KQED News Mind/Shift – Staff Writer
“Finland is often applauded for its great education system. Earlier this year the Finns announced the intention to move towards* secondary education that is topic-based, rather than subject-based in order to emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of real-world problems. Finnish educators hope teaching in this way will help students draw connections between disciplines and find previously undiscovered areas of interest. A similar strategy applies to the Finnish approach to the youngest learners. Rather than focusing on math and literacy, Finnish kindergartens are all about play. In his Atlantic article, Tim Walker describes seeing both free play and more pedagogically focused play in Finnish kindergartens. Both kinds of play are explicitly required and are being emphasized even more in the newest version of the curriculum.”(more)