaluate the performance of schools. There is no inspections system, nor comparison
between schools or regions. Since 2018, Finland has been named the happiest country globally for four consecutive years by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Researchers have pointed to the Finnish culture that focuses on cooperation rather than competition, among other determinants for the previously unseen accomplishment.
In Finland, PDHPE students will receive one outcome for Health studies and one for Physical Education in their report. The same applies to all subjects, one outcome per subject. Outcomes are displayed on a numerical grade scale from ten (extraordinary) to four (unsatisfactory) and the descriptors for each grade are detailed. Only Preparatory and Junior schools use comments in reports. Many schools at this early stage choose to use comments only to describe students’ learning. This is to ensure that children may stay as children during the early years of their school careers, allowing more room to physical activity, creativeness and games. According to the law, the transition from comments to numbers occurs in Year 4 at the age of ten. In PDHPE, practical outcomes are divided in physical, social and cognitive goals to reflect students’ learning and performance. The outcomes for the health education curriculum are largely based on developing health literacy and critical thinking skills. It has been made very clear by the Finnish National Agency for Education that students’ personal values, attitudes or health-related behaviours are to have no impact on the outcomes Teachers are required to collect data and assessment is continuous as it is in Australia. For many years, Finland has been emphasising phenomenonbased learning and often assessment tasks are phenomenon-based projects. New Pedagogies for Deep Learning are in focus in the most recent national curriculum. Most assessment methods aim to improve the ability to analyse meta-cognitive thinking and long-term understanding. For Physical Education, there are only ongoing assessments. Having assessment tasks for practical activities in Years 7 to 10 feels uplifting to the status of the subject. Finland encourages cross-curricular cooperation. Depending on their colleagues, a Physics teacher might combine with a PDHPE teacher for a lesson to teach velocity or acceleration utilising tech and suitable applications in a practical environment. Similarly, a literacy teacher might work together with a teacher from another subject, marking the content and literacy skills of an essay.
The Australian education system evidently has a higher volume of testing. In the past decade, Finnish high schools, especially, have seen a decrease in the number of traditional exams as teachers aim to foster a 21st century learning environment. However, in both countries, students are slowly working their way up towards important exams, HSC in Australia and the Matriculation Examination in Finland. Both systems surely have their strengths and weaknesses. For as long as the biggest challenge at the end of the road remains in its traditional form, one can clearly see the benefit of students regularly practising under examination conditions.
CONCLUSION
The challenge of moving overseas has forced me to stretch, adapt and evolve both professionally and personally. Living and teaching in these two countries has caused me to be more aware of the cultural norms, hurdles and strengths of the different educational systems. It has helped me become more versatile in the classroom and develop new perceptions and ideas. The most rewarding experience has been building relationships with the Pymble students and sharing my story with them.
An earlier version of this paper was written for the journal of the Association of Physical and Health Educators in Finland (LIITO).
References
Lonka, K., (2018). Phenomenal learning from Finland. 1st Ed. Keuruu: Otava Book Printing Ltd. Opetushallitus.(2021). Terveystiedon LOPS 2019 -tukimateriaali. Available at: https://www.oph. fi/fi/koulutus-ja-tutkinnot/terveystiedon-lops2019-tukimateriaali. [Accessed 15 August 2021]. World Happiness.Report (2021). Available at: https://worldhappiness.report/archive/ [Accessed 15 August 2021].
