#004 - Why Finland’s Education System OUTPERFORMS the Rest 🇫🇮📚

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know all the things that we don't like to see in current education and we know all of the things that We feel like are outdated in our factory style method of education over standardization of teaching and too much teaching to the test and worksheets.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 and I hope that you can do us a big favour by subscribing on our YouTube channel and also giving us a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and have a look at all the links down below for any more information you'd