By Andrea Hein, communications intern

A special Green Honors Chair traveled all the way from Helsinki, Finland, in March. Students, faculty, staff and the community attended this lecture presented by the Department of Kinesiology and Harris College of Nursing and Health Sciences.

Dr. Pasi Sahlberg, director general of the Center for International Mobility and Cooperation (CIMO) in Finland, presented “Finnish Lessons: What the U.S. can learn from education reforms in Finland,” which suggested several findings and successes from Finland’s educational system.

Sahlberg focused on tactics and implementation used in Finland that may be useful for improving public schools in the United States. He began by highlighting the many differences in educational strategy across the world and how different policies and implementation may cause varying results in each country. Sahlberg noted that Finland never aimed to “be the best;” however, what they have implemented has worked for their nation.

The Global Educational Reform Movement (GERM) was a primary topic in the lecture. GERM is based on the principals of competition, standardization, test-based accountability and choice. Salhberg said GERM is essentially “marketization” and is how many education systems base success.

“[With this model], some children feel powerless when they do something standardized, they wonder why this is so important,” Sahlberg said.

The GERM education model has proven to decrease overall educational performance across every country that uses it. Sahlberg said he believed at least one country should have shown an increase in performance for this model to be considered effective.

Sahlberg explained that Finland has remained immune to allowing this model to infiltrate schools, and performance has increased each year. “The Finnish Way,” as Sahlberg referenced, counters GERM and focuses instead on cooperation, personalization, trust-based responsibility and equity.

In taking steps to a better education, Sahlberg noted equity should come first and foremost. “Excellence and equity go hand and hand, and less is more,” Sahlberg said.

Sahlberg explained how a school day is executed in Finnish schools. The law requires that each content area involves an hour, but a required 15-minute recess outdoors is part of each content hour. Each day includes a 30-minute lunch break, and no more than four content areas for K-2 children, five content areas for grades 3-6 and six content areas for grades 7-9.

Homework time is limited (0-30 minutes) for the younger children, but may increase by middle school age to more than an hour per day. He emphasized the importance of allowing significant playtime for younger children to learn to use their imaginations. He stressed play and creativity are more important than learning content for the young.

“Play is a child’s job, to learn what play means. They have imagination they can use to create new ideas,” Sahlberg said.

Sahlberg left the crowd with a lasting suggestion not to simply copy Finland’s methods directly to implement in the United States because results would not look the same. He suggested five key principles to guide change in the United States:

1. More collaboration, less competition
2. More trust, less testing
3. More well-being, less anxiety
4. More equity, less marketization
5. More evidence-based policies, less experimentation with children

Debbie Rhea, professor and associate dean for health sciences and research, took a sabbatical last fall to Finland, and was responsible for bringing Sahlberg to Texas for the Green Chair. Based on her experiences in Finland, she has designed a pilot program for up to three North Texas independent school districts that is expected to begin in fall 2014.

One to three elementary schools in each of the participating ISDs will participate in the pilot program, with the remainder continuing on the current curriculum path and serving as a “control group.” The program will begin with K-1st grade, with an additional grade added each year through ninth grade.

The pilot program consists of four steps:

1. Increase the amount of physical activity in the schools
2. Create equality across content areas; add ethics as a content area
3. Assess students differently, with state/federal assessments given twice (at the end of fifth and ninth grades)
4. Restructure the school day (less hours in the classroom for K-6 students; extra time in play/creativity)

In recognition of the important work Sahlberg has accomplished in the field of education, he received the Grawemeyer Award for distinction in education from the University of Louisville in April.

To learn more about how this pilot was developed, visit Rhea's blog. For more information on Pasi Sahlberg, visit his website.