What Can We Learn from Finland’s Education System

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If you think a good education consists of as much academic work as possible,lots of competition and plenty of tests,then a trip to Helsinki will offer a fresh perspective.Finland instituted a radically different approach to education in 1971,and has been gradually refining it since.

倘若在你眼中，优质教育应含有尽可能多的学术任务、大量的比赛及考试，那么请前往芬兰赫尔辛基看一看，在那里你会收获全新的见解。芬兰于1971年创建了一套与众不同的教育方法，自那时以来，这套方法一直在逐步完善。

2 The system emphasizes co-operation rather than competition and focuses heavily on play—with no formal education until age seven and at least 15 minutes of play for every 45 minutes of formal education after that.Teachers have a huge amount of autonomy,including responsibility for assessing students,with almost no formal standardized tests.

2 该教育体制凸显的是合作而非竞争，并且非常注重孩子的游戏时间——直到7 岁，孩子们才会接受正规教育，而且在每节时长为45 分钟的正规教育课程后，孩子们至少有15 分钟的游戏时间。教师有极大的自主权，包括负责对学生进行测评，因为芬兰的教育体制几乎没有正式的标准化测试。

3 There is very little homework and children of all abilities are taught together,with a focus on special education,working intensively with children with learning or behavioral difficulties—30 percent of kids receive special help at some point.

3 孩子们没什么作业，能力各异的孩子在一起上课，但会侧重特殊教育，集中帮助那些有学习或行为困难的孩子。30%的孩子会在某种情况下接受特殊帮助。

4 It seems to work.Finland consistently sits at or near the top in subjects like reading,maths and science in the Program for International Student Assessment run by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development,a standardized test taken by 15-year-olds in more than 70 countries that is widely used to steereducation policies.The test also revealed that the differences between the best and the worst students are the smallest in the world.

4 此法似乎很有成效。国际学生评价项目是由经济合作与发展组织实施的标准化测试，参与者为来自70 多个国家的15 岁青少年，许多国家会参考该测试来调整教育政策。芬兰青少年在阅读、数学和科学等科目上的表现一直处于或接近世界榜首。此测试也揭示了一个事实：芬兰学生的两极差距全球最小。

5 “We have always been willing to borrow good ideas that are worth borrowing and turn them,through close cooperation,into something our teachers can use for our own model,” says Jouni Kangasniemi,head of development at the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture.“Then again we are very open to teaching and learning practices developed here in Finland.An open dialogue with other experts,domestic or foreign,helps us develop them further.”

5 “我们一向愿意借鉴值得借鉴的好想法，并通过密切合作将这些想法进行转换，使其适应芬兰的教育模式，为芬兰教师所用。”芬兰教育文化部发展主任约尼·坎加斯涅米表示，“另一方面，我们对本国的教学实践持非常开放的态度。和国内外各界专家进行公开对话有助于教学实践的进一步发展。”

6 Before age seven,Finland provides children with free preschooling,where the emphasis is on their emotional development and growth as people,learning by interacting with others.“Finnish people say that play is children’s job,”says Pasi Sahlberg.

6 芬兰政府为不足7 岁的孩子提供免费的学前教育，注重孩子的情感发展及人格培养，孩子通过与他人互动进行学习。帕西·萨尔贝里表示：“芬兰人认为游戏玩耍是孩子的任务。”

7 “Finnish parents—me included—and much of the rest of society believe that children must have the right to a long and healthy childhood.We think that children learn what they need by playing,being with their siblings and friends,and being closely linked to their homes.Very few educators and parents are convinced that starting formal schooling early would pay off later in life,and research evidence does not support starting instruction-based schooling earlier.”

7 “包括我在内的芬兰家长以及许多其他社会人士都认为，孩子应有权长久享受健康的童年。在我们看来，孩子通过游戏玩耍，与兄弟姐妹和朋友互相为伴，并和父母亲人朝夕相处，便会学到成长所需。而坚信提早开始正规学校教育日后会带来回报的教育人士及家长寥寥无几。研究证据表明，较早开展以讲授为主的学校教育并不可取。”

8 “Creativity is the key condition behind Finland’s overall success as a nation.It is deeply-rooted in the Finnish mindset that finding your own way to do things leads to better outcomes than imitating others.There is no better way to be more creative than to start early and play a lot.”

8 “芬兰举国取得总体成功，背后的主要条件在于激发创造力。芬兰人坚信，相比于模仿他人，找到属于自己的行事之道效果更好。而且早早把大量时间投入游戏玩耍，是最能激发创造力的方式。”

9 Perhaps the single biggest factor in the excellence of Finland’s schools derives from the trust it places in its teachers.There is no centralized inspectorate and no rankings of students,schools or teachers; rather they are encouraged to set their own curricula and tests,leading to a diversity of knowledge among students.

