Finnish Education Perspectives

William Doyle is an award-winning author and TV producer who has produced and programmed hundreds of TV shows for HBO, The History Channel, PBS, and A+E, and has written articles and opinion pieces for CNN, Fox News, Politico, Psychology Today, and the Wall Street Journal.

William has served as a Fulbright Scholar and Scholar in Residence at Finland's largest teacher training school, the University of Eastern Finland. He has also served as an advisor to the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. He spent much of his life in New York City and currently lives in Helsinki, where his child attends public school.

William and Professor Pasi Sahlberg were appointed Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Resident Fellows to write their book Let the Children Play (Oxford University Press, 2019).
Recently, discussions have surfaced about Finnish education 'losing its shine'. William was invited to the podcast to share his thoughts and observations about the topic. In this chat, we delve into William's five-point prescription for improving Finland's future in education.
He talked about:

It was a pleasure to hear William's eloquent and well-researched contribution to the topic. If it resonates with you, please share it with fellow educators to keep the conversation rolling!

Link to the Bildung Review by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture.
Connect with William on Twitter here. and LinkedIn here.
Browse William's books here.
Read The Sisterhood of the Enchanted Forest here.

This podcast is brought to you by EDUTEN. Finland's #1 Digital Math Learning Platform. Sign up HERE for a free 4-week trial and your students will never look back!

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Michael Lawrence is an Australian school teacher with more than 30 years of experience. When he visited Finland to take a look at their world-leading education system, he came away in a state of shock.

"Finnish teachers looked at me like I was insane when I described the NAPLAN tests (National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy) given to children as young as eight. With shocked expressions, they asked why Australian teachers allowed this to be done to such young children..."

Michael felt that there was no reasonable answer to this. His investigation into what made the Finnish system so successful quickly became an inquiry into why his own (Australian) system wasn't working.

The next few years would see more time in Finland interacting with Finnish educators at all levels. Michael's research went deep. He held multiple formal and informal interviews and worked alongside Tampere University and Tampere University of Applied Sciences to bring training to Australian teachers.

A happy outcome of his profound interest in Finland also led to his book entitled Testing 3-2-1: What Australian education Can Learn from Finland: A Teacher's Perspective.The book tells the story of how Australian education fell behind the world’s best and why Finland came to lead. It's also a guide to how some of Finland’s ideas can be used by teachers and schools to begin to reverse this.

In today’s interesting free-flowing discussion, Melissa and Michael discuss:

To contact Michael or buy his book please click here.
To read about NAPLAN testing in Australia see here.
To connect with Michael on LinkedIn see here.

This podcast is brought to you by EDUTEN. Finland's #1 Digital Math Learning Platform. Sign up HERE for a free 4-week trial and your students will never look back!

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En Español:
En este podcast (edición especial) platicamos con Isidora Rojas, coordinadora de innovación educativa de la empresa chilena Momento Cero. Isidora nos cuenta sus intereses personales en la educación, los que son compatibles con los de Momento Cero a la vez. Nos explica a la vez los retos y desafíos a los que Momento Cero se enfrenta al tener como objetivo la introducción de la digitalización educativa en Latino América. Por último expresa las experiencias positivas y los retos a vencer en el uso de la plataforma #1 para la enseñanza de las matemáticas, Eduten de Finlandia.

In English:
In this (special edition, Spanish language) podcast we talk with Isidora Rojas, coordinator of educational innovation at the Chilean company Momento Cero. Isidora tells us about her personal interests in education, which are compatible with those of Momento Cero. At the same time, she explains the challenges that Momento Cero faces when advocating the digitization of education across Latin America. Finally, she expresses the positive experiences and challenges she overcame when using Eduten from Finland.

To find out more about Momento Cero, investigate here: https://momentocero.cl/
Eduten in Spanish: https://www.eduten.com/es/

This podcast is brought to you byEDUTEN. Finland's #1 Digital Math Learning Platform. Sign upHERE for a free 4-week trial and your students will never look back!

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Linda Liukas is a programmer, storyteller and illustrator from Helsinki, Finland. Her book series Hello Ruby introduces the whimsical world of technology to kids and has now been translated into over 25 languages. Her fabulous TED talk about ‘A delightful way to teach kids about computers’ has been viewed over 2 million times.

Linda is a key figure in the world of programming and worked in edutech before it was called that. She’s the founder of Rails Girls, a global phenomenon teaching the basics of programming to young women all over the world.

She believes that code is 21st-century literacy and the need for people to speak the ABC of Programming is here. She also believes our world is increasingly run by software and we need more diversity in the people who are building it.

