Teach Middle East Magazine Sep - Dec 2020 Issue 1 Volume 8 | Page 14

MORAL EDUCATION THE
FINNISH WAY
The assessment includes summative,
formative and behavioral assessment
and is based on a pre-defined success
criteria, which is to be addressed after
each period. Usually the completion of
the success criteria is a quick verbal
self-assessment, but now the teachers
insert the success criteria in the Qridi
self-evaluation tool and conduct the
assessment digitally. After each lesson
the students log in on Qridi with a
mobile phone or a tablet and complete
their assessment individually.
Teachers at Garden City British
School in Al Ain have been exploring
new assessment methods and
gamification to support the teaching
and learning of the recently
introduced Moral Education
curriculum. Like most new things,
the much needed curriculum has
brought new challenges to teachers,
for example how to handle the
assessment of the learning
outcomes and also how to make the
lessons more engaging and fun.
In Finland, the last curriculum reform
also posed assessment challenges to
teachers. The student assessment was
to include a variety of student-engaging
methods, such as self- peer- and group
assessment and the students were
given more responsibility to determine
goals for their own learning. In addition,
all schools were expected to teach not
only subjects, but some cross-curricular
themes, known as transversal
competences. The evaluation of these
themes is somewhat similar with the
evaluation of Moral Education in UAE.
Qridi, which was designed to meet the
needs of teachers and students in a
changing environment by providing a
digital tool for student-centered,
continuous and versatile assessment, is
one of the new solutions being piloted
at the Garden City British School. In
their model, Moral Education is
integrated in homeroom classes and
taught together with other subjects.
Ms. Jaana Wilkko, the principal at
Garden City British School says that
with the help of Qridi the teachers have
been able to shift the topics from Moral
Education to the core subjects more
easily. “If the children are doing group
work in math class for example, the
success criteria could be related to
responsibility. So we are using the
themes and vocabulary from Moral
Education as part of the success
criteria.”
"Qridi has helped the
teachers to shift the topics
from Moral Education to
the core subjects."
The greatest thing about Qridi
according to Ms. Wilkko is that it
provides consistency and evidence to
support teaching and learning. “The
overall idea is that Moral Education is
the very core, something that we all
need to focus on. With the help of Qridi
there is now consistency in evaluation.
The tool is there every week and
provides us with evidence and data on
how things are progressing. You can
actually reflect back on how the
students have answered and see their
improvement!”
In addition of making the assessment
of the learning outcomes easier, Amal
Farrag, Moral Education teacher at
Garden City British School has been
discovering the Seppo platform to
make learning more engaging and fun.
"Gamification reinforces
student engagement and
motivation and helps to
spark the joy of learning."
The Seppo platform ties the use of
digital technology to the physical
environment around us.
The platform incorporates the benefits
of gamification and use of game
mechanics while encouraging the
physical movement of the players.
Since seppo is a game authoring
platform, it helps teachers develop their
digital skills and become game builders
without having to know a line of code.
Gamification also reinforces student
engagement and motivation and helps
to spark the joy of learning.
The gamification element in Moral
Education has had a major impact in
the school says Ms. Farrag. “The
students are actually learning through
playing and on top of that they are very
excited about Seppo”, she adds. “We
have used Seppo especially with
Cultural- and Civic studies. You have
so many options with Seppo and it’s so
versatile. You can add more visuals,
videos and get the students interacting
with each other or even go outside the
classroom”.
What makes Seppo so great according
to Ms. Farrag, is that the students can
have many different options to submit
their answers, which enables the
tailoring of the games to fit the needs
of each individual. “Some students
prefer answering by writing, some by
video or audio. Students at all levels
can reach their goals”, she says. Ms.
Farrag has integrated Seppo to her
classes to support the learning. Once
the teacher is done with teaching the
topic of the class, the students can
deepen their understanding by playing
a game of Seppo.
For more information and to pilot at
your school:
[e-mail]