Ever since our first day of kindergarten we have been learning conceptual things and subjects such as math, history and science. Every year of schooling the topics get piled on and the ideas get harder. This is the basis for the American schooling system. Believe it or not this is not the only way of schooling in the world.
In Finland they never had a standardized test system. That is always something that set them apart. Now there has been a shift in the way the Finish School system would like to educate their students. They have created a system called "Phenomena" teaching. This focuses on more topics and less subjects that will be based on each individual person.
How this works is each student will decide on an overall topic that they would like to learn about. The example in the article is "cafeteria services." The student will study some degree of math, even foreign language to talk to foreign customers. They then would take courses in communication skills and writing abilities. There would also be options for students who want to be on a more academic track. For example they could take classes on "The European Union." This would include history lessons, economics and foreign language.
The Finish want to change their education system to adjust to modern society. They want to prepare their students for the working world. In Finland, getting a job as a teacher is a very difficult job to obtain. All teachers must have masters degrees and are compensated far better than teachers in America. Before this change, they already have a lot of room for independence on how they would like to run their class.
For a long period of time Finland has served as a model for other countries on how to reform their education systems. There has been models proposed in the United Kingdom and in the United States to follow in how the Finland education system is. However in the US any models based off of Finland were rejected due to the fact that it clashed with the American Public schooling system. Students in America must be required to reach a basic level of knowledge before moving on to the next and with the Finish model the students must have a wide extensive range of knowledge that teachers sometimes struggle to generate assignments that pinpoint students certain interests.
The schooling methods success rate will be primarily based on what the teachers have to offer to the students and "Phenomena" teaching.
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