Curriculum description

1
Curriculum description

• FINLAND

2
Characteristics of the school system

• Basic structure of the educational system
• Early childhood education
• Preschools (ages 6-7)
• Comprehensive schools (ages 7-15) and special
• schools
• Comprehensive school 9 years
• First 6 years, class teachers (MA)
• Last 3 years, subject teachers (MA)
• public schools, few private
• 3579 comprehensive schools
• 3418 public schools
• 27 private schools (Christian, Steiner)
• 5 state schools (teacher training)

3
Characteristics of the general curriculum

• National framework curriculum 2004 (1994, 1985,
  1970)
• is written and evaluated by Finnish national
  board of education
• description or a guide for what are the main
  objectives and core contents in every subject and
  cross-curricular themes and some mentions about
  the methods how they should be taught.
• subjects are divided to objectives and core
  contents. Some subjects are taught only for
  grades 1-4 and for 5-9 and some only for 7-9
• Municipalities and schools write their own
  curriculum based on the national framework
  curriculum, but they can have some emphasis on
  themes or contents (local interests).
• Some teachers are involved in curriculum
  development on a national level but on a
  municipal and school level, teachers have the
  main responsibility of development.
• parents have a change to comment the school
  curriculum
• curriculum in the municipalities and schools is
  written every second year

4
First six years

• Subjects
• Mother tongue and literature
• Foreign language (from grade 3)
• Mathematics
• Environmental and natural studies (grades 1-4)
• Biology and geography (from grade 5 as a subject
  area of its own)
• Physics and chemistry (from grade 5 as a subject
  area of its own )
• Religion
• History (from grade 5)
• Music
• Visual arts
• Crafts
• Physical education

5
Cross-curricular themes at grades 1-6

• Represent central emphasis of the educational and
• teaching work. Their objectives and contents are
• incorporated in to numerous subjects.
• Growth as a person
• Cultural identity and internationalism
• Media skills and communication
• Participatory citizenship and entrepreneurship
• Responsibility for the environment, well-being,
  and a sustainable future
• Safety and traffic
• Human being and technology

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Position and status of technology education in
the curriculum

• cross-curricular theme, Human being and
  technology is realized by theme weeks or studied
  within different subject areas
• is emphasized in crafts and technical work (not
  in textile work)
• crafts is compulsory for all at grades 1-6, but
  if pupils have to choose between technical and
  textile work, then contents of technology
  education is only for those who choose technical
  work for grades 5-7.
• not a separate subject, schools or teachers have
  freedom to decide how much and how to teach
  technology

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Aims of technology education

• General aims
• focus is on technology individual relationship
  and to see the importance of technology in our
  daily lives
• understand technology, its evolution and impacts
• to take the position on technological choices,
  ethical and responsible use of technology
• the use of ICT

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Main themes and structure of curriculum content

• Aims and approach
• - technology in everyday life
• - environmental education
• - ethics of technology
• - technology in local industrial life
• - ICT, data networks
• - the development, modelling, and assessment of
  technological ideas
• - understand of the operating principles of
  tools, equipment and machines
• Food technology (home economics) is a separate
  subject (grades 7-9)

9
Pedagogical means and methods

• Curriculum has been formulated on the basis of
  the concept of learning, which is described in
  the general part of the curriculum. Also
  guidelines for teaching methods are given.
• All teachers have MA degree with pedagogical
  studies. Therefore, they are free to choose
  pedagogical approaches to suit different
  situations.
• No text books for technology education (TE)

10
Characteristics of the teachers in charge of
technology education

• Preschool teachers are in charge on TE in
  preschool education (6 years)
• Class teachers are in charge on grades 1-6 (years
  7 12)
• Teacher training departments give variable
  competence for TE ? all teacher students study TE
  only short periods, if at all. No standards for
  TE.
• Teachers in primary schools are mainly female
• Some (limited) in-service training available
• Traditional craft education has still a strong
  status in Finland
• No separate organization for technology teachers

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Conclusion

• Positive features
• there is some TE in primary schools
• latest National curriculum 2004 contains TE
• some (limited) TE in-service training for
  teachers is existing, particularly training for
  instructing technological innovative processes

12
Conclusion

• Negative features
• national framework curriculum guidelines are
  broad and imprecise
• the concept of technology is unclear ? technology
  education is understood in a narrow manner (for
  instance as ICT only)
• not enough in-service training for teachers
• gap between curriculum guidelines and actual
  teaching ? cross-curricular themes are not
  understood or implemented by teachers, or are
  implemented only through thematic days/weeks or
  shortly within different subjects
• TE is not a stand-alone subject
• technology education is not available for all
  pupils (technical and textile work division)
• division between boys and girls in craft
  education still goes on contrary to the
  guidelines of the national curriculum
• old fashioned way of implementing the curriculum
  (even if there is no division - traditional
  crafts instead of modern technology)
• technology is not consistently implemented in
  teacher education