Developing students' independence

I was amazed to see how independent Finnish children are. I haven't had the chance to see much of family education, but as far as school education is concerned, I did observe a few ways students are trained.


Firstly, students, as little as seven-year-olds, go to school on their own. You can see the boy on the right going home on his own. (sorry it wasn't closer - i feared i would scare him!) And their timetables vary from day to day, for example, they may start their classes at 8 on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, but they may start at 9 on Wednesdays, and at 10 on Thursdays. Each student knows exactly when they have to come to school.


Secondly, students have floating classes. They go from one classroom to another after each lesson, and again since their first day in school. They are incredibly organised.


Thirdly, they have good habits of cleaning things up, say after their woodwork classes or simply after the last lesson.


The two most interesting aspects of independence to me are in learning and thinking:

Students are very self-disciplined. They do their homework and go up to the teacher's desk to check the answers themselves (without cheating). They ask the teacher questions if they don't understand why they have made a mistake. Sometimes classes can be incredibly quiet because each student is reading on his own the text and doing the questions. The teacher's role is just to supplement the student's learning; the teacher is not there to tell the students everything they need to know.



In subjects like art and woodwork, I could see a very consistent teaching approach: let the students think for themselves how they would go about their work. They learn to make judgment and rely on their own creativity in coming up with their products.

The girl below has decided to make a heart with her string of knots (which she made herself).


I personally have a very firm belief in independent learning - to me this is one of the most important things my parents taught me. You should only rely on yourself, and not your teachers or others.

English teaching at meilahden ala-aste: primary level

Sari was a very elegant English teacher, and spoke a perfect English accent (as did the other English teacher I met as well).

She had prepared questions in a little box for the kids to draw and ask me. It was a lot of fun and most of the students were very interested in a random guy from Hong Kong. They asked me questions about sauna, recycle, favourite food, computer games, Saturday activities (sauna day in Finland), siblings, really fun questions. I learnt that a couple of the kids were half American and half French.

It was a pity I didn't get a chance to see how a normal English lesson works in primary schools. However I had a chance to talk to her about it. I know that they adopt a communicative approach. They started by engaging in conversations and putting the language into context. It was really great that they had trained the students to be really responsive and communicative.

I think two key reasons for the high English standard in Finland are:

1. the high quality of teachers in Finland. English teachers are near native speakers, and students of course get exposure to good English. Just one native English teacher in Hong Kong is really not enough.

2. textbooks are very good: The topics are interesting and relevant to daily life, eg the first topic I saw on their textbooks for children is 'ICE CREAM ISLAND', and students practised how to order ice cream, asking each other about their favourite food, etc.

Their approach to English teaching is language immersion in primary schools. They barely teach grammar to young children, but build their foundation on the basis of speaking and listening, rather than reading and writing. They learn what they use, and they use what they learn.

In fact, this reminds me of an article I have read before, which criticises the language education in Hong Kong for starting from reading and writing - this can very well lead to a dead language. Language is for use in daily communication between people! I remember how dumb (in the literal sense) when I went to England - I felt as if I didn't speak English at all.

(Unfortunately I didn't take any photos!)

Students' works at meilahden

I can see signs of creativity around the school.


This is a map of 'the Daughter of the Baltic Sea' (Finland)


art works of 5A students.

some maps


And the Beijing Olympics!

Two Finnish boys at Meilahden

I had a chat with two rather very shy boys (D and M) (both in Grade 4) who were responsible for attending the door bells at the main entrance. I took that opportunity to chat with them.

They like reading playing football, baseball, tennis, reading comics, playing computer games and playstation,

Their favourite subjects are PE classes, woodwork, history and English. They both know about Dragon Ball, (they liked Sun Wu kong most) and say they don’t read books.

Their conversational English is very good for students at their age – they had only learnt English for three or four years. They could answer questions very accurately and directly. Occasionally they didn't know the English expressions, and we had to consult my Finnish English bilingual dictionary!

They had both travelled out of Finland before – in Bulgaria and Sweden respectively.

A funny thing was Daniel kept asking me, ‘Why are you asking this?’ when I asked what those trees were called. I was just having a casual chat with him!

And when I asked them if they liked the school, they said it in a very Finnish way, ‘it is very nice.’

Tero's sharing: cross subject, and student-centred teaching

Tero is the vice principal of Meilahden ala-aste who has shared his teaching philosophy with me and told me a lot of background information about the school.

The teaching in the primary school is theme based, rather than purely subject-based. Cross-subject connections were encouraged, for example in the art class, I could see for myself that the teacher introduced different elements of nature in the art curriculum, which led the students to observe more about how weather changes, what different animals looked like. Each subject is not quite seen as self-contained separate subjects.

