SMART Community Review (SCR) Teacher education in Finland | Page 22

guidance. The principles of a good learning
environment, working approaches as well as the
concept of learning are also addressed in the
core curriculum. The national core curriculum is
renewed approximately every ten years.
The Education providers draw up their own
curricula within the framework of the national
core curriculum. Thus there
is room for local or regional
specificities. All local curricula
must, however, define the
values, underlying principles,
There are no
as well as general educational
national tests
and teaching objectives.
Also questions such as the
for pupils
language programme and the
in basic
local lesson-hour distribution
must be addressed. Further,
education in
cooperation with homes and
Finland.
instruction of pupils requiring
special support or belonging to
different language and cultural
groups should be defined.
Assessment is part of daily schoolwork
In Finland the main type of pupil assessment is
the continuous assessment during the course
of studies and the final assessment. Continuous
assessment is provided to guide and help pupils
in their learning process. Each student receives a
report at least once every school year.
There are no national tests for pupils in
basic education in Finland. Instead, teachers
are responsible for the assessment in their
respective subjects on the basis of the objectives
written into the curriculum. Also the grades
in the basic education certificate, the final
certificate given at the end of year 9, are given
16  Finnish education in a nutshell