Yesterday a new round of the documentary series called Klass 9A started on swedish television (SVT). It is the second time this series is running. The first time was in 2008. This time it is from Mikaelskolan in Örebro. The subject of the series is that teachers, with a lot of know-how, are going to help the teachers and students from the 9th grade to reach their own goals and the goals of the swedish curriculum.
Two experienced teachers, Gunilla Hammar Säfström and Stavros Louca, from the last season are joined by Thomas Holmqvist. And this time they are supposed to focus on the teachers instead of the students. Gunilla, Stavros and Thomas are supposed to coach the teachers at Mikaelskolan to enable them to develop their teaching. The change of objective is because they belive that there are many "superteachers" out there in swedish schools - they just need some help and coaching to become them. They say in an interview that they want to start a process within the teachers, that the students will benefit from.
So why this school and this group of students? Statistics show that at Mikaelskolan 1 out of 4 students don't have good enough grades to be accepted to higher education. In Sweden you have to have passed in Swedish, Mathematics and English to be accepted into Gymnasiet (grades 10-12). In this group, at the start of the fall semester of 2010, more than a third of the students haven't passed in 50 % or more of the subjects given. The new principal wants a change!
So why is this series produced in Sweden and why is it causing so much debate in Sweden? In Sweden in general there are 14000 students each year that can't get into Gymnasiet, because of lacking knowledge in one of or several of the subjects Swedish, Mathematics and English.
I agree with Eva-Lis Sirén, the chairwoman for one of the teacher's union, who in a debate article suggests that it is necessary to start a discussion about teachers, teaching and education in Sweden. I haven't been teaching in Sweden the last few years, but the picture you get from swedish media is that swedish schools are facing more and more difficulties educating their students.
For example, when it comes to mathematics the results given by the swedish coordinator for the PISA study 2009 states that swedish students perform above the OECD-average in the study from 2003, but in the study from 2009 they perform on an average level.
Watching the first episode raises some topics to discuss. The students seem to be aware of the importance of a good education and that now is the time to get it - what is stoping them from caring when sitting in class? The "experts" are expressing the opinion that teachers don't deal to well with criticism - is that true and if so, why? And the final and maybe most important question is - are we expecting to little from students and teachers?
You can watch the full episode here. And the website for the series is here.
Hi Anna,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting post to me, despite not seeing the program you mention, because you explain the content very clearly and it is fascinating to hear of the issues in education in different parts of the world. I imagined that Sweden, like Finland, was one of the top performing countries in the world? From your report, it seems that Sweden is suffering from some of the same problems we have in Australia. As teachers, we are being encouraged to raise our expectations of students and use achievement data to drive improvement strategies. Keep up the great work!
Thanks Britt for commenting on this post. Well, I think we were there right in the top with Finland. Somehow we have managed to fall behind, and that is quite an interesting fact. Stavros Louca mentions in an interview that Sweden is a country with a lot of resources and yet we still have managed to fall behind (according to several international surveys). I hope I will have time to post a follow-up this week on what is written and said in Sweden after the first episode.
ReplyDeleteThanks Anna - I will pop back again from time to time! My father was originally from Aland and I hope to visit there with my family one day.
ReplyDeleteIn Australia, the government has spent billions of dollars on technology, infrastructure and resources. But much research has suggested that it is the teacher that makes the most difference to a student's learning.
Well, in Sweden they haven't spent very much money on technology and resources. They also say that the teacher is the most important factor to the student's learning - but unfortunately they haven't spent any money on the teachers either.
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