What is it that Finland is doing that's so different to
everybody else's style of education? Sure
enough, if we're really enjoying our learning process,
we are going to be learning much more and
we're going to remember it for a much longer time than
if we're disinterested and we're disengaged, which
unfortunately is a current pattern for many
children in many schools, and I would say in most
high schools throughout Australia. Welcome to Neuroeducation, where
we're exploring the neuroscience of how to switch on the brain to
supercharge learning. I'll be sharing with you innovative teaching techniques,
effective parenting strategies, and educational advocacy. I'm
your host, Angie Dee. Together, let's revolutionise children's
learning. Hello and
welcome back to Neuroeducation with Angie Dee.
I'm so glad to have you here, thanks for tuning in. Today
we're going to be looking at what is the global climate
of education? We all know all the things that
we don't like to see in current education and we know all
of the things that We feel like are
outdated in our factory style method of education over
standardization of teaching and too much teaching to
the test and worksheets. However, What
other methods of education are out there that are
doing fabulous work in education? What
other countries are doing incredible things and what
is possible? If we look on an international scale
and some incredible studies done internationally to
look at who is succeeding in education, not
just in maths, in reading and in science, but
also in life skills that prepare children to
succeed in the real world, Finland, again
and again, tops the scale. What is
it that Finland is doing that's so different to everybody
else's style of education? Well,
I was interested, so I explored a little bit and watched
some interesting documentaries on education in Finland. And
one thing that I discovered was the importance they
placed on something that just might surprise
you. When teachers were asked, what is
the most important thing for your students in Finland? The
teachers responded by saying the student's happiness.
I was taken back because I don't know of
any school here in Australia where they would
put that as the top priority. They might say
they try to make learning fun and enjoyable, but
as the top priority, I was quite taken aback. In
Montessori, ironically, she has
a quote where she says, the happiness is
the best test of the method of education. So
the happiness of the child is important. And now we know
this with neuroscience, where we can see that
serotonin and dopamine, two happy hormones,
are literally the best hormones that are
neurotransmitters that switch on our brain and make
it work. So what is it that Finland is
doing to make their children so happy and to make the
educational experience enjoyable? Well,
what they do is actually start school at
the age of seven. And so those primal years
of zero to seven, which we know in psychology is
forming the subconscious brain of the child, they
are allowed to be outdoors, to be
in kindergarten, to be learning and to be so
much more free than what you would see in
our education methods around Australia, where children are
even in prep. where they're four and a half to
five and a half years of age, where they are already
having to tick off so many boxes in the curriculum, having
to sit down for test after test. And in Queensland, where
we have the C2C curriculum called
the Curriculum to Classroom, they have to sit down
for test after test after test. Not
in Finland. In Finland, The official schooling
doesn't start until the age of seven. And when school
does start, happiness is at the forefront of
the mind of educators. I want you to think for
a moment now, as a parent or as a teacher, your
own educational journey, what are the things that you remember the
most about your schooling? What were some of those educational
experiences that stood out to you the most? Sure
enough, if we're really enjoying our learning process,
we are going to be learning much more and
we're going to remember it for a much longer time than
if we're disinterested and we're disengaged, which
unfortunately is a current pattern for many
children in many schools and I would say in most
high schools throughout Australia. So, how do
we put happiness at the forefront of the education? In
Finland, children's interests and
their choice is taken into account for almost every
area of their learning. What are they interested in learning? How
can you take an interest into a subject? And
how can they expand on that? And how can they research that and
find out what they're really interested in? Fortunately
I have a exciting story of
a school on the Gold Coast where I found out
recently All Saints has a
Wonder Room and in this Wonder Room they
are allowed, the students are allowed to ask questions about
anything they want and it's a room to explore their
interests and explore their creativity. And
I thought, how fantastic. That's one huge step
in the right direction, because we know when they're interested and engaged, the
learning is exponentially better. When we think about education,
we also have to think about what is the end purpose? What are
we preparing children for in the greater scheme of
things? Really, if we think about education, we
want to be preparing children for the real world.
We want to be preparing children for what they're going to
do when they leave school. What kind of person are they
going to be? Are they going to be kind? Are they
going to be compassionate? Are they going to be a social citizen
or a global citizen that thinks about how can they make the world a
better place? And what kind of
parent are they going to be to bring up the next generation? Are
they going to be able to follow their passions and their interests to
succeed in their own endeavours, which takes
resilience and grit and all of these things. These are
the kind of skills that are fundamental in
Finland and they see as crucial to help children succeed in
the future. And it's great to see some schools in Australia starting
to prioritise these and starting to bring them into
the forefront of education. When we
think about what kind of social citizens
we would like that graduate from grade 12 and
then walk into our world as adults and start shaping the
future generation of our planet, we
also have to think, are they going out there to make
our world a better place? The Green School in Bali
is an incredible school that is thinking about just
that. The Green School is about how to help guide children
to become social citizens of this planet, to take care
of our environment and to take care of our planet. And
every single subject at that school has purpose. about
how they can impact their local and their
global communities for the
better. And what's incredible is when I got to go and visit
the Green School in Bali, talking to the children about
how they were excited for their learning journey
and what they were learning was impactful in
their practical world. So when they were doing art
one of the young girls said to me we're creating these artworks for
an art show that's raising money for a local charity and
another student told me that they were creating dioramas to
show how they felt they could filtrate the
water systems better within their local school and
another student was explaining that they actually
take reused cooking oils they
filter the vegetable cooking oils, and
they use that as fuel in some of the buggies in
school. So they're learning so many creative skills, they're
learning innovative skills, and they're learning how to implement
it in their daily world. So, I
feel like if we can take something from these schools, it's
A, the happiness of the child. If we put that at the forefront of
our educational messaging as parents and
as teachers to make sure that they're enjoying their learning, we're
going to transform that learning process and we're going to
transform the entire educational process for the child. And
what does that do? If we do this again and again on
a daily basis and a weekly basis, a monthly basis, the
years of the children's learning that is enjoyable, where
they're doing work that they enjoy, that leads to
adults that do things in life that they also
enjoy, which is incredibly important, which we know in psychology, if
we're doing something we're passionate about and also has a greater impact, we
are, as adults, are much happier. And in Finland,
sure enough, they score right at the top of
countries that are the happiest in the world. So it just shows what
we do in education creates a greater impact for
all of the adults that we're growing to the next generation. Thank
you for listening to our podcast on neuroeducation
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