Finnish National Curriculum Research Articles

A Comparative Study of Finnish and Icelandic Craft Education Curriculums and Students’ Attitudes towards Craft and Technology in Schools

The main goal of this paper was to make a comparative study of Finnish and Icelandic craft curriculums. In addition, students’ attitudes towards craft and technology were measured in Finland and Iceland. The literature review highlighted that, Icelandic national curriculum placed greater emphasis on design and innovation, whereas the Finnish national curriculum focused on the development of students’ personalities and gender issues. The empirical survey showed substantial differences in students’ attitudes towards craft and technology education in the two countries.

Health knowledge construction and pedagogical style in Finnish health education textbooks

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to compare the construction of health knowledge in the Finnish national curriculum and recent Finnish health education textbooks, at primary and secondary levels of education. The authors examine the visual and textual content of the textbooks in an attempt to identify their pedagogical style and approach to health education.Design/methodology/approachThe study is part of an international, European Union funded, FP6 STREP Project, Biohead‐Citizen. Conceptual health knowledge construction is analysed evaluating the emphasis placed on a biomedical model or on a health promotion ( HP) approach. Pedagogical style of the text and illustration is classified as either neutral, persuasive, participative or injunctive, out of which especially persuasive and participative reflect the constructionist approach.FindingsThe textbooks cover a wide range of health topics and meet the core contents of the national curriculum. The approach used was primarily that of HP and used a persuasive and participative approach. The pedagogical style of text, tasks and illustrations reflected current pedagogical thinking.Research limitations/implicationsThe study encourages future research to explore the effects of pedagogical construction on materials and learning in health education.Originality/valueThe paper usefully analyzes the pedagogical properties of recent Finnish health knowledge textbooks.

A professional development project for improving the use of information and communication technologies in science teaching

This article describes a professional development project aiming to develop practical approaches for the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) into science education. Altogether, 13 two‐day face‐to‐face seminars and numerous computer network conferences were held during a three‐year period. The goals for the project were based on the general goals of the Finnish national framework curriculum and ICT strategy. Self‐evaluation data showed that participating teachers had used ICT extensively and integrated it into their science education programmes during the project. The ICT competence of the participating teachers increased substantially. Based on the results of the project, it can be suggested that professional development projects for science teachers in the use of ICT should emphasise the following: (i) empowerment (co‐planning of the project and its activities, and dissemination, allocation of resources, and authentic evaluation); (ii) communication (ensuring a flow of ideas and creativity, allowing communication and reflection in small groups and in optimal locations); and (iii) context (integration of ICT into teaching methods and cumulative development of competencies in the teachers who use it).