Jouni Välijärvi

Implications of the Modular Curriculum in the Senior Secondary School in Finland

Interest in the modular curriculum has increased during the last few years. The modular approach has been seen as a promising curriculum model when more flexible structures are sought for reorganizing education. It creates alternatives for organizing school work in a pedagogically functional way in which individual students are offered more opportunities to select their own program of study (Warwick, 1988). Co-operation with schools has increased and forced schools to find common principles to arrange the timetables and daily schoolwork. In this context, the modular curriculum provides an instrument to outline the purpose and goals of schoolwork in a new way, and put them into practice at the school level. It might also serve as a bridge between general and vocational education (Raffe, 1992, 1994), and as a way to serve the needs of high ability students more effectively (Lloyd, 1999; Valijarvi, 1997).

Finnish School in International Comparison

Traditionally, one of the strengths of the Finnish education system has been students’ advanced reading literacy skills. In PISA assessments, the proficiency levels for mathematics and science have also been high in Finland. Albeit the average level of Finnish student performance has slightly declined in the latest PISA assessments, Finland is still among the highest-ranking countries in the world.