Linda has studied business, design and engineering at Aalto University and product engineering at Stanford University. She is the recipient of many awards including Ruby Hero, Digital Champion of Finland and the State Award for Children’s Culture.

In today's talk we listen to Linda's sharp intellect, and melodic voice, reflect about:

💎The best and most challenging parts of the Finnish education system.
💎The role of technology in growing and developing as a human being.
💎How curiosity and connection during childhood can make meaningful technology experiences regardless of the medium.
💎Bridging the gap between emotions and technology.

To find out more about Linda Liukas: http://lindaliukas.com/

Excellent, free resource by Linda that encourages practical, tactile computer science pedagogy: http://www.helloruby.com/loveletters

Free teaching material that teaches computer science without a computer: https://www.csunplugged.org/en/

Free helpful and engaging online computer lessons and curriculum: https://www.barefootcomputing.org/

This podcast is brought to you byEDUTEN. Finland's #1 Digital Math Learning Platform. Sign upHERE for a free 4-week trial and your students will never look back!

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Kaisa Vuorinen is a doctoral researcher of positive education at the University of Helsinki. She is the founder and CEO of Positive Learning Ltd.

Kaisa has extensively studied the strengths-based approach to teaching and work, and trained school teachers and companies in this important field. The key themes of her lectures include creating a work culture of compassion and co-passion and building teams through the recognition of strengths.

In 2017, Kaisa was awarded the best innovation prize for her Positive CV work. The half a million euro prize helped her scale the idea globally. Kaisa’s wish is to help people identify their true potential and to encourage positive feedback in the everyday life of day-care centers, schools and companies.

In today's chat we hear all about these important topics:

You can find out more about Kaisa here: https://kaisavuorinen.com/

Kaisa's Positive CV work can be found here: https://positive.fi/en/we-are-positive/ 

See the Good app can be found here: https://www.seethegood.app/

This podcast is brought to you byEDUTEN. Finland's #1 Digital Math Learning Platform. Sign upHERE for a free 4-week trial and your students will never look back!

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Today’s chat hosts two enthusiastic educators from one of the best international schools in Spain - British Prince School. Paloma Lopez is the Director and Debbie Musgrove is the Head of the Primary Department. Together with their staff, they’ve adapted to the sudden changes that COVID-19 brought, with openness, curiosity and flexibility.

In today’s chat, we hear all about this holistic international school where students have the opportunity to get their hands dirty in the school’s garden, participate in arts programs, as well as sink their teeth into digital learning tools (such as Eduten).

Is it possible that schools of today can include the spectrum of options in education?

We answer this question and more while discussing:

Please enjoy this conversation with two dedicated teachers at the coal face of digitalization in education.

You can find out more about British Prince School here: http://www.britishprinceschool.com/home.html

This podcast is brought to you byEDUTEN. Finland's #1 Digital Math Learning Platform. Sign upHERE for a free 4-week trial and your students will never look back!

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A well-known name among international educators, Olli-Pekka Heinonen is the Director-General of the International Baccalaureate (IB).  Before joining the IB, Olli-Pekka served as the Director-General of the Finnish National Agency for Education, and held various positions in the Finnish Government, including State Secretary, Minister of Education and Culture, Minister of Transport and Communications, as well as Director of the Finnish National Broadcasting Company.

In today’s chat, we hear about Olli-Pekka’s early life as the child of educators and how he continued along the path of lifelong learning. We also discuss the victories and challenges of leading Finland’s National Agency of Education and what he hopes to bring to his current role in the International Baccalaureate. This chat also covered:

Olli-Pekka is a kind and good human who works tirelessly to elevate education worldwide. We're thrilled that he made time for this conversation.

This podcast is brought to you byEDUTEN. Finland's #1 Digital Math Learning Platform. Sign upHERE for a free 4-week trial and your students will never look back!

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Dubbed ‘the face of Finnish education abroad’, Pasi Sahlberg is a passionate educator, author and researcher. Currently, he’s the Professor of Education Policy at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. 

Pasi’s professional background is varied, but the common thread throughout his service is equity in education and trust in teachers.

He has served as a Senior Education Specialist at the World Bank, as a Lead Education Expert at the European Training Foundation, as Director-General at Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture, and as a visiting Professor of Practice at Harvard University.

He is the recipient of several awards for his lifelong service in education and also for his writing.

It was hard to contain my excitement (and chatter) while speaking with Pasi. In this podcast the themes discussed were:

A conversation that’s sure to get you thinking about trust in education and how it transpires in a variety of settings.

