Week 14 4/04/11 – 10/04/11

This week on the placement course, School Experience, I had to present to my peers what I had learnt from and about the school placement over the last few weeks.  The two placements are so different that it was difficult to mention everything inside of fifteen minutes and give background information about Northern Ireland’s school systems for the other exchange students as well.  The little cultural different make so much different between the two countries.  For example; children are used to going to and from school on their own in the dark where as back home it is not the best thing to do as it is more dangerous.  Finland is a very safe country; the only thing that may happen is that you get your bicycle stolen, but this very rare.  As Finland is so quiet and safe it makes other countries I have visited, like Sweden, a bit wild although it is still a very safe country.  However the rest of the presentation focused on the differences between my main subject, Religious Studies.  Here in Finland it is more like religious instruction as pupils are split up into members of Orthodoxy, Lutheran Church, Islam and ethics.  The ethics classes are for pupils who are not part of a church or do not have anyone from their own religion to instruct them.  Parents are allowed to request that their child is instructed in their religion.  This provides difficulties for the schools as they may have to send the pupils to other schools for religious instruction.  The Ethics lessons are much more like the RE classes in Northern Ireland as they cover a wide variety of religions and ethical questions.  However there is not a focus to develop the pupils’ spirituality as there is in the NI curriculum.  However a lot of the subject content is similar.  As my time on the school placement has comet to an end I think that staying in Turku International School has helped develop my communication into a less ‘East-Belfastian’ dialect which pupils who have English as an additional language can understand.  I aimed to develop my skills of working with EAL pupils as there is an increase of pupils with EAL in Northern Ireland over the last few years.

Week 13 28/03/11 – 3/04/11

This week was rather intense as the work load has increased over the last few weeks and finding time to go to my school to observe lessons has been more difficult.  The school is approximately 30 minutes away from the university and this makes observations and teaching lessons very hectic as we still have lectures to attend at university.  However there is a lot to be learnt during the observations and it also allows time for me to get to know the pupils before teaching them, especially as Turku International School has a very diverse student population.  Yet having a separate teaching practice is much more efficient, I feel, as opposed to having to work hours around classes.

In Finland there are no uniforms and teachers can wear what they please.  As a student teacher not wearing a shirt and tie seems strange and I get the feeling that I am not a figure of authority in casual clothes.  However this might be the reason why pupils have such a good relationship with their teachers.  This also contributes to the relaxed atmosphere in the classroom, yet I feel that the older pupils use this as a fashion parade.  I would have liked no uniforms when I was a pupil but now I am not sure.

Language is a large part of Finnish culture as the nation is bi-lingual and the International obviously has a large number of pupils with varying language skills.  In Northern Ireland there is a very small minority of ethic groups, as the population is almost exclusively white and ‘Christian’, meaning that there are not a lot of methods to develop pupils’ native language, whereas Finland encourages this.  This also meant that I had to change my dialect slightly so certain words could be understood more clearly by the international students.  This has been quite noticeable for me and at times very difficult to change how I speak, but it was necessary and this is something which we have discussed in Stranmillis but it is not an issue there as we all have similar dialects. 

The busy timetable makes it difficult to do many traditional Finnish activities (like cross-country skiing, although there is a lot less snow now), however this weekend a group of us exchange students went to go ice swimming.  After sitting in a sauna in temperatures of approximately 80 degrees Celsius we dived into the frozen Baltic Sea.  It was a sensational feeling and after you feel refreshed.  The sauna is something that is very sparse in Northern Ireland as only a few leisure centres whereas every apartment complex seems to have one.

Week 12 21/03/11-27/03/11

On Monday I had another school visit only this time to a primary school that works along side a special needs school.  The two were not entirely integrated together but there have been plans to do this.  Having visited a SEN school back in November for a week I thought that having a special needs school work along side a primary school was good to develop awareness of what happens in SEN schools.  The classes where similar as they had a teacher and two or three assistants in the room, yet in this school many teachers were proficient in sign language which was a great aid to their teaching.  Many similar technologies are used here in Turku as are used back in Northern Ireland, for example using a microphone connected to pupil hearing aids.  The goal for these schools was to assist pupils to a stand as close as possible to regular schools.  However I think the assessment measures are better here as the teacher evaluates the pupil’s performance and gives exams of improved work to and outside agenises who wish to observe this.  Whereas pupils need to take a standardised test back in Northern Ireland which many not take into account the pupil’s skill or progress and I feel it does not reflect what and how the pupil has learnt, whereas a report from the teacher would be better.  In Finland the teacher has 100% trust by the powers that be to do what they will.  This makes reports and other documents hold so much more weight as opposed to that which occurs back in Northern Ireland.  If teacher got the same amount of trust and respect as they do in Finland it would radically reduce the work load of the teachers, for the better in my opinion. 

