VISITING SCHOOLS IN FINLAND

In our initial training at university we’ve studied many theories that aim to guide the pedagogical work of the teacher in the classroom, but not always these theories are lived and practiced in our post-university context. Finland is not in this failure picture and shows everyday practices in what their schools gether theory and practice in perfect harmony to contribute for the success in education of their students.
Visits to schools in Finland started in High School Hämeenlinna Lyseo, which follows the philosophy of Finnish education focused in interaction, creation, cooperation among students and emphasis on entrepreneurial vision of their learners. Those are some of the things we’ve experienced in the institution we mentioned before.

Considering the speech of the students, we could notice how comfortable and well they feel in the school environment. Those feelings are essential to the effectiveness of the learning and teaching process. In that good environment, moreover students have the support of the school staff, specially of teachers and counselor guide, the pupils can be encouraged to be proactive and self-confident to establish and reach their goals. Then, these qualities allow the effective development of their competences.

 

High School Hämeenlinna Lyseo

In this opportunity, we could also watch some classes and see, in practice, how is the question of phenomenon based learning and collaborative/group work. We perceived that the students, in fact, study the phenomenon focused on the class and work together to understand better and to expose the comprehension in a presentation to the class. It is interesting because the students choose many different resources to make their work.

Other interesting point is the use of technological resources, students are always interacting with their mobiles, computers and using a lot of different programs and apps.

During the observations in the schools, not only in Lyseo but also in Hyk Hameenlinna Yhteiskoulu Primary School, it was possible realize that the education is really effective in a collaborative work among teachers, principals and students. The learning process become attractive. One point very interesting  seen on the schools, was the way how the classrooms are organized, the pleasant environment makes that the process of  teaching- learning  be comfortable both for teachers and for students.

Hyk Hameenlinna Yhteiskoulu Primary School

In this context, the role of the teacher is related with mediation and the focus of the process of learning is not on the teacher, but on the students. The teacher is always helping and observing the students and their different competences through of their work.

Another opportunity to stimulate the interesting and motivation of the students is to encourage the interaction between local entrepreneurship and students, promoting the local development, moreover is an opportunity to practical learning experience, preparing the students to be aware and proactive in their reality, enhancing cultural practices. The students can innovate and rebuild handicraft activities, assigning value to these social, cultural and economic activities. Considering these possibilities, centers as “Sybellius center” has a great relevance, being a space that promote a relationship between the students and local entrepreneurship.

The connexion between students and entrepreneurial activities enables the application of knowledge and development of creativity, being a meaningful experience that it will be similar to the context of companies in which the future profissionais can work. Environments as Demola and Proakatemia promote a partnership work, giving tools to the students, even during the graduation, develop the qualities that they will need in their professional life.

Demola Tampere and Proakatemia

The experience of developing a project with partnership, and, then, to bring it into practice, aching goals, and producing results, reduces the distance between theory and practice. Moreover, the gains could also act as a positive feedback for the students, thus, evaluating all the project steps, it is possible to identify the strengths and needs of each team participant, enabling them to start a process of “self-development”, already improving their professional career.   

Considering the approached context, the school and university time needs to be connected with the student context as we could observe in those visits. The partnership between students themselves; and, schools, universities and entrepreneurship  centers, through projects give opportunities to the  students be proactive and develop their competences in a stimulating environment.  

By: Nego Group