Week 13 (Mon 23^rd April – Sun 29^th April)

Professional Blog

This week we had an English teacher from Finland that gave us a presentation in our education class about the Finnish education system.  Our education teacher Peter remarked that Finland had the highest scoring PISA testing results; which test literacy in three competence fields: reading, mathematics, science.  A Danish student in our class asked why this was and the Finnish teacher suggested that it could be because Finland is “educationally religious” and autonomous learning is highly promoted with the Parent’s and school’s support.  In addition to this she continued that teaching is considered a prestigious job and they are greatly respected and trusted by the people of Finland, which perhaps encourages more enthusiasm for learning and promotes positive and engaging learning environments.

I asked the Finnish teacher if they had a curriculum to follow that the government enforced and to my surprise she replied that each school was given the freedom to create their own curriculum with skills the staff in the school felt should be developed.  There is only a loose framework of guidance provided by the government.  It made me think that as teachers have more autonomy with their teaching styles and selection and organisation of their resources, they may reflect their enthusiasm about learning and this consequently encourages children to want to learn and partake in individual investigations and take ownership over their own learning.

The Northern Ireland Curriculum also promotes autonomous learners and the central aim is to empower young people so that they can be independent, furthermore, as in the Finnish education system, teachers in Northern Ireland are encouraged to act as facilitators of learning as opposed to imparters of knowledge, therefore our education systems seem quite similar in that respect.  This week we also learned that in Denmark there isn’t much competition to get into teaching education and once people begin to study teaching, 40% of students drop out of the course.  However, in Northern Ireland this is not the case as it is very competitive to enter teacher training education and places in the universities are quite limited.

I like that in Northern Ireland we have a structure to follow for teaching (NIC 2007) that lays out the skills for each area of learning, but allows for teachers to help children develop the skills in a variety of forms and using a variety of teaching styles and resources.  I do however feel that the Northern Ireland Curriculum demands an awful lot of teachers in terms of timetabling and giving adequate and quality time to each of the areas of learning.  Perhaps we could learn something from other countries and their education systems, for example, with less accountability to the government, schools and staff can form their own curriculums to meet the needs of the children in their care and can promote positive learning environments without such rigid frameworks and time constraints.

Week 12 ( Mon 16th April – Sun 22nd April)

Personal blog

My friends visited Copenhagen this week and we stayed in a hostel that was situated in a different area in Copenhagen that I’d never seen before so I was able to compare and see Copenhagen from a new perspective.  I also didn’t feel like a tourist this week as the girls depended on me to be their tour guide and I became more aware of the surroundings and was able to direct us through the city quite easily. 

My friends and I in Tivoli gardens.

The weather was sunny and allowed for us to take a canal tour and see Copenhagen from the water.  I also got to see new sights I’d never visited before with the girls, including; Tivoli gardens and theme park, Christiania and Copenhagen Ice Bar.  The girls really enjoyed it and said they would visit Copenhagen again.  Having the girls over to question Danish culture and traits such as laid back living, cycling bikes everywhere, drinking tea/coffee from a glass, sarcastic sense of humour and using Danish kroner, made me realise how much I have became accustomed to Danish culture and forget how different it can be to Northern Irish culture.  It will be interesting to see if I pursue such traits when I return to Northern Ireland.

The girls commented that they thought I’d really settled in Denmark and that I was coping with being away from home better than they expected.  This made me reflect on how long I’d been away from home and family (over 3 months) and realise that I exceeded my own expectations for staying in the one place for a whole semester.  I have been able to recognise that I am quite an easy-going person and tend to take each day as it comes, however I do like to have some plans each week to look forward to, for example, meeting up with other ERASMUS students.  Since we have moved to the ‘White house’ it has been much easier to casually meet up and socialise with other students as we cross paths everyday.  It will be strange leaving the other students when we all go home as these are people we have lived with for so long and have became so familiar with.  I would like to think that we will maintain our friendships and arrange visits to each other’s countries in the future.