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All four in Ontario are .

, and when .

While the list of particular negotiating , there are .

When we examine the past 20 years of education strife in Ontario, it’s clear that labour unrest has become a response to a wider failure to adequately invest both financially and imaginatively in schooling.

Playing politics with schools is not an anomaly, it has become the norm. It , particularly for the province’s public educators, parents and students.

Perhaps it’s time for Ontario residents to look elsewhere. We have had to imagine and invent the kinds of schools we wanted in the past. We can always re-imagine them.

What about Finland? What can we learn from a place where the ?

Recently, I was welcomed into Helsinki schools to observe and learn about what the Finns call “phenomenon-based learning” — a philosophy that supports their schooling.

Finland has been on the radar of international educators for nearly a decade for various reasons, including high and a well-defined international marketing plan for . The world is increasingly aware of the pride Finnish people have in education.

Finland is one of the top global investors in education, .

Phenomenon-based learning

Phenomenon-based learning is a . It means leading students to ask big questions that don’t have easy answers.

Labour action, as an example, could be a phenomenon that would keep most students engaged for many months.

It’s also a brand, because it’s marketed as a rooted in the .

Books on phenomenon-based learning can be found in tourist shops and on display during Helsinki Education Week, and . This branding is intentional and explicit, which is refreshing in the marketplace of ideas in which we live.

Ontario, too, . Ontario’s students are familiar with science projects or social studies units, but in Finland, inquiry is all encompassing. It requires students to to ask broader questions that aren’t limited to what needs to be covered in the curriculum.

Chopping wood at school

On my trip, during a visit to a third-grade classroom, all the students were engaged with a particular phenomenon: How would we respond to a loss of electricity?

Children were chopping wood, deciding how to divide resources and making paper airplanes.

Where would such an approach come from? Academics like me are .

have , as outlined by Finnish educator and researcher . Dewey was an influential 20th century American philosopher who is often associated .

Sahlberg writes that “.”

In the class I was visiting, I was curious to know what or how the teacher thought about Dewey. But the notion that he had impacted Finnish education didn’t resonate for her and she said phenomenon learning is a Finnish idea.

Her response suggests that whatever aspect Dewey contributed has indeed become a Finnish approach in its own right.

Education more than schooling

I asked a group of three girls in an upper secondary classroom (roughly, Grade 11) if they felt educated.

“We know that our schools are impressive. You came all the way from Canada to talk to us about our learning. But you did not come across the world to talk about small things, right?”

She was correct. I was interested in getting outside of my own context to see what was possible. I was a host in a class focused on entrepreneurship, where the students’ phenomena were start-up businesses that integrated their learning and applied it to the real world of commerce.

“Yes, we feel educated. Sometimes we learn in the school. Doing phenomena like this. We also have classes in history and mathematics. But we also learn during our breaks, talking to each other. School plays a role in our education, but it is not only school that educates us.”

Finnish schools are also affected by labour action. Recently, 20,000 as service sector strikes made it difficult for them to have their warm meals served as per custom in early childhood settings.

Schooling and education

Why should Canadians pay attention to education elsewhere? Even in our own provinces, it is a challenge to understand the intricacies of schooling elsewhere across the country.

Schools are not fixed, nor are their structures. We have made them up and we can change them. And we should .

Travel, through books or via other means, enriches our view of the world and our place within it.

Everyone with something at stake in Ontario’s schools ought to ask: “” The questions we ask colour the way we look at our own schools and our educational investments.

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 is a Professor of Social Studies and History Education, and the Associate Dean, Graduate Studies and Research, Faculty of Education at ���˴�Ƭ.

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