What Norway (not Finland) tells us about schools
This was written by Thomas Hatch, an associate professor of education and co-director of the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University.
By Thomas Hatch
People often try to use findings from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development’s PISA international assessments of educational performance to tout particular policies or practices in which “high performing” countries seem to be engaged. Rather than a list of “do now’s” for policymakers, however, I believe that the latest PISA findings, like other forms of international comparison, provide an opportunity to reflect on the values and assumptions that underlie our educational system.
It wasn’t until I lived in Norway (with my wife and daughters in kindergarten, fourth grade and sixth grade) that I took explicit notice of