Pasi’s website can be found here: https://pasisahlberg.com/

Follow him on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/pasi_sahlberg

His latest book with Tim Walker, In Teachers we Trust: The Finnish Way to World-Class Schools 

This podcast is brought to you byEDUTEN. Finland's #1 Digital Math Learning Platform. Sign upHERE for a free 4-week trial and your students will never look back!

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Today’s guest is the very bright and interesting, Laura Tuohilampi. She’s a multi-award winning mathematics education researcher, a teacher trainer and the founder of Math Hunger. Currently, Laura is a research fellow and lecturer at the University of New South Wales, Sydney.

After publishing the Finnish version of the book entitled Math Hunger, she kick-started a global movement to make mathematics mainstream, or in other words- an enjoyable activity for all of us. Laura isn't afraid of discussing the tricky emotions that mathematics sometimes evokes.

In this chat we speak about:

A conversation that’s sure to get you thinking about maths in your own life and how you’ve incorporated maths into your life thus far.

Click here for Laura’s excellent website, Maths for Humans.  Find Laura’s engaging Instagram page ‘Laurathemathsbuster’ here. And Laura’s youtube channel (and link to her latest video) is here. 

This podcast is brought to you byEDUTEN. Finland's #1 Digital Math Learning Platform. Sign upHERE for a free 4-week trial and your students will never look back!

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Today we talk learning analytics with Eduten’s very own, Dr. Eikka Kurvinen.

Eikka is the Head of Pedagogy at Eduten and has trained thousands of teachers to use the Eduten platform both in Finland and abroad. He holds two master degrees in education and science as well as a PhD. His thesis was entitled “Effects of Regular Use of Scalable, Technology Enhanced Solutions for Primary Mathematics Education”. This guy holds learning analytics in the palm of his hand.

As one of the original brains trust behind the Eduten product, I took the opportunity to ask:

A great listen for anyone who wants to learn more about learning analytics in general, but also why research and analytics-based Eduten is the best tool for all math classrooms.

This podcast is brought to you byEDUTEN. Finland's #1 Digital Math Learning Platform. Sign upHERE for a free 4-week trial and your students will never look back!

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Episode eight takes us to India! Our guest, Raghav Podar, is the Chairman of Podar Education. Podar Education has hundreds of schools across India and 'strives to create modern citizens who are ready to make global changes'.

With a blend of global thinking & Indian values, Raghav is a senior educator and thought leader in constructing optimal learning environments. He has studied the education systems of Finland, Singapore, the U.K. and Australia, and has been most interested in upgrading the quality of schooling in India.

He is particularly fond of the Finnish education model and has spent a lot of time there meeting with key education stakeholders.

In this podcast we hear Raghav talk about:

Raghav is a bright and passionate educator and business person who has made it his mission to think globally when it comes to education in India.

To find out more about Podar Education, click here

This podcast is brought to you byEDUTEN. Finland's #1 Digital Math Learning Platform. Sign upHERE for a free 4-week trial and your students will never look back!

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In this episode, we're joined by the Head of Research and co-founder of Kide Science - Dr. Jenni Vartiainen.

Jenni is a researcher, university lecturer, writer and entrepreneur. Her research interests are young children’s playful STEAM education and scientific literacy. Within her research, Jenni has developed a play-based science education model for young children called Kide Science. The model combines play, stories, imagination, and early STEAM education.

In this podcast we hear Jenni's expert opinions about:

Jenni is a bright and passionate doctor of education who, along with her colleagues, has translated her years of research and design into a valuable Finnish education export product.

To access Kide Science's excellent one-month free trial, click the link here:http://www.kidescience.com/noblegas

This podcast is brought to you byEDUTEN. Finland's #1 Digital Math Learning Platform. Sign upHERE for a free 4-week trial and your students will never look back!

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This latest episode takes us to the United Arab Emirates. Jaana Wilkko is a Finnish pedagogical expert and education leader with a knowledge and understanding of a variety of cultures.

I asked Jaana on the show because I’m also interested in how Finnish education is being used outside of Finland.

Currently, Jaana is the principal of the Garden City British School in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi. Her school continues to receive the highest feedback from school inspections in the area and continues to be rated highly throughout the COVID 19 school closures.

Janna’s focus as a school principal is to promote and encourage her teachers to place students as active and innovative learners responsible for their own learning. This is implemented by what Jaana calls the 12 Cs of learning, which we will find out about during this conversation along with key conversation points such as:

Jaana is an energetic and passionate educator who cares deeply about her staff and students.

Enjoy listening to a true professional.

This podcast is brought to you byEDUTEN. Finland's #1 Digital Math Learning Platform. Sign up HERE for a free 4-week trial and your students will never look back!

