The successsTory of

educaTion

finlandUNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ

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finland consistently ranks among the world’s best in education: our students have

excelled and reached top results in the Pisa (the oecd Programme for international student

assessment) survey since 2000.

Teachers for all levels of education finnish teachers are highly qualified, motivated and committed to their work. all teachers from primary school to upper secondary edu-cation hold a master’s degree and have completed supervised teach-ing practices as part of their pedagogical studies. The teaching pro-fession is a very popular career choice for finnish university students. The university of Jyväskylä offers teacher education for all levels of schooling, from early childhood and primary education to adult edu-cation.

studies in educational leadership – on campus or online a first-class education system is based on good educational leadership and management. The university of Jyväskylä offers unique research-based training in educational management and leadership, which is also available as distance learning. The Master’s degree Programme in educational leadership reflects finland's established experience in education and is adapted to the needs of the global market.

exporting educational expertise educluster finland ltd. (ecf) is the gateway to superior finnish ex-pertise in the field of education and innovation. ecf’s references in-clude the five-year educational Partnership Programme, a pedagogi-cal fusion combining the educational experience of both abu dhabi and finland to create world-class flagship schools in abu dhabi and al ain during 2010 – 2015.

The University is Finland’s leader of expertise in education, teacher education and adult education.

The University hosts the Finnish Institute for Educational Research, the organi-sation responsible for implementing the PISA study in Finland. The University’s subsidiary company – EduCluster Finland Ltd. – is the country’s leading exporter of education.

flagshiP of educaTion

IN THE BEGINNINGOur secret? Teachers – and teacher education. The university of Jyväskylä is the heart of finnish teacher education. The university has its roots in the country's first finnish-language teacher training college, which was established in Jyväskylä in 1863.

Finland was the first country in the world to serve free school meals – as early as 1948.The teacher training college provided an opportunity for women to become teachers as well.

Music, art and sports have been part of the Finnish curriculum from the very beginning.

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AN AcAdemic FrAmework is offered for early child-hood educators and kindergarten teachers as well. comple-tion of pedagogical studies is also required for all teachers em-ployed at the university of Jyväskylä.

The diverse range of education studies offered at the university of Jyväskylä, combining practice and analytical academic thinking, provides graduates with the necessary tools to operate in the wide field of educational professions. education is based on scientific research, and students learn the essential skills needed to apply scientific knowledge and scientific methods to their independent and demanding work as teachers, counsellors and educators.

faculTy of educaTion

•Promotingprofessionalagencyineducation and health care work (PROAGENT)

•IntergenerationalPartnerships: Emergent forms of children’s well-being

•CollaborativeArgumentationandArgumentVisualisation in Knowledge Construction

and Problem Solving

•Teacherprofessionalgrowth and school well-being

•Teachingandlearninginteractions:

•Teaching-learningSequencesinScience and Math classrooms

•LearningMotivationandClassroomQuality in the Early School Years (FIRST STEPS)

I Learning interaction, collaborative learning and learning environments

II Participation of children and adolescents

III Professional identity and agency

examples of research themes

The leading PrinciPleThe university of Jyväskylä prepares teachers and educators for every grade level.

Special education teachers

Requirement: master’s degree

Adult educator Requirement:

master’s degree

Teachers of educational and social studies

School counsellors Requirement:

master’s degree

Subject teachersteaching in Finnish sign language

Requirement: master’s degree

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Finnish education System in a Nutshell

•ThebasiccompulsoryeducationalsysteminFinlandcon-sists of nine-year comprehensive school (7–16 year-olds)

•Afterbasiceducationchildrencanchoosewhethertocon-tinue to General Upper Secondary Education or Vocational Education(2–4yearduration):universitiesrequirematricu-lationexaminationandpolytechnicsvocationalqualification

•Educationistuition-freeandbasiceducation is guaranteed to all citizens

•Therequirementforeducatorsofallgradesisamaster’sdegree(exceptforkindergartenteaching,whichrequires

a bachelor’s degree)

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Early childhood educators

Requirement: master’s degree

Basiceducation[ 7 – 16-year-olds ]

Matriculation examination or vocational qualifications

Doctoral degreesLicentiate degrees

Master’s degrees

Bachelor’s degrees

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preschool and kindergarten

comprehensive school

upper secondary school

lifelong learning at all levels of schooling

Kindergarten teachers Requirement: bachelor’s degree

Class teachers Requirement: master’s degree

Subject teachers Requirement: master’s degree

Mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, history philosophy, psychology, languages, music, physical education, ICT etc.

Professors and other university teaching staff

Requirement: Doctoral or master’s degree

Early childhood andpre-primary education

Principals Requirement:

master’s degree

Class teachersteaching in Finnish sign language

Requirement: master’s degree

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The UNiverSiTy oF JyväSkylä is finland’s only university providing master’s degree studies in early childhood education and in special early childhood education. These study tracks offer graduates a pedagogically oriented degree that is highly appreciated and valuable in the professional world. early childhood education focuses on such topics as child-centered pedagogy, children’s rights and diversity, edu-cational partnership, professional development, multidisciplinary edu-cation and research, and internationality. students can specialise either in children’s culture, family studies or management and development.

