David Fernández Peinado completed a school experience program in Finland to compare the Finnish educational system to that of his home country, Spain. He observed several similarities between the two systems, such as mandatory primary education from ages 6-12 and the use of technology in teaching. However, he also noticed key differences, like Finland providing free meals daily while Spain charges fees, and Finland requiring teachers to obtain a master's degree. During his time in a multicultural Finnish school, David was able to learn new teaching methodologies to take back to Spain and found the Finnish system more flexible and well-rounded than the Spanish one.

1. S​C​H​O​O​L
​E​X​P​E​R​I​E​N​C​E
​ (Turku International School)
David Fernández Peinado​ ​- University of Turku - Faculty of Education - School
experience

2. Index:
1. Introduction
2. Similarities and differences between the Finnish educational system and
the system of your own country
3. Cultural differences
4. My learning process
5. Conclusion
6. References
David Fernández Peinado​ ​- University of Turku - Faculty of Education - School
experience

3. Introduction
To begin this report I should consider mentioning my reasons for what I decided to go
Finland to study my Erasmus. Although Finland was not my first option once I decided to go
on erasmus, I was told many times by professors from my home university and educators at
the school where I went to do my school practice in Spain that Finland is an incredible place
for the education. Furthermore. I knew that they were not talking about whether is a top
country when it comes to educational system, but were discussing about how great is the
system to implement varied and active methodologies of the 21​st​
century.
Although, I had a great experience during teaching practice in Spain, I noticed that teachers
had some trouble with the schedule, programming lessons, and the amount of pupils per
class. So in this sense I wanted to find out if this was a problems takes place in the Finnish
educational system as well.
Moreover, this school experience was nice because of the fact that I could consider and
compare both systems, and what is more get the positive facts about finnish system, but also
negative aspect that I considered from it. Furthermore, some of this ‘negative’ aspects could
not be negative, but they would if tried to applied in spanish schools. However, I can not
name many issues towards this system since I really learnt things I did not know that I could
implement in class.
David Fernández Peinado​ ​- University of Turku - Faculty of Education - School
experience

4. Similarities and differences between the Finnish educational system and the Spanish
educational system
Simiraties:
Like Finland, Spanish Elementary education has a free and mandatory basis. The educational
system comprises six academic courses, which will be followed by the ages from seven to
twelve years old. Generally students will join the the first grade of Primary school within the
age of seven year old. However, in Spain basic education in Elementary school starts at the
age of six year old. What is more, this difference of one year for initiating primary school, it
is because the year before works as a pre-primary education. In other words, Finnish use this
year to prepare the kid for this new education step.
Moreover, Finland has a national and regional curriculum which includes the contents to be
taught for annual scheduling of Finnish schools. Although both educational systems have a
curriculum with objectives, contents, competences, transversal competences and everything
else, Finland has local curriculum in which school can decide what is better to be taught,
taking into account the special needs of their students. This is something that I really loved a
bout this system, because no all students of different schools in the country are the same.
Even more it is not complicated to figure out that several classes in the same school have
different learning styles, and therefore its needed a planning according to this.
Furthermore, Spain and Finland lately have been improving their methodology based on ICT.
For this matter, Both countries are using several resources to make presentations and teaching
more fun, colorful and attractive to kids. However, the only problem that we have in Spain is
that since we do not have a lot of many destinated for education, some of our sources need to
be updated to work as efficiently as the Finnish do. Not to mention that spanish teachers do
not get trained in these new methods unless they build their own knowledge by researching or
paying courses in their freetime.
Differences:
free Meals: ​In Spain, kids usually, at least from experience, get to eat at the school, however,
David Fernández Peinado​ ​- University of Turku - Faculty of Education - School
experience

5. it is not free, since it is needed to pay fee every month for taking the kids to eat in these
public school’s cafeterias. Not to mention that concerted and private schools meals are even
more expensive.
This is a chart of the prices in different regions of Spain:
Source: CC AA & (Álvarez P., 2015)
In my opinion these prices are way too high if we consider that even higher education
students in finland still pay for meals less than families in Spain for their kids. Furthermore, it
is not just a curricular matter in Finland, what is more, section 31 of the Basic Education Act,
David Fernández Peinado​ ​- University of Turku - Faculty of Education - School
experience

