Student-Centered Learning: Bringing Successes from Finland to U.S. Classrooms

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Overview and Purpose

Year after year, students in Finland outperform those in the United States. From the school layout to the learning activities, Finnish schools are designed with the students at the forefront.

This course is comprised of five units that dive into the unique aspects of Finland's approach to student-centered learning. The purpose of this mini-course is to provide K-12 educators with practical ways they can bring some of the successes from Finland to their classroom.

Needs Assessment

Educational problem/opportunity: Despite reform efforts, like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, the United States’ educational system has consistently lagged behind other countries (Kaput, 2018). This raises the following question—Why is the American education system failing to successfully educate all students? A major contributing factor is that education in the United States wasn’t designed to meet the needs of all students but rather to prepare students, in mass, to work in a standardized economy (Kaput, 2018). There are countries, however, that have strong educational systems built on a foundation of equity and student-centered learning. Finland, which is a notable example, is one of the few 38 OECD countries that has maintained good educational performance over the past several decades (Sahlberg, 2021). While some elements of the Finnish education system are not easily transferable to the United States, there are instructional strategies and pedagogies that can be applied to American schools. Notably, education in Finland is highly student-centered and designed with the students in mind. Teachers in the United States can learn from Finland's unique student-centered instructional approaches.

Analysis of Gaps: Reality vs Ideal

• Current Reality: The United States’ educational performance lags behind other countries. In the United States, some districts have embraced student-centered learning in recent years, primarily project-based learning, technology-enhanced learning, and collaborative learning (Zhang et al., 2021). Implementing student-centered instruction has been limited by policy implementation, assessment, curricula, quality professional development, technology, and constructive feedback on instruction (Zhang et al., 2021). Finland, which often ranks above the United States in educational performance, has been successful in its unique approaches to student-centered learning.
• Ideal State: Teachers in the United States can implement aspects of Finland’s approach to student-centered learning in their classrooms. This includes incorporating breaks, play, and nature-based education into their classrooms. By doing so, American teachers can improve the educational outcomes of their students.

Learner: Participants of this mini-course are K-12 educators. While pre-service teachers may take this course, it is designed with application activities that are best applied to a classroom setting. Participants may have a range of experience in a classroom, including differing experiences with student-centered learning. They may be interested in implementing new strategies into their classrooms to make them more student-centered.

Prior Experiences, Knowledge, and Skills: Participants have a range of prior experiences and philosophies surrounding student-centered learning given their experiences in the classroom. Some may have extensive experience designing instruction to be student-centered, while others may be primarily familiar with teacher-centered instruction. There may be a variety of external factors that affect the participant’s use of student-centered instructional strategies; however, this course will focus on strategies that are most practical given constraints.

Intent Statement: This mini-course is designed to provide participants with practical ways to incorporate Finnish student-centered learning approaches to their own classroom. It will provide participants with instruction surrounding the context of student-centered learning in Finland and some of Finland’s approaches, including student breaks, nature-based education, and a focus on play. My goal is to provide participants with practical and effective ways to bring some of the successes of Finland’s student-centered education to their classroom.

Performance Objectives

After completing this mini-course, learners will be able to:

• Describe the core principles of student-centered education in Finland, including the emphasis on play, well-being, and outdoor learning.
• Compare student-centered learning approaches in Finland and the United States, including cultural differences and challenges in implementation.
• Evaluate the impact of Finnish student-centered education on student learning and outcomes given current research.
• Apply student-centered learning inspired by Finland to a U.S. classroom context.
• Design a student-centered learning environment for their classroom that incorporates Finnish principles while addressing cultural and implementation constraints.

Course Units

This mini-course includes the following units. Click the title of a unit to go to its page.

Brief overview

In the first unit of the mini-course, participants will reflect on their current student-centered learning strategies. In addition, they will learn about the history of Finland's educational system and the country's core principles of education. Participants will make a social media post about educational reform in Finland and describe Finland's education system in a word cloud.

Unit 1 - Lesson 1: Why Finland: A Brief History of its Educational Success

Unit 1 - Lesson 2: Core Principles of Finland's Educational System

Unit 2: The Finnish Design: Student-Centered Spaces and Schedules

In Unit 2, participants will explore the design of schools in Finland, including flexible seating and recesses throughout the school day. Participants will make a sketch of a Finnish-inspired learning space and create a plan to adjust their current school schedule that is inspired by the Finland's approach.