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Today’s guest isPerttu Pölönen. He is a futurist, inventor and author. He is a classically trained composer by education but became an entrepreneur at a young age. He has studied future technologies at Singularity University, in Silicon Valley, co-founded an ed-tech company in Myanmar, written two books and won the EU's biggest science competition for youth. In 2018, MIT Tech Review honored him among the 35 Innovators Under 35 in Europe.

I invited Perttu on the show to talk about his wonderful book Future Skills (to be released in English later in 2021). The book is a suggestion of a ‘new curriculum’ of future skills that is essential in order to continue the process of educational and human development.

So many gems popped up in this conversation including:

Please enjoy!

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Dr. Kirsi Tirri is a Full Professor of Education in the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Helsinki. She is also a Visiting Professor at St. John’s University, New York, USA, and serves on multiple boards and associations in the field of education and research. Dr. Kirsi was elected as a member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters in 2006 and was the President of the Academy for the years 2016–2017. She serves on 13 Editorial Boards of educational journals and has supervised over 20 doctoral dissertations.

Her research interests include school pedagogy, moral and religious education, talent development and gifted education, teacher education and cross-cultural studies.

I have read somewhere that Kirsi is an administrator's dream faculty member. Well, she is certainly a dream podcast guest and insightful educator whose enthusiasm shines through as she guides us through the fundamentals of growth mindset and why it’s so important in today’s classroom.

During this joyful chat Dr. Kirsi talks about:

Growth mindset is an interesting theory to investigate and try on for size as a teacher, leader or parent. It allows us to ‘keep on keeping on’, especially in the face of failure. If you’re curious about my book (which Dr. Kirsi mentioned in this podcast and recommends to her university students) you can find the e-version here.

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Lauri Järvilehto is a Finnish philosopher, author, speaker, entrepreneur and musician. He is most interested in questions concerning how the mind works. He has a PhD in philosophy and has lectured in dozens of universities worldwide. He has written several non-fiction books in Finnish, including the one we will focus on during today’s chat - Learning As Fun.Currently, Lauri is a professor of practice at Aalto University.

I asked Lauri for this chat because his fantastic book, Learning as Fun, is a practical and relevant read about the need for fun and play at the centre of learning. As he mentions, with all that we now know about the mind, we simply can’t expect our kids to learn in the same way that we’ve taught them over the past 100 years.

Lauri talks about:

Lauri is a person who walks his talk. He shows up as a disruptor in education and is constantly trying new angles to increase understanding and enthusiasm in his students. I highly recommend his classic book!

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Today's special guest is Saku Tuominen. Saku is a versatile, interesting human, who is gifted in a number of areas. He’s an entrepreneur, innovator, creative director, executive producer, restaurateur, author, keynote speaker, olive oil producer and right wing (in ice hockey). I invited him on the show because he is a straight shooter who has lots of great ideas about education and the future of education. 

During this podcast we riff about:

Saku always brings the good ideas, followed by even better questions that need to be asked - especially in the realm of transforming schools into more purposeful and meaningful learning environments.

Thanks so much for listening to this podcast. Subscribe so that you never miss an episode. Also, a five-star review goes a long way in getting the exposure that we want. So, don’t be shy!

This podcast is brought to you by EDUTEN. Finland's #1 Digital Math Learning Platform.

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In this podcast, I chat with the humble and very clever Jussi-Pekka Järvinen. Jussi-Pekka reports that only his grandmother refers to him as Jussi- Pekka (especially if he’s in trouble), so his name in everyday life and in the context of the podcast, is J-P.

J-P is a class teacher with special education proficiency. Currently, he is a teacher at the University of Turku. His focus is digital pedagogy. He works with both pre-service and in-service teachers, and his favorite topics are learning analytics, the effects of AI on education and computational thinking.

In 2019, J-P was chosen as the University Teacher Of The Year together with his colleague.

The theme of this podcast focuses on what makes a great teacher. I took advantage of this special opportunity to dig into what it means to be a great teacher and get to the bottom of what it is that J-P tries to embody every time he interacts with his students. Who better to give some pro tips than an awarded Teacher of the Year?

The interesting points that popped up during the conversation are:

By the end of this conversation, I felt emotional as I listened to J-P’s ideas and reflected on my own child's journey through the Finnish Education System. I realized that many parents can only hope that their child comes across a teacher like J-P.

Thanks so much for listening to this podcast. Subscribe so that you never miss an episode. Also, a five-star review goes a long way in getting the exposure that we want. So, don’t be shy!

This podcast is brought to you by EDUTEN. Finland's #1 Digital Math Learning Platform.

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