Pirjo Linnakylä

Quality of School Life in the Finnish Comprehensive School: a comparative view

Abstract The article attempts to answer the questions of how Finnish students experience the quality of school life as a whole and how students’ well‐being and social interaction in the Finnish comprehensive school compare with some other countries on the basis of extensive international comparative data. First, the concept ‘quality of school life’ and the self‐assessment instrument are described. Second, the validity of the instrument is explored. Next, the results of the assessment are first discussed from the national and then from the international perspective, comparing the data collected as a sub‐survey of the IEA Study of Reading Literacy in March 1991. The Finnish school is contrasted with Nordic as well as with German and American schools. Finally, using multivariate analyses the various aspects of the quality of Finnish school life are related to each other, to some background variables and to variables describing school achievement and educational aspiration. The findings are discussed from the...

Multilevel modelling in repeated measures of the quality of Finnish school life

The main interest of the paper is methodological: to exploit multilevel modelling in analysing quality of school life data gathered in 1991 and 1995 in Finnish comprehensive schools, with the intention of investigating differences and related changes in the quality of school life over time. The specific methodological aim is to explore the advantages gained and problems encountered while applying multilevel models and the statistical program MLwiN in analysing large scale educational data with repeated measures. The quality of school life was assessed by a representative sample of all the Grade 8 pupils throughout the country with a 4 year interval in the same schools. The measurement of the quality of school life focused on general school satisfaction and on teacher-student relations. The validity of the instrument was confirmed by means of factor analysis. The findings of the multilevel statistical analysis are discussed both from an educational and a methodological point of view.

Exploring the Secret of Finnish Reading Literacy Achievement

Abstract The article describes and analyzes the main findings of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Reading Literacy Study in Finland. The initial analyses indicate that in the international comparison the Finnish students had the highest literacy levels at both 9 and 14 years of age among the 31 participating nations. Possible explanations for the high scores are suggested and discussed from both Nordic and national points of view. In order to relate the reading performance not only internationally but also to the previous assessments, the results on some subtests are compared with the corresponding tests in the 1970 IEA reading comprehension study and in the national reading assessment in 1979. The quality of reading achievement is also examined in the light of a few national options included in the IEA Reading Literacy Study. These results reveal some problems in the quality of Finnish students’ reading literacy, which suggest challenges for future literac...

Nordic PISA 2000 in a Sociocultural Perspective.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international study coordinated by governments of participating countries, through the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In 2000, a total of 265,000 students from 32 countries took part in PISA. The main aim of PISA is to assess how well 15-year-old students are prepared to meet the challenges of today’s and tomorrow’s knowledge societies. The assessment is forward looking, focusing on young people’s ability to use their knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges, rather than mastering a specific school curriculum. Assessing young people at the end of their compulsory education is regarded as providing valuable insights into the performance of basic education systems (OECD, 1999, 2001). PISA 2000 covered three domains: reading literacy, mathematical literacy and scientific literacy. In 2000 priority was given to reading literacy, with mathematical and scientific literacy assessed in lesser depth. PISA will continue in three-year cycles, the focus shifting between the three domains. In 2003 the focus was on mathematical literacy, and in 2006 it will be on scientific literacy. In the future, with the collection of data in the same domain every three years, it will be possible to examine trends in student performance over time. In addition to assessing students’ performance in the three core domains, PISA examines competencies across disciplinary boundaries such as students’ motivation, attitudes and learning strategies, as well as comfort with and perceived ability to use computers. Furthermore, various background factors such as students’ socio-economic and cultural home background, family structure and immigration status, educational resources and cultural activities outside school are surveyed (OECD, 2001).

Portfolio: Integrating Writing, Learning and Assessment

This chapter examines portfolio assessment as a tool to support learning by integrating writing in various learning tasks and environments. The author argues that the constructivist and socioconstructivist views of learning necessitate new ideas also in the assessment where the learners have the main role and where the partnership between students and teachers has to be renegotiated. In particular, renegotiation is needed in making decisions on assessment criteria for writing and learning that respect learners’ individuality and diversity and empower students with regard to their learning. The learning, assessment and negotiation can take place in various ways and environments. Accordingly, the portfolios can be composed in many forms, including technology-supported and virtual contexts.

Quality of Vocational Literacy: how Finnish vocational school students learn from text

Abstract The article concentrates on the essential prerequisite for future continuing education—the skill of independent learning from text in the light of an evaluation study carried out in Finnish vocational schools. The research task was to elucidate how learning from text can be explained, what kinds of results students achieved and above all what kinds of learning strategies they applied. Furthermore, students’ learning orientation was studied. The results of the empirical study indicated that learning from text is a transactional process of many factors related to cognition and motivation. Seventy‐five percent of the qualitative level of the learning outcomes could be explained. The qualitative level of the results proved on average fairly low even though individual differences were notable. Information processing in the learning process was mostly superficial. Such processing was generally related to atomistic structuring of knowledge, limited and text‐bound use of knowledge as well as haste. With ...