Another significant factor in Finnish education is that parents are in constant contact with the teachers about their child.  This support and reinforcement of learning is, in my opinion, the reason why Finnish schools achieve in international studies.  The pupils do not do more or less work than what is taught back in the UK (if anything they are given less tuition) but it is supported greatly, which is the significant difference and one which I would like to see in education back in Northern Ireland.

Week 11 14/03/11 – 21/03/11

Just when I thought spring was coming to Turku it starts snowing again.  It looks like there will be snow until the mid April.  Now it’s clear to see why Finland is so good at winter sports, from mid November to mid April there is snow.  In Northern Ireland we had two weeks of snow and the country couldn’t cope.

This week I had two guest speakers in a few of my lectures and the whole dynamic and atmosphere was different.  I know we have guest speakers at Stranmillis but here it is different as the Finnish lectures try to create an atmosphere that is friendly and relaxed but on occasion they often just create a boring lecture.  So when a different speaker takes a lesson and uses some active participation we get excited.  The active learning given here is used less frequently than back in Stranmillis and I feel that the students learning often suffers from this and getting motivated for these classes can be difficult.  This mean that there is more independent study involved however we need to observe information that we do not cover in class where as in Stranmillis we cover extra on what we have learnt and rarely id it something completely new.

The teaching placement here is radically different than back in Stranmillis.  We need to fit our lessons and observations around lectures, which is very difficult as every week classes are moved around, cancelled or added to my timetable.  This is probably the thing I dislike the most as the semester is split up into two terms of January and February then March and April although the official end date of the term is the 27^th of May, however in May there are very few classes and schools are moving to the end of their year.  The six or seven weeks intense placement at Stranmillis works better, I feel, because it is difficult to prepare lesson plans, resources and observations reports at the same time as writing an essay, a learning diary and any other independent study.

Week 10 7/03/11-13/03/11

This week was the start of Lent and as a result on Sunday everybody went sledging, it was sledging day in Finland and thousands go sledging.  Also on Shrove Tuesday, during a school visit, I experience a traditional meal.  There was a pea soup with minced meat, which tasted really good, but the main piece of food was a shrove bun or Laskiaispullat.  The shrove bun is the Finnish equivalent of our pancake on Shrove Tuesday.  The pastry had wiped cream and a raspberry jam spread in between it and it was very tasty. 

On Tuesday we had a school visit to a Finnish high school.  There was an opportunity to observe a few lessons and chat to the teachers.  The most striking thing I noticed was the equipment that the school had.  Every room had a data projector and at least two computers.  The school provides all the equipment which was phenomenal as the music department had electric drum kits, bass guitars, microphones, amplifiers and a number of other equipment.  But the technology department wowed me the most.  There was more equipment in that department than I have ever seen; gas and mig welders, ban saws, drilling equipment and other tools I have never seen before, all with automated vacuums to minimise dust.  When entering the computer programming suit (which included a computer guided laser cutter!) the teacher told us that they felt they needed more equipment as their current equipment was 4 years out of date.  It was the same throughout all the school departments, they all had a lot more equipment and a lot more sophisticated technology than any school I had visited in my entire life!  The school does benefit from the governments focus on good education and it would be great if Northern Ireland had even half of the amount of equipment.

Within many observations it struck me that pupils have a lot of freedom.  They talk to their classmates constantly as well as on occasion listen to their MP3 players and even answer their mobile phones!  Pupils would walk in and out of the class with ease and the teacher would not make any thing of this.  The relaxed setting and freedom of the pupils gives the impression that in a class which lasts 45 minutes not a lot of work gets completed, however Finland is third in the world for educational success so these methods must be working.