They also appreciate that students learn in different ways, and there should not be one fixed method that applies across the board – it should vary depending on the needs of the students. It can be through group learning, individual learning or problem solving.

I think this is also the rationale behind small class teaching. The teaching should as far as possible respond to the needs of different children ie student-centred teaching.

In a Finnish school, I can see that these children are really 'centred'. They have their own learning schedules, and the teachers supplement them by giving them appropriate guidance when needed. You can see examples in almost all the classes - the students all learn at their own pace.

Teaching approach (Pia's sharing) - interest and equality

Pia has shared with me her views on the teaching approach in primary schools.

The objective of primary education is to inspire interest, teach students how to learn, help them develop the necessary skills rather than impart too much content. We have seen examples of her approach in Chinese class and the general Chinese learning activities in school. She has also given me the following example in teaching science.

Students are asked to move as if each of them was a water molecule to simulate the process of formation of rain. They would go from ocean as they evaporate, and form clouds in the sky, and then return to the mountains as rain. (You see the word 'mountain' in the photo above) There are various words ‘clouds, mountain, sea’ etc in both Finnish and Chinese in different spots of the school, for the kids to move about and learn the water flow in nature in a very hands-on way. The personal experience was meant to help them understand the theories.

She has also discussed the distinctive emphasis on equality under the Finnish system. They don’t encourage competition, and do not their children because childhood assessments would leave a very big scar on those kids who do not perform well at the start. it would lower their self esteem and hinder their later learning because it would be a frustrating experience. They only start more assessment at grade 10 (which is Form 4 in Hong Kong).

She also emphasises that every student is different. It is not a massive achievement to be able to learn maths faster than others - it is only a difference. Every student should just try to do their best and mind their own progress.

This is what ancient education philosophers used to advocate: 有教無類 (you jiao wu lei - every child should be taught).

Maths class grade 5 (small class)

Math was chosen as the subject for both Finnish and Chinese instruction because there was quite a lot of text in math questions (everyone used Finnish maths textbooks), maths was the subject which had the most classes (this would give students most exposure and help in language difficulties), and there were English language materials in maths, which helped the Chinese teachers and students who could not speak Finnish.

Two teachers are employed from Beijing on a contractual basis, and they are mainly responsible for teaching Chinese and certain other subjects in Chinese.

In the classroom, Ms Chen was teaching in mandarin, and Pia would assist in Finnish. Pia also helps the weaker students who don’t speak Finnish by using Chinese occasionally.

This is an example of small class teaching. In fact there is not much teaching. Students are encouraged to read the questions themselves first, and only ask questions if they do not understand. Each student attempts the questions themselves, with the teacher around.

There were eight students in the classroom, seated in three different tables. They all had their own work at hand. One group was learning decimals and a girl was learning some logic exercise (which was an extension for the more gifted students). The group learning decimal places were counting the squares and learning to read decimal numbers in Finnish.

Students are fairly active in asking questions about what they do not understand. A girl asked why the number would be 1.30 with the zero at the very end – the question was illustrated in the form of a set of 30 filled small squares out of 100 plus a fully coloured big square.

They all checked the answers by themselves with the teacher’s book after they have finished their own attempts. They don’t cheat! This saves the teacher a lot of marking and also trains the students to look after their own work. The reason that Pia gave was they value immediate feedback on the students’ work.

Teachers can spend more time preparing for lessons, and students are independent learners.

Chinese teaching at Meilahden (reflections)

I can see some boards with Chinese mooncakes drawings (one of UK national flag), Great Wall photo and description, as well as colour filling of pictures of Sun Wu Kong (of the Journey to the West), and moon, stars and sun in pictures with Chinese words. This should give you a flavour of how Finnish schools reinforce the learning of languages through different activities and media. Learning a language need not be limited to reading books and practising word drills, particularly for younger children.

This is the first year that Meilahden ala-aste, in fact the first Finnish school, that offers a bilingual education in Chinese, and school teaching in Chinese. Basically Chinese is taught at two levels - as a first language for native speakers, and as a second language for interested Finnish students. I did not observe the first language classes, but only the second language one, which you can find here: Chinese class grade 1.

A very strong first impression I got was that students were very eager to use what they have learnt, without fear at all in speaking Chinese. Just as I was walking along the corridor, I had been greeted by a few Finnish students with ‘Ni hao’ (Hello in Chinese).

The focus is immersion, inspiring an interest and emphasis on speaking.

They start by initiating conversations, singing and playing games with students in Chinese, rather than starting with han yu pin yin or learning characters. They start learning by being immersed in the language as used in daily life. They learn by imitation and talking in the language. They also begin by recognising the words, without any form of drills like we did when we were young. They don’t learn the pronunciation system in grade one because the school fears the students will confuse that with the Finnish alphabet and sound system. Writing the characters can obviously be a frustrating experience as well when kids start learning the language.

