What resonated with you?
How the speaker focused on three human characteristics – diversity, curiosity, and creativity – which should be cultivated through any education system. Yet the American system appears to encourage the opposite – conformity, standardization, and closed solutions while looking to solve the problem of why our students are not up to par with other countries. Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think?
What did you wonder about?
The idea that America is going in the wrong direction in regards to how it educates the young. And as the speaker pointed out, we want to compare ourselves to Finland but cannot because variables such as size and homogeny would create an apples to oranges comparison. But we can at least take paradigm shifting ideas from them, such as the drop-out mentality mentioned in the video. Why doesn’t Finland have a drop-out rate? Wasn’t No Child Left Behind supposed to solve that issue? I am reminded of some articles I reviewed in graduate school which addressed how Finland understood the need to move from a manufacturing-based economy to a knowledge-based one. I wonder how the role I’m in can facilitate this.
What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland’s School Success
From Finland, An Intriguing School-Reform Model
How may this video impact your practice?
It again brought me back to my role as a facilitator of the education process and not just the instructor. I will role model the classroom culture, build relationships, provide resources, organize materials, and assure students are making progress. I will be a mover, one who makes things happen, and not the one being moved. I want to water those seeds lying dormant in Death Valley and watch them bloom!
How do you know that you are creating learning and not simply teaching?
What is amazing about the position I’ll be in is how easy it will be to create learning. Once I have provided the students with the basic knowledge and skills they need for their projects, it will be up to them to create the final products and learn from the process, not me telling them what they should be learning.
My STEM Journey 