The turn of the month saw a study visit organised by the Finnish National Agency for Education, the UEF Teacher Training School in Joensuu and Joensuun yhteiskoulu upper secondary school, which attracted 21 participants from 15 EU countries, who came from various sectors of education. The visitors learned about schools in the Joensuu area, visited classes and made an excursion to Koli National Park.
This was the fifth study visit hosted by the Teacher Training School, and the occasion was marked by a reception hosted by the university’s Human Resources Director, Dr Jouni Kekäle. This year, the theme was Professional and Leadership Development in a Finnish Context.
“Study visits such as this provide opportunities for creating new networks between educational institutions and their representatives,” says Lecturer Eija Liisa Sokka-Meaney, who was one of the coordinators of the visit.
The visitors included school principals, administrators and educational planners from the fields of general education, teacher education and vocational education, and an Assistant Minister of Education.
One of the visitors was Iwona Korchowiec, Principal of Szkola Podstawowa nr 66 in Poland, who is also an English teacher. According to Ms Korchowiec, there were striking differences between Finnish and Polish primary schools.
“In Finland, the mere technology and equipment available in classrooms is many steps ahead of Poland. I can’t imagine there being 3D printers in our schools,” she said, laughing, when looking at the equipment available in the Teacher Training School.
Korchowiec is also pleased to note that although Finnish schools seem to be large, class sizes are nevertheless small.
“This gives the teacher more time for individual interaction with the pupils.”
Korchowiec also admired the extent to which images and illustrations were used in primary school textbooks she looked at.
“In Poland, textbooks tend to be full of text already in the primary school. They can be rather exhausting for children at that age,” she explains.
Ms Sokka-Meaney says that the visitors were interested in the organisation and structure of the Finnish educational system, and in the learning environments and teaching in particular. On the whole their comments on these were positive.
The visitors had many questions to ask the teachers and coordinators and left feeling that their visit had been informative and given them many things to think about with respect to their professional development.