This is an encouraging development because there is in fact a growing Chinese community in Helsinki. I heard that there are about 3000 Chinese living in the city. (I've been able to see a few hundreds in a Mid-Autumn celebration party.) These overseas Chinese do have a need to keep up their Chinese, and I am glad that their native tongue is increasingly respected by the Finnish education system.

Under Section 12(2) of the Basic Education Act 628/1998, 'as mother tongue, the pupil may also be taught some language which is the pupil's native language.'

'may' can suggest it is optional for the pupil to be taught their native language, which in turn suggests an obligation on the part of the school to provide this facility. However, there are practical constraints in a city like Helsinki with lots of immigrants from different native languages. As shown by this school, the law is not just empty slogan, but really put into practice where possible.

Chinese class (Grade 1)

It was a grade one class, Finnish students learning Chinese as a foreign language. Pia taught in Finnish most of the time, but the students, after having learnt for a month, could already say ‘Ni hao’(hello), ‘tai yang’(sun), ‘yue liang’(moon), ‘xing xing’(star), ‘zai jian’(goodbye), and sing songs in Chinese about numbers and greeting people. The kids kept saying ‘Ni hao’ to me, and when they left, some of them would come up to me and said ‘zai jian’ individually. One of the little girls was even wearing some pictorial language t-shirt.

They were singing songs and playing gestures with ‘tai yang yuan, yue liang wan, xiao xing xing’(the round sun, the moon crescent, little stars) - and my contribution was ‘xiao xing xing shan yi shan’ (little twinkling stars). The students loved it, and Pia reinforced these words in different ways, eg playing games, songs, and asking them to listen to it and do the gestures etc.

Pia also showed pictures of mooncakes to let the students draw a bit after a long day of school (the lesson was the last one). She used technology really well by showing pictures of mooncakes on the projector screen.

The experience was that they mainly learnt by doing and following the teacher. The policy of the school was that the grade one chinese students should not learn pin yin and too much of writing practice (for fear that this might cause confusion with their mother tongue phonetic system and be too frustrating for some students). They could pick up the language very quickly and were very keen to learn the words. Pia was rather worried that learning Chinese words would be too much at the beginning, so they only learnt the numbers and a few very simple words in Chinese. Mainly conversational Chinese, and none of them was afraid to use Chinese at all.

They sang me this Chinese song 'Our friends are here'. How amazing!

Music class at Meilahden ala-aste

Kasia, the music teacher, said the four most important things in music learning is: singing, playing an instrument, listening and dancing (using body expressions). And they focused on learning by doing.

I recorded these two songs:

There were two songs that I recorded:

Autumn

Finnish folk song: Kirppu ja härkä

She has shown me a song that she has composed for the school, and translated for me. A simple, yet remarkable one. Some of the lyrics read: there are many important things in life, one of which is that we are learning together. We will never forget the school.

They also sang other songs including: Souda, Souda sinisorsa (bird swimming in a lake) that is a song composed by Sibelius.; 'water drops' by Sibelius as well, and the teacher just asked the students to listen to it with their eyes closed.

The little children have sung at least 6 songs in the span of 35 minutes, a song welcoming me, a song warming up, the school anthem, the songs in the music book etc.

In the music lesson I could see how they started with the forest, and then the trees (quoting Yolanda). This is a typical feature of Finnish teaching. Kasia let the students sing along, and play the flute after her, without caring too much about precision initially. Kasia only corrected the students when the tune goes seriously wrong. This helps them to build up the confidence to keep it up!

Art (handcraft) class at Meilahden ala-aste (Grade 1)

These are the art works of first graders who had only had one month of classes. The theme at the moment was autumn, and the boards showed the works that were completed in just a month, with owls, drawings of body parts, landscape pictures etc.

Susanna, the art teacher, said the general learning objective in these handcraft classes was to train them to observe more, and think and judge themselves what looks nice. She gave them a lot of freedom to do artwork in their own way.

She said the emphasis was to ‘find their own way of doing it’.

The most impressive thing was she had trained them in just a month’s time to be very orderly, and know exactly what they were doing. They had to go here and there for different materials. Say if they needed scissors, they would know where to go (There were labels on cupboards), or glue, they would pour glue for themselves. A little clumsy at times, and if glue fell on the floor, teacher had to clean it up, but in general the little boys and girls were very independent.
They had their own learning pace as well. Some finished their owls more quickly than others, and moved on to knots. They kept asking questions by shouting.
They were going to be introduced to various materials since very early, eg water colour very soon.

This tells a lot about the foundation work done at the first grade.