| fatslob-:O said: Well for one thing Finland seems to have an abnormally low student to teacher ratio so comparisons can be distorted with other countries and they have a very strong teacher's union. No other nations or administrations with just as successful and competitive educational systems can replicate Finland's model such as Canada, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea so Finland should be rightly treated as an anomaly to be ignored because there's nearly nothing of value to learn from the case ... I'll let entertain which country I'm from as the one's I've listed from the above aside from Finland is the other oddball out among them ... As for Singapore, yes they do very well and are nearly diametric opposites to Finland's model. As for standardized testing, there is one very big advantage that it does grant which is a competitive environment against other students because without a benchmark to provide some sort of measure of ability among students there is no realistic way for them to self motivate themselves to improve. I can possibly understand why you might object to standardized testing but when it comes post-secondary school admission then the only truly fair and just way to benchmark students with varying secondary education quality on equal grounds is with exams. I can get why you oppose standardized testing so much but when prestigious schools have limited seats and students with very different previous educational backgrounds then it must become a necessity to settle it with a standardized test especially with very big countries like the US or China ... There's more to an educational system than just purely increasing the quality like we see with Finland but a lacking component keeping it from creating the truly best students like we see with either Singapore or Hong Kong is facing the competition. While Finland can pride itself as having the most arguably pleasant educational experience with great results, they cannot pride themselves as either having the best students or being a role model for other countries ... |
(even I think our system might be distorted as well because of a high amount of rich immigrant expats) OK, you talked about demography, but 'abnormally low student to teacher ratio' is no demographic issue but an issue about how much money the country is willing to spend on education, and how this money is spent. I would always argue, that smaller classes is always a way to success, so it comes down to the willingness to spend the money on the teachers.
I see your argument about standardized tests as competition+fair comparison on equal grounds. Tell me if I misrepresent it. For competition: I am opposed to standardized tests, not to testing at all. But a test tailored from the teacher to his class is much better than something made for everyone in the country. it still provides ground for competition and personal betterment. You can try to improve your grade in comparison to last year or in comparison to your classmates. The second reason is silly in my opinion. The idea to have grades that can gauge the success of the student on a national scale is ridiculous in my opinion. I am not sure if grades work in that way at all. They are good for competition and helping you to see your personal progress. But universities should ignore grades altogether and have always individual entrance exams to chose the most qualified students. This works much better than grade that are only semicomparable, even with all the tries at standardization. Again, this means bigger investments education as entrance exams need more personell to evaluate. SATs simply are the cheap way.
So yes, in my opinion more and better trained educators are great for better results. The other stuff may have effects too, but is not that impactful.
