'What if Finland's Great Teachers Taught in Your Schools?' Pasi Sahlberg - WISE 2013 Focus

I want to introduce you one person to begin with and she somebody was very important to me she's my sister's daughter her name is Vera or Vera how you want to call her and in this picture she's about 25 years old and when Vera was about 19 as many Finnish young people are when they finish their high school she graduated from finish high school with a very high grades and good marks so you could say that she was a very very good student and that spring when she was leaving the school she gave me a call and she called me because I had been working at the University of Helsinki preparing training teachers there and she asked my advice and her question was that so what should I do because I have decided to become a primary school teacher and I say that Vera I think you are just about the ideal person to to be trained to be a teacher and primary school teacher in Finland so you don't need to worry about just be yourself and go and take the entrance examination seriously and everything should be fine about three months later she called me desperately crying and in tears and she said that they didn't take me and this is of course something that would probably not happen in many other countries because many other countries the universities are looking for exactly these types of young people who are smart and committed and interested in doing something for children but this didn't happen to her so of course I wanted to know what was what was happening with with the entrance examination and she said to me that the first part of the examination in Finland and it's the same in all our universities and you should probably also know that the in Finland the only way to become a primary school teacher is to try to get into one of our research universities and to your master's degree there so she said that the first part of the the entrance examination was quite easy for her because she was a good student and this first part included it was a carnauba exam where the students the the candidates have to read a book and master and remember a lot of material basically by heart and she said that that was a easy part for me because I was a good student and I know how to do these things then the second one the second thing that they included in this entrance examination in in her university was to you know prepare and plan a small activity for a kind of imaginary group of primary school students with other candidates so she was stay in a room with three or four other people and they were asked to plan a 30-minute lesson for fourth graders okay and of course the the panel who that was observing what they do were particularly interested in seeing how these candidates how they communicate how they work together how creative they are in kind of designing these things and finally how they can deliver or show what they're where were planning their and Vera told me that this was also easy for her because she has three small brothers and sisters and a home that's it this is basically what she's been doing all her life planning activities for for her siblings okay so then I know that there was a problem probably the last part of the entrance procedure into this master's degree program for her so I asked that so tell me about that the last part of the examination into this university program and she said well it was a kind of a typical personal interview where three professors were sitting in front of me and asking questions so I said so Vera what was the most difficult question of all that they asked you and she said that you know they asked me all sorts of things but probably something that I was not quite prepared to answer was when one of them say that so why did you come here why did you choose primary school teach teacher education as your field or primary school teaching when with your grades and diplomas you could have gone law or medicine or business or anything you like so why education primary education of all these possibilities that you have and I ask that so what what did you say and she said that I was so surprised about this question that the only thing that came to my mind was to say that because my uncle is a teacher and of course this is not enough so somebody said that so anything anything you would like to add to this and she said yes and my mother is a teacher and my grandfather is a teacher and you know many people in our family our teacher so I think that the teaching is like a family business you know and then the panel was not satisfied with this and they said that anything else and then she made this cardinal mistake because she didn't know anything else he said I love children but of course you must love children if you are sitting there in front of this panel and she was rejected and that's why she was crying and she was very desperate about this thing so now if you think that there are my knees is a kind of a single case or kind of a rare example in Finland that's not true we had last year or this year actually last spring we had about 8500 applicants to all our primary school teacher education programs in the country and we have eight universities they are all high quality research universities that prepare primary school teachers okay and there were eight hundred eight thousand five hundred candidates and only about 750 were accepted so this is how tough the competition is to get into the teacher education program alone in Finland and normally the study these students they study about five or six years to get their master's degree and what they study is all normal things that you can imagine in any teacher education program but in Finland these students like my niece she was studying also curriculum planning how to plan and set your own standards and goals for your teaching she was also studying a lot about the assessment and evaluation as part of her work school improvement special education leadership many other things included in this master's degree program in Finland so you can say that when these people young people in Finland when they finally graduate and most of them do you know this is a we are we are not losing too many students as soon as they get in this is what they really want to do you can say that they are fairly highly educated and good people to be sent to our primary schools and do what they can do the best okay and that's why probably many people who are visiting Finland as you heard from the introduction they say that you know if only we had in our country teachers that you are preparing or you have in your system now everything would be fine and most of the educational problems would disappear because of these great teachers and that's why this topic for this talk here so what would what do you think would happen if you had teachers like this throughout your system in all your primary schools teaching the things that your curriculum and your system and your schools and and tradition would ask them to do and let me ask you to stop here for a moment and take this question rather seriously and ask you to think about this if I if I bring if we sent you primary school teachers to all of your schools and of course the question is that what should happen to your teachers who are now teaching in your schools well they would be welcome to teach in Finland instead okay just take your winter coat and prepare to work in the Finnish primary school but my first question here is that what do you think will happen in your own system of Education with the teachers in Finland everything else would remain the same the curriculum the policies the requirements and expectations and also the limitations the culture all these things would be exactly as they are now but do you think that these Finnish teachers would be able to make a significant improvement or change let's say within the next five years what do you think and now if you have somebody sitting next to you you can tell what were you what your what your thinking is do you think there would be a big difference or not so big difference it's a very important question somebody's sewing red I don't know exactly what red means that's what I come next okay now those of who you would say that