Are there cultural differences in learning styles between American and Finish school systems?
Education in America is constantly changing. With acts like No Child Left Behind being passed in Congress, and county governed education boards adjusting mandated school curricula, American education is always under construction. Despite frequent developments, American education ranks slightly higher than average worldwide, in the 20th place on a list created by Fair Reporters (The Best Education). There are several speculations about why, despite trying to constantly improve, the American education seems to score lower than expected. These speculations include looking at the class environment, testing methods, and teaching practices. Finland, a country …show more content…
This allows students to get a well-rounded education, and learn basic life skills for dealing with social situations and personal health. Finnish schools also include the 15:45 rule, which means that students get 15 minutes of free play time for every 45 minutes spent studying (Walker). Free time is heavily emphasized in Finland, and homework is minimal. While it is up to each teacher on how much work or time they want their students to spend completing projects outside of class, the consensus is that homework should be brief (Doyle). Since most people have short attention spans (younger children could have even shorter attention spans), this 15-minute free time allows students to allow their minds to relax to go back to studying refreshed. By turning to other things besides studying, it has been proven to allow the brain to activate the diffuse mode. The diffuse mode is a thinking state that researchers have found to enhance students learning; when the mind is given a chance to relax, it subconsciously continues working over the material that it was recently focusing on, allowing for different neural connections to be formed (Oakley pg #). The 15 minutes of free time the Finnish students get allows their brains to tap into a diffuse mode. The more free time that students have, the more time they have to “rest …show more content…
The only time and exception are that students do take one exam at the end of their senior year in high school. Not like in America, students’ and schools’ test scores aren't being ranked or compared to one another (Hancock). The president of Finland’s well-known teachers' union stated, “Equality is the most important word in Finnish education. All political parties on the right and left agree on this.” With roughly around 62,000 instructors in about 3,500 schools in the country, all of their educators graduated in the top 10 percent of Finland’s graduates. Finland’s national graduation rate is at 93 percent while America’s is at 75 percent (Hancock). Whether a child lives in a rural, suburb, or in the city chances are they are all getting the same type of quality education. There is also free taxi services for students if need of transportation to get to school and not only do the schools offer free taxi services it also includes food, medical care, and counseling. The student’s health is also an important priority to Finland. The Finnish government provides free healthcare to all its students and gives three years of maternity leave with free daycare and preschool to go along with that, which here in the US can get a little pricey. For a bonus, parents are also getting subsidized 150 euros a month per child until they reach the age of
Education in America is constantly changing. With acts like No Child Left Behind being passed in Congress, and county governed education boards adjusting mandated school curricula, American education is always under construction. Despite frequent developments, American education ranks slightly higher than average worldwide, in the 20th place on a list created by Fair Reporters (The Best Education). There are several speculations about why, despite trying to constantly improve, the American education seems to score lower than expected. These speculations include looking at the class environment, testing methods, and teaching practices. Finland, a country …show more content…
This allows students to get a well-rounded education, and learn basic life skills for dealing with social situations and personal health. Finnish schools also include the 15:45 rule, which means that students get 15 minutes of free play time for every 45 minutes spent studying (Walker). Free time is heavily emphasized in Finland, and homework is minimal. While it is up to each teacher on how much work or time they want their students to spend completing projects outside of class, the consensus is that homework should be brief (Doyle). Since most people have short attention spans (younger children could have even shorter attention spans), this 15-minute free time allows students to allow their minds to relax to go back to studying refreshed. By turning to other things besides studying, it has been proven to allow the brain to activate the diffuse mode. The diffuse mode is a thinking state that researchers have found to enhance students learning; when the mind is given a chance to relax, it subconsciously continues working over the material that it was recently focusing on, allowing for different neural connections to be formed (Oakley pg #). The 15 minutes of free time the Finnish students get allows their brains to tap into a diffuse mode. The more free time that students have, the more time they have to “rest …show more content…
The only time and exception are that students do take one exam at the end of their senior year in high school. Not like in America, students’ and schools’ test scores aren't being ranked or compared to one another (Hancock). The president of Finland’s well-known teachers' union stated, “Equality is the most important word in Finnish education. All political parties on the right and left agree on this.” With roughly around 62,000 instructors in about 3,500 schools in the country, all of their educators graduated in the top 10 percent of Finland’s graduates. Finland’s national graduation rate is at 93 percent while America’s is at 75 percent (Hancock). Whether a child lives in a rural, suburb, or in the city chances are they are all getting the same type of quality education. There is also free taxi services for students if need of transportation to get to school and not only do the schools offer free taxi services it also includes food, medical care, and counseling. The student’s health is also an important priority to Finland. The Finnish government provides free healthcare to all its students and gives three years of maternity leave with free daycare and preschool to go along with that, which here in the US can get a little pricey. For a bonus, parents are also getting subsidized 150 euros a month per child until they reach the age of