Finland has the best schools in the world, but we have room to improve in terms of engaging and meaningful learning and global competences. It is worrying that particularly young people of immigrant backgrounds are at risk of becoming marginalised and losing their chances to have a good life.
“During the past decade, we’ve found that we must study and promote these skills in more practical terms,” states team leader, Docent Auli Toom.
The world has changed. So must schools.
Dlearn.Helsinki strives to reform the pedagogic practices in schools through research, to help all young people have a better opportunity to attain a good life. School is the single most important long-term investment society makes in the lives of children and young people, so it is not insignificant how everyday schoolwork is organised.
“Schools need new pedagogic practices and models to teach the skills young people need in our society,” Toom explains.
A semifinalist in the Helsinki Challenge competition, the team proposes a comprehensive solution which consists of three components. These components have been designed both based on research results and through a workshop organised with teachers.
1) The team will develop an Experience Sampling Application, which will enable pupils themselves to recognise and evaluate how well they are learning global competences. Through the application, the pupils will also be able to give and receive feedback among their peers on their global competences.
2) The team will build a Collective Competence Wall, which will enable the community to evaluate the learning of global competences. The wall will display the collective strengths of the community as well as the areas in which it stands to improve. The Competence Wall supports the collective learning of global competences. Every member of the community is important.
3) Together with teachers, the team will create pedagogical models for the efficient use of digital tools and practices in daily schoolwork. The goal is to integrate global competences into schoolwork.
The team believes in the pedagogic practices developed cooperatively in the study
Dlearn.Helsinki is building a comprehensive solution to support the learning of global competences based on research, together with pupils, teachers and schools. The goal is to develop a genuinely meaningful, customisable pedagogic solution which will respond to the needs of pupils, teachers and schools as well as our changing world.
“The Dlearn.Helsinki team believes that our comprehensive solution will enable not only young people to learn global competences at school, but also help teachers to better support engaging learning and make schools more enjoyable places,” Toom says.
The Dlearn.Helsinki team includes Docent Auli Toom; Veera Kallunki, DPhil; Docent Minna Lakkala; Research Director Mari Tervaniemi; and Professor Tomi Männistö. Professor Katariina Salmela-Aro represents both the University of Helsinki and the University of Jyväskylä, Pasi Silander is the digitalisation lead at the City of Helsinki, Veli-Matti Harjula is a teacher and represents expertise in daily schoolwork in the project, and Niko Lindholm is the programme director of the XEdu business accelerator, which operates in close cooperation with the University of Helsinki. The team is involved in intense international cooperation with several researchers and groups in its field who are working on multi-method research in similar phenomena.