Picture: the Laskiaispullat

Week 9 28/02/11-6/03/11

On Monday there was a plethora of Finnish flags in the city.  Usually there are very few Finland flags but Monday was Kalevala Day.  It was a day which celebrates the completion of Kalevala, a Finnish poem from ancient oral tradition.  The material, comprises old Finnish ballads and lyrical songs depicting "the sons of Kalevala", and was first published in two editions in 1835 and in 1849.  It was good to see Finland flying their flag as last weekend I was in Stockholm with a few students and we commented on how Sweden flies their flag with pride.

This week I observed a class at Turku International School where I do my school placement.  The class was a games lesson.  For sport the Finnish schools provide the possibilities to as many sports as possible, so one term the pupils will do cross-country skiing and the next boys will learn ice hockey skills and girls will be taught some figure skating techniques.  It was fascinating when my assigned teacher told me that the schools provide all the equipment and winter sports have a lot of equipment and most of it is expensive.  Helmets, skies, ice skates, etc are all paid for by the school system.  The lesson took place on an ice rink under the school in an old nuclear bunker.  The teachers have a good relationship with the pupils and because of the status teachers have it means that the pupils respect the teacher, although there is still the odd occasion where pupils act out of turn, but it instantly stopped when the teacher said something to the pupil.  There is also a break of fifteen minutes between each lesson in which the pupils have a break or recess and it allows for the teacher to prepare for the next class.  The class I observed was grade 6 which is the equivalent to years 8/9 although they are still in the primary education stream due to their later starting age.

With one of my classes, Finnish schools in the light of international comparison, we created a presentation on our home countries school system compared to Finland’s.  The Nigerian system was rather striking at how religion, politics and the former British colonial powers had, and still does, influence the school system.  To attend a university in Nigeria you can take British A-levels to gain entry.  Other countries which were compared to the Finnish system was; Spain, USA, South Korea, China, Nigeria, Armenia, Russia and the UK.  I learnt that South Korea had the highest PISA result and how vastly different their school system is as there is very few holidays with a lot of independent study and a long school day 2 or 3 hours longer than our system.   

Picture: Stockholm, the Swedish seem more proud about their flag and nation than the Finns.

Week 8 21/02/11-28/02/11

Unfortunatly I was in Stockholm this weekend so my blog entry is a bit late (but more on Stockholm next week). 

The sun has arrived in Finland.  January and the start of February have been mostly overcast with short daylight hours.  However everything has changed over this week and some of last week.  It is so bright due to the sun being reflected by the snow.  Because of the geography of Finland it makes it easy to travel to neighbouring countries relatively cheaply.  Many students have travelled to either Sweden or Estonia with a few even travelling to Hungary because it is so cheap to do so.  Because Turku is a harbour town there are many ferries travelling to Sweden.  Because of the good relationship between the two counties many families travel for the holidays.  This week is the schools half term holiday and as a result Moominland became populated by the Moomins.  Based on a set of books by Swedish speaking Finn Tove Jansson, the characters became a popular children’s TV series and book series.  The Moomins are hugely popular with their images on mugs, bed sheets and many other products.

This week I finished my Finnish language course and we discussed the exam conditions.  In Finland you can take an exam up to three times.  However this is the only class in which I have an exam, every other class requires an assignment, usually an essay.  In one class we have discussed the methods of assessment in other countries.  In Finland assessment usually is an essay of approximately eight pages in length and not so many exams.  However one student in my class who comes from Turkey explained that it is not uncommon to have oral exams, especially in philosophy classes.  This was also true of Serbia however the Finnish tutor only explained the only oral exam in Finland is a singing exam.  Another interesting about the Serbian education system is that Religious Studies was only made a subject in 2003/4 as more of an information class on the Orthodox Church rather than any spiritual development or world religions being taught.

Week 7 14/02/11-20/02/11

This week a few students and my self attended and ice hockey match between Turku and Helsinki.  Ice hockey is a huge sport in Finland and there is always a strong rivalry between Finland and Sweden during international games, such as the Olympics.  The Team from Turku (TPS) were the league champions in 2010 however this year they are not so good.  The North American leagues, the NHL and AHL, know Finland produces great ice hockey players and send scouts to bring their best players to their teams.  Turku has suffered from this; going from league champions to being bottoming of the league in one season.  Being a fan of ice hockey I noticed that the game is more tactical here whereas in the UK league is a lot more physical (and violent).

