Governance decentralisation in education: Finnish innovation in education

This paper introduces a Finnish education innovation known as decentralisation in education. The innovation is described based on education policy documents, research papers and two short interviews with national and municipality experts in curriculum design. In a decentralised education system loca...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: Lavonen, Jari
Format: article
Publication Date:2017
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Murcia
Repository:DIGITUM. Depósito Digital Institucional de la Universidad de Murcia
OAI Identifier:oai:digitum.um.es:10201/99444
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.6018/red/53/1
http://hdl.handle.net/10201/99444
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Education policy
Digital strategy
Curriculum
Quality assurance
Assessment
Política Educativa
Estrategia digital
Evaluación de la calidad
Evaluación educativa
CDU::3 - Ciencias sociales::37 - Educación. Enseñanza. Formación. Tiempo libre
Description
Summary:This paper introduces a Finnish education innovation known as decentralisation in education. The innovation is described based on education policy documents, research papers and two short interviews with national and municipality experts in curriculum design. In a decentralised education system local providers of education (municipalities) and teachers play important roles in the preparation of local curriculum and learning environments, including the use of digital learning tools and environments. Education providers localise the national aims and content and describe how education is organised. Classroom-based assessment is another characteristic of decentralisation. Three pre-conditions are required for a decentralised education system to be effective: 1) common, national level, long-term strategic aims and must be established and local level plans, such as curriculum and an equity plan, must be developed and the implemented, 2) quality work, student assessment, continuous improvement of learning environments and practices implemented at the local level and 3) professional teachers must collaborate and engage in broad planning and assess their teaching abilities and their students’ learning outcomes