Unit 2 - Lesson 1: The Learning Environment in Finnish Schools

Unit 2 - Lesson 2: Finnish School Day: Learn, Break, Repeat

Unit 3: From Classrooms to Forests: Student-Centered Learning Outdoors

In Unit 3, participants will investigate how Finnish forest schools and other approaches to bring learning outdoors. They will create plan an activity to promote student-centered learning outdoors.

Unit 3 - Lesson 1: Finnish Forest Schools

Unit 3 - Lesson 2: Outdoor Learning, Anywhere, Anytime

Unit 4: Putting Finnish Ideas into Practice

In the last unit, participants will learn about some important considerations when adopting Finnish practices in the United States. Given these considerations, participants will make an action plan of one student-centered approach from Finland that they can feasibly implement in their classroom.

Unit 4 - Lesson 1: Implementation Challenges and Considerations

Unit 4 - Lesson 2: Creating an Action Plan

Extended Resources

Baumann, C. (2013, May 19). US and Finnish educational reform trajectories: A comparison [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9RJ50IePHU

Benke, E. & Bressanin, A. (2023). Finland's inspiring sub-zero education [Video]. BBC Reel. https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0gpz6cd/finland-s-inspiring-sub-zero-education

Copper Island Academy. (2023, June 21). This U.S. school offers Finnish-style recess [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edvF_AJXU5I&t=58s

Ellimaija. (2019, October 26). An ordinary day at Finnish school. Learning Scoop. https://learningscoop.fi/2019/10/26/an-ordinary-day-at-school/

Ellimaija. (2022, March 25). Education outside classroom – The secret ingredient of Finnish education excellence. Learning Scoop. https://learningscoop.fi/2022/03/25/education-outside-classroom/

Hopeman, R., & Sobel, D. (201). Taking the classroom to the forest: A school’s Forest Fridays program. Community Works Journal. Retrieved from https://medium.com/communityworksjournal/taking-the-classroom-to-the-forest-a-schools-forest-fridays-program-3b95b525c070

Google for Education. (2017, January 19). A very Finnish education [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJoqnNftzKg

Kaput, K. (2018). Evidence for Student-Centered Learning. Education evolving. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED581111

Laine, A., Elonheimo, M., & Kettunen, A. (Eds.). (2018). Leap into the outdoor classroom: Guide to teaching outdoors. Ulkoluokka. https://ulkoluokka.fi/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/ulkoluokka-enkku-nettiin.pdf

Lien Foundation. (2018, November 2). How we do school Finland Ep 3: A school designed for all [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceWeIKLfgv8

LiiNK Center for Healthy Play. (n.d.). The research. Texas Christian University. https://liinkproject.tcu.edu/research

Maansi. (2011, October 13). The world can learn from Finland. The Yin and Yang of Life Anywhere. https://yin-yang-india.com/tag/finlands-education-system-needs-to-be-copied/

Molina, A. (n.d.). Example school timetable in Finland. Best Educational Practices. https://besteducationalpractices.wordpress.com/finnish-educational-system/example-school-timetable/

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2023). Curriculum and instruction time. OECD. https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/sub-issues/curriculum-and-instruction-time.html

Ravenswood Elementary School. (n.d.). Fourth grade Overview. https://www.ravenswoodelementary.org/fourth-grade

Sahlberg, P. (2021). Finnish lessons 3.0: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland?. Teachers College Press.

Siemplenski Lefort, J. (2023, December 21). How the Finns do it. Education Solutions. https://www.eib.org/en/essays/finland-education-school-design#:~:text=Throughout%20the%20building%2C%20thick%2C%20accordion,and%20turn%20as%20needs%20change.

Walker, T. (2014). How Finland keeps kids focused through free play. The Atlantic. https://kittykellyepstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/how-finland-keeps-kids-focused-through-free-play-education-the-atlantic.pdf

Walker, T. D. (2015, June 3). First grade in Finland: Every day is a half day. Taught by Finland. https://taughtbyfinland.com/first-grade-in-finland-every-day-is-a-half-day/

Walker, A. (2016). Finnish kindergarten in the forest. Taught by Finland. https://taughtbyfinland.com/finnish-kindergarten-forest/

Zhang, L., Basham, J. D., Carter Jr, R. A., & Zhang, J. (2021). Exploring Factors associated with the implementation of student-centered instructional practices in US classrooms. Teaching and Teacher Education, 99, 103273.