The university of Jyväskylä also offers other options that are unique in finland, for example in gerontology, physical education, and educa-tional leadership.

unique sTudies in educaTion high-class Training in

educational leadership The iNSTiTUTe oF edUcATioNAl leAderShip has been at the forefront of developing research and university-based training in educational management and leadership since 1999. for international customers, the institute offers a wide range of trainings for professional development. it provides a 2-year Master’s degree Programme in educational leadership (MPel) on-campus in finland. Based on that, an e-learning version, the Master of educational Management and leadership (Med) programme is now also offered, enabling students to create their own flexible study paths. The Med online programme is comparable to MBa programmes. The goal of the programmes is to develop internationally oriented professionals and experts in the field of education and educational leadership. in addition, the institute also welcomes international students into its doctoral programme.

educational studies in english

•Multiculturalstudyprogramme,25ECTScredits

•Master’sDegreeProgrammeinEducationalLeadership,120ECTScredits

•Master’sDegreeProgrammeinDevelopmentandInternationalCooperation(with education, social sciences or environmental science as a major subject), 120 ECTS credits

•Practicaltrainingofearlychildhoodeducationinakindergartensetting

•MasterofEducationalManagementandLeadership,80ECTScredits

I study early childhood education because I like children and I get along well with them. I was fascinated by a big and popular university where you can study early childhood education at the master’s level, unlike in many other universities. The best part of my studies is doing and discussing things with other students.

Jatta VeijanenEarly Childhood Education

www.iel.jyu.fiwww.jyu.fi/edu/en

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The UNiverSiTy oF JyväSkylä TeAcher TrAiNiNg School was established in 1866. it provides supervised teaching practice for 300 subject

teachers and 100 class teachers every year, while also providing general education for comprehensive and upper secondary school students.

future teachers receive the majority of their teaching practice training at the teacher training school under the constant guidance and supervision of qualified teacher educators. Teachers working at teacher train-ing schools conduct research and carry out pedagogical development as an integral part of their work.

Teacher Training school

graphogame– helping learning through technologygrAphogAme is a child-friendly computer game that helps children to learn the basic let-ters and their sounds. By gradual progression through a series of levels, the child discovers how to construct these letters into small words and then larger words. learning to read with graphogame is fun and easy enough for the child to play it alone. it is like an additional teacher who helps children to learn important letter-sound correspondences, which are the building blocks of reading skills.

graphogame was originally designed at the university of Jyväskylä to help children learn letter- sound correspondences. The eu funded a large-scale cross-linguistic investigation of grapho-game in finland, switzerland, holland and Britain. several language versions of graphogame have been developed for research purposes in other collaboration projects (e.g. nyanja and Tonga in Zambia).

www.graphogame.com

www.norssi.jyu.fi

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finnish Teachers professionalism, commitment and high ethics

oNe oF The greATeST iNceNTiveS of the teaching profes-sion in finland is teacher autonomy. Within the framework of the national core curriculum for basic education, all teachers have the pedagogical freedom to plan and implement their own teaching and assessment. in finland, there are no school inspections, no official ranking lists and no obligatory national testing during comprehen-sive school. The only standardised testing is the matriculation exami-nation at the end of general upper secondary school.

Teaching is a highly qualified profession, and the status of teacher education is comparable to other fields of higher education. Teachers have the right and obligation to develop their profession, and they are key actors in enabling their students to reach their full potential.

The FiNNiSh edUcATioNAl SySTem has achieved worldwide fame through the Pisa study (the oecd Programme for in-ternational student assessment). in all four Pisa cycles, finland’s 15-year-old pupils have either ranked first or at least placed fin-land among the three best countries.

Why do We excel in Pisa sTudies?

There are a number of reasons for Finland’s PISA success, such as

• master’slevelteachereducation

• highlycompetent,motivatedteachers

• uniformbasiceducationforallchildren

• highlydevelopedspecialeducationandstudyguidance

• holisticconcernforpupils’well-being

• minimalvariationinthequalityofinstructionbetweenschools

finnish institute for educational research – a pioneer in evaluation researchThe FiNNiSh iNSTiTUTe for educational re-search has been in charge of the Pisa study in fin-land right from the beginning. it has carried out inter-national evaluation studies for over 40 years, includ-ing nearly all of the international learning compari-sons made in finland. in addition to Pisa, the in-stitute is currently involved in six international large

scale evaluation projects and around 50 other national and international studies. finland’s Pisa success has made the university of Jyväskylä a popular destina-tion for visits by foreign researchers and education professionals. The university is also a sought-after partner in international research projects and expert networks.

education for all

• 9-yearcomprehensiveschoolestablishedin1970

• socialandregionalequity

• instructionarrangedinschoolsnearthehome

• nearlyallFinnishchildrencompletecomprehensiveschool:interruptions and the need to repeat a form are rare

• well-educatedparentspromotemotivation

Malus prunifolia, the ‘Oppio’ apple tree, is the signature tree of the university.

ktl.jyu.fi/ktl/english

UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ

15,000 degree students, total of 40,000 students including adult education students popular: one out of ten applicants is accepted • staff of 2,600 • annual budget of € 220 million

finlandwww.jyu.fi/en • tel. +358 14 260 1211

layout: PIGME • photos: PIGM

E, Hanna-Kaisa Hämäläinen, Petteri Kivim

äki, Iida Liimatainen, M

ikko Vähäniitty, Viivi Kivi & University Museum

• 2012