Flipped learning

in STEM education

+ some points about education in Finland

M.Sc. Lauri Hellsten ( laurihellsten)

math and physics teacher (10 years in the profession) and teacher trainer.

STEM teacher of the year 2022 in Finland

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1. Upper Secondary Schools Act

2. National core curriculum

300 pages altogether
13 pages math curriculum
5 pages physics curriculum

3. Local curriculum (mostly same as #2)

4. Matriculation exam

What guides the teacher?

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Keypoints from the curriculum

Focus on assessments for learning.
- Emphasis on the formative assessment.
Student must show diverse knowledge on the contents and goals of a course for the courses summative assesment.
Specific ICT skills as goals in STEM-courses
- Digital matriculation exam
Use of programs (GeoGebra, LoggerPro, etc.) in STEM-courses.
New type of problems involving large scales of different type of digital materials (real life data, videos, simulations, etc.) that couldn't be done in the paper exam.

Upper secondary school in Finland

1. semester

2. semester

3. semester

1. period

2. period

3. period

4. period

5. period

min. 75 courses and usually 3 years

usually 6 + 1 weeks

5 - 7 courses,

1 course = 3 x 75 min per week

Matriculation exam at the end, min. 4 exams

“The use of ICT changes the role of the teacher, who will be more of a facilitator guiding the students' learning processes than a knowledge provider. The time allocated for the teacher and the pupil to meet in is too valuable to be spent solely on information distribution. The teacher is required to command new skills and to adapt a new approach, which in turn generates pressure on the basic and continuing education of teachers.”

Finnish National Board of Education review, 2011 (translated)

ICT in Learning

Law & Assessment

"A student´s assessment is to guide and encourage learning and develop the student's capacity for self-evaluation."

- Basic Education Act and the Upper Secondary Schools Act of 1998 (translated)

Formative assessment is emphasized in the law and curriculum.

	Summative Assessment	Formative Assessment
Time	At the end of a learning activity	During a learning activity
Goal	To make a decision	To improve learning
Feedback	Final judgement	Return to material
Frame of Reference	Sometimes normative (comparing each student against all others); sometimes criterion	Always criterion (evaluating students according to the same criteria)