probably these finished teachers would be able to make a significant difference probably think about teaching as something that an individual person is doing that if only we have these good people in our classrooms they would be able to do good things and those of you who are a little doubtful if you say that they would be probably some change but not really a significant one are thinking that teaching is teaching as a profession is something that is more than just an individual effort right okay the other question would be that what do you think would happen to Finland if we had all of your primary school teachers teaching in our schools with the policies and culture and conditions and all the other things that we are having now in our schools you know my answer to this both of this question is that probably nothing significant would happen during the within the first five years okay I think the the your schools would be probably doing just fine probably a little bit better in some areas and the Finnish schools would do quite fine as well and if I'm right then it of course it follows is that it's not all about teachers I think we need to have good teachers but we need to have also something else let me try to explain you very briefly how I think about these things because when I take part in the conversation and debate sometimes around the world about the teacher quality when people say that the problem my challenge is just to try to find the the most able and talented people and try to attract them to work in our education system I often hear people thinking about teaching as a kind of a through human capital dimension okay so you see three dimensions there let me speak about this human capital human capital in teaching and teachers is something that refers to what teachers know and what they're able to do as individuals okay so that's why if we think about teaching and teacher quality mostly through human capital it means that we just need to train these people a little bit better and then expect the things we chains but for me the teacher quality of teaching quality is not only about human capital a second important dimension is a social capital of teachers that you see in the in the image there okay and social capital here refers to how much teachers can throw value at it from the network's from the connections that they have within their own school within their own community within their own education system and now increasingly globally how teachers are connected to different networks globally how much more they can do because the because of these connections that they have that's what the social capital in teaching is okay and then the third one that is again a part of the teaching quality in Finland is what we some people call decision a capital this is something that people control a kind of a value-added and more energy from the decision making that they are part of in other words in the case of teachers this means that when teachers are can be part of the decision making regarding their own work whether it's a content of what they teach or methods or evaluation or school improvement or their own professional development the more so the decisional capital they have through this decision-making opportunity okay so now what I'm arguing here is that that the quality of teachers and the quality of teaching can be probably better understood through what Hargreaves and full and call professional capital that is a kind of a result of these three dimensions okay so more we have human capital social capital and decision or capital more professional capital there is in the system okay and this is a little bit like comparing teaching or being a teacher to a team sport let's let's take football okay everybody knows if you follow the football you know several stories where you have a team that doesn't have all these famous five star players doing wonderful things winning championships and going to the Champions League and doing wonderful things everybody knows these stories we're at team of good players can do miracles okay but we also know that there are some teams around the world where they have all the best players in the world but they still don't win every game they still don't win every championship even though they have by far the best individuals in the world teaching to me is exactly the same thing that you can have a good system of education by having good teachers you don't need to have a create the best teachers in the world to be good but it means just like in football it means that you have a have a coach you have a have a philosophy how to do these things together you have to have an attitude that you want to make your fellow players or fellow teachers to look better with youth what you taught you are there and you need leadership and a coach okay so that's why if you have all these things and if you pay attention to these things we can expand the professional capital in our systems and we can live with the teachers that are not necessarily the best teachers in the world like Finnish teachers happen to be but just good teachers but we need to think about teaching in a different way so that's why I think that the Finnish teachers in any other system would not make a miracle they would not be able to change the system completely so what is needed if we believe a little bit for a moment to this professional capital philosophy an idea that the quality of teachers and teaching is more than just human capital it means that we need to think about teaching as a complex complicated difficult profession something that is on par with law or medicine or many many other things that you can study and learn in the Universities somebody has said very wisely that it takes about 10,000 hours practice if you want to be good in any shots complex thing whether it's a playing a violin or playing a call or teach in a classroom or make a operation in a hospital 10,000 hours in teachers lives is normally about 8 to 10 years of practice and that's why we need to also pay attention to the fact that we just simply cannot bring some smart and talented people into our schools and let them teach there for two or three years then they will go and do something else because this professional capital would not increase and crow in two or three years through these people okay so that's why teaching has to be thought as a high profession as something that will take some time to grow and get better so now you ask me a question that so what happened to Vera where is she now well one of the questions that she asked me in the fall on the phone then was that so what should I do because I really want to be a teacher I feel that I am a teacher I just need this education so I said to her that go and work as a teaching assistant in one of the primary schools here and you will see how the teaching and to be a teacher looks looks like okay when you work with somebody who is a professional teacher and this is exactly what she did so she will see spend a year in the school she applied next spring again and exactly the same thing happened she passed the first one and the second part of the entrance examination and then came the interview and she was speaking about her experience her hearts commitment to teach and why she thinks that by being a primary school teacher she can make more differences and influencing people's young people's lives than being a lawyer or doctor or anything else and this was an acceptable answer and now she is a primary school teacher in Finland and she will be a primary school teacher in Finland for life thank you very much

Channel: WISE Channel

Views: 490,142

Keywords: WISE, World Innovation Summit for Education, Innovation, Education, Learning, school system, pasi sahlberg, finland, teaching system, education syste, teachers, teacher training, teacher profession, keynote, speech, south korea, School (Building Function), good education, Scandinavia (Location), Teacher, sahlberg, education finland, scandinavian education, what makes a good teacher, Harvard School of Education, coaching schools, advise education policy-makers, Finnish lessons

Id: ERvh0hZ6uP8

Length: 16min 55sec (1015 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 08 2014