By Eva-Maria Henn

Last September I was thrilled to be able to enroll on an Erasmus+ Course in Helsinki called “The Secret of Finnish Education: Phenomenon-Based Learning.” I sincerely believe that continuous education is vital in the modern professional world not only in the classroom but in school as a whole. Therefore I was very much looking forward to learning about the highly praised Finnish Education System and getting a first-hand insight into the field of Phenomenon-Based Learning.
The course not only aimed to give a detailed idea of PHBL in Finland and the educational approaches and techniques accompanying this approach, but also made us learn how to plan and assess phenomenon-based tasks and projects by using planning and assessment tools. Phenomenon-based learning is a holistic approach to learning based on the idea that school knowledge needs to be linked to real life problems. It combines knowledge from different subjects and students have to explore and analyse various phenomena of the world through the lenses of different disciplines. By doing so, students develop problem-solving and creative thinking skills.
The course took place in the center of Helsinki and was led by Irena Papa who did a fantastic job in making us understand the pillars of the Finnish Education as well as continuously encouraged us to actively analyse new methods and put them into practice.
On the first day all 16 participants coming from seven different countries had to give presentations about their institutions and professional backgrounds, which was the perfect ice-breaker and made us get to know each other better. Additionally, I found it enriching to learn about other countries’ educational approaches.

To put it in a nutshell, the Finnish Education System is based on the following principles:

• Schools are given a great deal of autonomy. The national core curriculum is localized and there is a high level of trust between the national and local school authorities.
• Teachers are professionals of learning. Teachers can decide how they teach and what learning materials and resources they use.
• All children are entitled to special support.
• Teachers are valued in Finnish society.
• The national core curricula for general upper secondary education emphasize transversal competences and phenomenon-based learning, while still holding on to traditional school subjects.
• The average group size is 15.9 students in Finland.
• The Finnish government reacts to transformations in society and always evaluates and eventually adapts curricula.

Additional elements to the course programme that I found particularly useful was learning how to implement Digital Storytelling and games for learning to increase students’ motivation and engagement.  Our trainer also explained different methods and provided us with multiple exercises we could use for this purpose.
Finally we focused on positive pedagogy and the Strength-Based Approach in Finnish Schools, which is also a central part of education in Finland. We were given tools to teach character strengths, which are basic factors when learning life skills and should be taught alongside other subjects.
Overall, the course was fun, very informative as well as useful to bring back ideas to Austria. I am extremely grateful for having the opportunity to partake in ongoing learning and I would highly recommend for everyone to take advantage of any available courses to continue their professional development. I think that as a teacher it is essential to stay on top of new developments and possibilities in the field of education, while I also relish the opportunity to experience being in the role of a learner.