The Global Search for Education: A Look at a Finnish School
Aurora School Principal Martti Hellström in the classroom with his pupils If you thought you knew everything about the remarkable transformation of Finland’s schools from mediocre to one of the top performing school systems in the world, think again. Native Finn Pasi Sahlberg (educator, researcher, advisor on global education reform, and Director General of CIMO in Helsinki, Finland), who has lived and closely studied...
How Will They Lead?
“So many of them have persevered through so much in their lives already, and overcome tremendous adversity, but they don’t even realize it. It is remarkable that they want to continue dedicating themselves to helping others.” — Kirk Spahn, ICL co-founder As Americans begin to evaluate the US candidates for the next presidential election, everyone will ask himself or herself this question: How will they...
The Global Search for Education: What Did You Learn Today?
“Children do not always learn what we teach. That is why the most important assessment does not happen at the end of the learning, it happens during the learning.” — Dylan Wiliam “It is right that teachers and schools are accountable to those with a stake in public education, and this requires assessments that are free from subjectivity. So we do need some form of standardized assessment. However, the...
The Global Search for Education: Teacher Be Good
Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake in Bad Teacher courtesy of Sony Pictures. Bad Teacher is a new comedy starring Cameron Diaz as a totally inappropriate teacher, Elizabeth Halsey. As the movie begins, Elizabeth is not excited about the first day of school. Nor is she interested in putting her students first. Truthfully, Elizabeth’s primary focus is finding a guy who’s going to take care of her. To find out whether...
The Global Search for Education: Australia on the Move
Young Australians present to their classmates In Vicki Abeles’ movie, Race to Nowhere, we met U. S. kids who were so overscheduled they had no time to be kids. The film suggested we were preoccupied with testing and performance, undermining what our kids should be doing in the classroom, let alone in their down time. So what is happening down under? I’ve been to Australia six times for business and personal reasons (my...
The Global Search for Education: More Focus on Finland
Finnish teachers talk with Harvard professor Tony Wagner in The Finland Phenomenon “The Finns had a crisis,” life-long educator, best-selling author, and Harvard professor Tony Wagner explains as we discuss his new film, The Finland Phenomenon, made with acclaimed documentary filmmaker, Bob Compton. “Their economy was failing. Their education system was poor. They knew that to grow their economy, they had to...
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