Turku is a city which is much more multicultural than most other Finnish cities.  There are a lot of Swedish influences (all the street names are in Finnish and Swedish) and there is a high English speaking population.  This week there was an English speaking comedy show.  There were performers from the USA, UK, Australia and even a Finnish act.  There were a lot of Finnish and Scandinavian references in their jokes, which, although I have only been here for seven weeks, which I understood.  I was surprised by the amount of native English speakers in Turku.  It was also nice to see the Finns opening up and even bantering with the comics, which was the last thing I would expect from Finnish people as they are usually very quite and reserved.

This week I started a new class.  There are classes ending at the end of February and others starting in March, it is almost like the semester is divided into two halves.  This allows for the focus to be on one or two classes for two months and not five or six classes over 5 months.  The new class is Evaluating the Effectiveness of Education.  The class is in a rather small room but it allows for greater discussion amongst students and a very relaxed atmosphere.  Many lecturers wear slippers in the faculty which seems bizarre but it makes the attending class a lot more enjoyable.  There is not a lot of pressure placed on the students and everything is taken at a steady pace.

Week 6 07/02/11-13/02/11

As I spend more time in Finland I notice that I become more decisive.  I have realised that if I want to do something, for example to play ice hockey, then I must decide to go or miss out on the activity.  This has lead to me becoming more organised when preparing for my studies.  As every week classes change place, time and day I know I need to be on top of that or else I will miss a class and need to catch up.  When preparing for my teaching placement this has shown to be beneficial as I need to get in contact with the teachers or my subject and arrange a meeting to discuss observations.  Unlike School Based Work at Stranmillis there are a number of teacher training schools and so it is very difficult arrange a time when an other student isn’t teaching or I have no class, or even when the teacher is not giving feedback or meeting other students, for me to meet and observe a teacher.  This has helped develop my own independence.  As a home student back in Northern Ireland there where many tasks which were done for me.  However I now need to do them or they won’t get done.  Being an Erasmus student is defiantly a leap out side of my comfort zone, not only the foreign language and country but living on my own for such a long time.  However after the first couple of weeks I got into a routine and met people who live in my apartment complex and settled in. 

The students in Finland, both exchange and regular students, have a strong group spirit.  Students in Finland, instead of having a t-shirt or jumper with their University on it, have as set of overalls.  Each faculty or subject area have a different colour, black for medicine, white for teacher education and a blue for exchange students.  This creates a comradeship between you and your fellow students.  When worn the overalls are typed round the waste exposing the faculty on the back.  The overalls get decorated with a number of patches showing what parties or events the students have attended.  Every student owns a pair of overalls and you almost fell left out for not having a set.

Picture: Exchange students and me at Moominworld.

Week 5 31/01/11 – 07/02/11

This week was very special as I was able to meet a huge Finnish icon.  Father Christmas is Finnish, according to the Finns, and he lives in Lapland and not the North Pole.  As this week I travelled (with 90 other exchange students) to Lapland I noticed that there is a huge distance between villages and towns when in the country.  On the way up I learn more about the Finns from the ESN organisers.  Helena, who was originally from Lapland, explained that the remote life in the country is a highly desirable goal for many Finns.  She also explained that you are able to travel 70kms to meet with someone and they will almost always be home when you arrive.  70kms would not be that great a distance to travel just to meet up with someone or to get to work or school.  Because of the long distances folks travel and long working hours Finns will enjoy their weekend by going to their cottages.  She explained that there is also a sixth sense amongst the rural community, she told us that the family would know if someone was coming to visit even if they had not arranged to met.

After walking at night in search of the Northern Lights, on the bus back to Turku, Helena told us that there are bears, wolves and wolverines in the country and that meeting one of these animals wouldn’t be a good thing.  She told us that when she was in high school there was a bear in the town centre and she couldn’t make it to her school on time.

The Finnish people in Levi, Lapland did seem more open and approachable than those from the cities.  I think because of the large amount of tourists in the village the residents are more welcoming.  This is the same with the Sami people who are native to Lapland, who have a colourful attire.

Whilst inside the Arctic Circle I tried a reindeer sandwich, it is difficult to describe, it was rather tough to bite through and did not have much taste.  I heard of reindeer pizza, elk and even bear meat however I never got to try them. 

Picture: Me with a Reindeer at Santa's Village