From April to May I am doing an comparative education research to collect data on innovative school models and progressive educational policies in 4 countries: China, Denmark, Finland, and the Czech Republic. Now I am at my third stop of my research—Finland. Finland has become the attention center where people look for the success of Finnish education system, as a professor from Tampere University put it, “the PISA tourism”. This is because Finland has ranked as the top among OECD countries several times in The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA as a international assessment test on science, math, and literacy(reading), has a global influence and impact on government education policies. Countries and schools want to learn from the best. So there have been thousands of visits to Finland each year to study the Finnish education model.
summer in Helsinki
While I was doing my background research, I learned about this phenomenon and read about some characteristics about the Finnish education system, such as strong focus on equity in education policy, high-quality teacher training programs, research-based pedagogy and curriculum for students, and learner-centered pedagogy. So I decided to also pay a visit to Finland, especially the schools and educators here, to learn first hand how teaching and learning happens here.
Finding the right schools has not been easy, but I have very luckily discovered a Finnish education organization: HundrED . From their website, you can find their mission statement: “HundrED.org is a not-for-profit organization that discovers inspiring innovations in K12 education. HundrED’s goal is to help improve education and inspire a grassroots movement through encouraging pedagogically sound, ambitious innovations to spread across the world.”
front door at HundrED
So far they have discovered 100 innovative education practices in Finland and around the world. I am very interested in learning about their methodologies in discovering innovations, what they do with the discoveries, and how I can contribute to help expand this global innovators’ network with a focus on Chinese education innovations.
On Monday, I paid a visit and had a meeting with their Global Community Outreach Officer Pukraj to talk about their work.
Pukraj come from India and got her PhD in Finland focusing on Education Leadership. Now her work focuses on connecting people who are practicing and studying education innovations globally. The goal for her, and also HundrED is to become a platform that provides reliable information and contacts of global education innovators, so that more people can build meaningful connections and collaborate to bring this global movement to the next level, benefiting local communities and the world.
I’ve been very inspired to learn about HundrED and will apply to become their Ambassador to help expand, strengthen, and enrich the education innovation network. Especially, I will be connecting people from China to a global audience, writing about education innovations in China to the global audience, and helping to bring meaningful events and exchanges to different locations around the world!
May 14, 2018
Helsinki