9 芬兰的学校之所以卓越，也许最重要的一个因素是对教师的信任。政府没有成立集中督学机构，也不会对学生、学校或者教师进行排名。相反，政府鼓励学校自行设置能让学生汲取多元知识的课程与考试。

10 Teachers are drawn from the top 10 per cent of graduates,all have master’s degrees in education,funded by the state,and are generously paid.As a result,the profession is massively oversubscribed.

10 教师都是排名前10%的毕业生，且已拿到教育硕士学位，并获得国家资助，薪资丰厚。因此，大量求职者挤破了头申请教师这一职位。

11 “The greatest barrier in many countries is an assessment system that hinders students to learn and make them compete against each other,” says Kangasniemi.“Finnish teachers are highly trained and qualified.They are experts in learning sciences,not in teaching sciences.To change an education system takes time.Ours has evolved over a few decades.There are no short cuts available when you make system-wide reforms.”

11 “评估体系阻碍学生学习，使他们陷入竞争，因此成为许多国家面临的最大障碍。”坎加斯涅米如是说，“芬兰教师受过高水平培训，资历深厚。他们并不精于讲授各类学科知识，却都是学科研学专家。改变教育体系需要时间。几十年来，我们的教育体系一直在逐步发展。要想全面改革教育体系，没有捷径可走。”

12 Adds Sahlberg: “You can’t really rely on teachers’ and schools’ judgement regarding teaching children unless you can truly trust them.And you can’t trust them enough unless teachers and school leaders are professionals with a capital ‘P’.Teachers must be prepared and treated like professionals,akin todoctors and lawyers,and they must be compensated like professionals.”

12 萨尔贝里补充说：“除非你的的确确信赖教师和学校，否则，在儿童教育问题上，你无法真正依赖他们的判断。除非教师和学校领导都是真正的专业人士，否则，你也不能充分信任他们。教师必须得到像医生和律师这样的专业人士一样的培养和尊重，他们也必须获得与专业人士同等的报酬。”

13 “Their voice in policy-making and designing reforms must be heard and considered as the views of those who know the practice best.The trigger for betterment is building a truly professional culture of schooling based on ethical code,professional representation of the profession in policy-making,and deep,collaborative professionalism in every single school.”

13 “教师对教育实践最为了解，因此在政策制定及规划改革方面，政府必须听取并考虑教师的意见。这种促进教育体制完善的做法，正在以道德规范、政策制定领域的教师职业代表制度，以及各校师资队伍深厚且具有合作精神的职业素质为基础，切实构建学校教育的专业文化。”

14 A fringe benefit is cost savings.All that generous state funding sounds expensive,but Finland still manages to educate its children more cheaply than other wealthy countries: 30 per cent less per child than in the US,for example.Trusting its teachers means it can employ very few administrators and bureaucrats; plus,the lack of standardized tests saves more money.

14 芬兰教育体制的额外好处是可以节省成本。所有政府大手笔的出资听上去成本高昂，但相比其他富裕国家，芬兰的儿童教育成本仍然较低：比如，芬兰每名儿童的教育成本要比美国低30%。因信任教师，学校几乎无须聘用管理与行政人员，不设置标准化测试也可以节省更多资金。

15 The latest frontier in Finland’s educational revolution is a move to phenomenon-based approach,in which students learn about particular subjects,events or phenomena from an interdisciplinary perspective.

15 芬兰教育改革的最新突破在于采用了主题式教学法。通过此方法，学生可以从跨学科的角度来了解特定学科、事件或者现象中的相关知识。

16 However,it will actually only form part of the curriculum,alongside more traditional subjects,and it really just represents a formalization of something a lot of Finnish schools already do.

16 这种教学其实只是课程体系的一部分，体系中还包含比较传统的学科教学；芬兰许多学校早已采用类似的方法，此次正式提出其实也就是将其正规化。

17 “Phenomenon-based learning was adopted into the national core curriculum in August 2016,” says Kangasniemi.“It is something that takes place in the study program once or twice a year for a specific length of time.Obviously,it has been piloted earlier in Finnish schools.Due to the good results,it spread across the system.” ■

17 “2016年8月，主题式教学被纳入芬兰国家核心课程体系。”坎加斯涅米如是说，“在每年的课程中，学校选取某段特定时间，实行一到两次主题式教学法。显而易见，芬兰的学校早已试行主题式教学法。由于试行效果不错，此教学法便在教育体系中加以推广。” □