6. state that pupils attending to school must be provided with a properly organised and
supervised, balanced meal for free of charge every school day
A curriculum that lets teachers use own methodology to teach according to student’s
needs: Finnish curriculum encourages teachers to apply different pedagogical methodologies,
so in this way, educators can take advantage of the local curriculum to make the planning
taking into account the needs of their students. Although spanish curriculum encourages to
use varied methodologies of teaching, at end it is not feasible as there so many contents and
learning standards, which leads into focusing only on what the curriculum says when it
comes to planning.
Cultural differences:
master degree after primary education degree: ​In Spain study education it is not
considered to be a big deal. It is true that you have to work hard doing lots of assignments
and projects during the course. However, if you want to get in the degree you do not need to
have a really high score on the A-level exams. Furthermore, this is a problem, because many
times, so many people access to do the degree just to kill time as college student. After you
have accomplished your degree, in Spain you need to get at least B2 level on English to get
accepted in a school, not to mention that if you want to have a job as state worker, you need
to pass a state exam. Although it is seems a little long process, it is not so difficult became a
teacher. Meanwhile, in Finland the state ask graduated teachers to get a master's degree and
encourage them to still research. Moreover, from my point of view this is great, because of
the fact that by doing that only good teachers will have access to teach.
recess: ​In Finland kids have different timetables and break times than spanish kids. For my
experience and also stated in the curriculum, primary school children have class from 9 to
14:00, having a break time between the first three hours and the three following ones. Now,
Finland has break times between sessions.
teacher and student( no hierarchy): ​If learnt something very valuable is that kids should
David Fernández Peinado​ ​- University of Turku - Faculty of Education - School
experience

7. never be under the hierarchy of educators. Furthermore, being here I have seen many times
that teachers try to approach students rather than order what to do every time. In Spain there
is more hierarchy, but we have been improving a lot to overcome this problem in the last
decade.
My learning process:
The moment I step In Nurssi School of Varissuo, I was very amazed. I did not experience
before a system where there are so many possibilities for any child in the country when it
comes to education.
But my experience was focused on going to spanish classes as I wanted to know how the
actual manage to teach spanish in Finland. I though the classes were a little more functional
and active when it comes to methodology, but the problem is that amount of spanish that
teachers and trainees use in the classes was not that much. I know that kids have to learn a
new language step by step, but I would emphasize much more on the functional aspect of the
language, which is talking.
Besides Spanish classes, I got the chance to teach and assist, furthermore, this gave a lot of
insight when it came to be responsible teaching as it is a so multicultural school. I could learn
different methodologies that I will for sure implement when I will come back to my country.
What it is more, one thing that I liked is the way they balance technology and other kinds of
teaching. Because sometimes new teachers tend to use too much digital presentations, but
here it is great because they implement all kinds of methodologies according to class needs.
Conclusion:
Comparing both system I can say that liked the finnish one much better. Furthermore the
reason for this statement comes because of the fact I have done school training in Spain and
Finland, and here I could have much more flexibility in order to make lessons. Also, the
good thing about to go a so multicultural school made me realise every time when planning
that have to take into account many aspects, and that built myself as a better teacher with a
more open mind.
David Fernández Peinado​ ​- University of Turku - Faculty of Education - School
experience

8. I can not wait to get back to my country and implement everything that I learnt during my
next teaching training. It is vital for me to do it, so I can show other teachers from this school
that other kind of methodologies are better and more attractive to kids.
References:
● Álvarez P., (2015, Sep., 14). ​El comedor escolar cuesta el doble en Cataluña
y Baleares que en Asturias​. Recuperado de:
https://politica.elpais.com/politica/2015/09/11/actualidad/1442002352_467313
.html
● Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte 2013 LOMCE recuperado de
http://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-2013-12886
● Decreto 54 del 10/7/2014 por el que se establece el currículo de Educación
Primaria
● Vitikka E., (2015, Nov., 12). ​Curriculum Reform and Development in Finland​.
Recuperado de:
https://www.curriculum.ut.ee/sites/default/files/ht/12.111.15_curriculum_refor
m_in_finland_vitikka.pdf
● Slides from drive
David Fernández Peinado​ ​- University of Turku - Faculty of Education - School
experience