Education in Jyväskylä, University and High School

The beginning of the trip was complicated.  I had to be in Jyväskylä at 11 am to meet the head of the Education Department at the University.  The city is located 4-hour train drive from Helsinki and I was too nervous that I would miss the 6 am train, so I decided to travel the day before.  Well, there were no hotel rooms available in the whole city. I called all the 12 hotels and they were all booked because of some conference on social services. I could never imagine this happening in Finland. I did not have any other choices than Airbnb.  I found a small studio near the university, arrived the night before and settled in. 

Lobby of the Building designed by Alvar Aalto.

I met Matti Rautiainen, Senior Lecturer in pedagogy at 11 am the next morning at the University of Jyväskylä, Department of Education.  We headed to cafeteria where he served himself a lunch and I sipped my delicious smoothie.  My main reason for this meeting was to get familiar with the teacher education at this university. I had plenty of questions and he had the answers.  
Here is what I learned:

Hallway at Norssi High School Science Wing

Elementary education started in Finland in 1863. This university was established 1934 with 4 professors.  Now the Education Department has 4 sections:  preschool education, primary school education, secondary school education and psychology.  

Education department is the second largest after Helsinki.

This university practices phenomenon based education. “In Phenomenon Based Learning (PhenoBL) and teaching, holistic real-world phenomena provide the starting point for learning. The phenomena are studied as complete entities, in their real context, and the information and skills related to them are studied by crossing the boundaries between subjects”.  http://www.phenomenaleducation.info/phenomenon-based-learning.html

There were 1600 applicants to teacher education this year. First the applicants take a nation-wide test and based on the results, 300 best ones are invited to an interview.  The interview is a psychological test to determine if the candidate is ready to become a teacher. In the interview, there are 5 different steps 5-10 minutes each, one interviewer in each step.  Based on this interview process, 120 candidates were accepted to teacher education program.  Usually these are the top students from high school. 

Subject teachers are also subjected to  a group interview to see their behavior and communication in group situations.  There is a great demand for physics teachers. There are usually not enough qualified applicants for this subject.  Chemistry and Biology appeal more to students and those subjects usually receive more applicants than there are places.     

Biology Class at Norssi

After an hour conversation, he toured me around the campus and explained the history of the main buildings.  Many of them were designed by our famous architect Alvar Aalto.  I had already planned to visit the Aalto Museum that was located next to the University the next day. 

Physics Class at Norssi

Next visit was Norssi upper school that houses the upper classes 7-9 and high school, classes 10-12. There are about 60 subject teachers at this school and they are required to teach all the grades. 

This school is special because all the in-service subject teachers are required to practice teaching at this school. There is a mentor teacher in each subject to guide the practice which start already in September in small periods.  At the same time the students continue studies at the University. The final teaching takes place in April and May.  The teachers must practice also in a different high school of their choice. This school also participates in research, experimentation and development activities.  

Students perform an experiment on Capacitors.

Physics Class

I was able to visit biology and physics classes.  The first teacher was a mentor teacher Jaana Ailinpeiti, who in addition of mentoring also teaches high school biology.  Biology is divided into 6 sections. Students take these sections throughout the high school. The first year they take three sections and second year two biology sections, different topics each time. They have the 6th mandatory review section in fall of the senior year to prep them to take the matriculation exam in February.  Jaana had two sections of biology this term and both classes have about 30 students.

I interviewed four female biology students afterwards and they were all very excited to take biology.  They all plan to take the matriculation exam and they “demand” intensive lectures and explanations.  They do not want any labs because it takes away precious time from studying the theory.  They were all high achievers and very happy. Incredible.  

In physics class the topic was electricity. The teacher first checked the homework assignment and carried out all the calculations on board. The new lecture topic was capacitors. After the half an hour lecture, students eagerly performed measurements and used computers to record and analyze the results.  These students all loved physics.  I interviewed these students too.  So motivated! 

I will always be thankful for Matti for giving up his precious time for me. I also thank for the Biology and Physics teacher at  Norssi for allowing me to observe the classes at the short notice.