Donnie Isaacs - Teaching History and Social Studies in Finland

1. TEACHING HISTORY AND
SOCIAL STUDIES
IN FINLAND
By
DONNIE ISAACS
Donnie Isaacs

2. Donnie Isaacs

3. Aims in History
- To create an individual, national and European
identity
- To appreciate human rights and democracy
- The key concepts of history include time, change,
continuity and causality
Donnie Isaacs

4. Aims in Social
Studies
- To give skills to evaluate
critically documents,
statistics and pictures
- Training will provide
students with capabilities for
active and critical
examination of current
phenomena
- To teach how to be an
active citizen
Donnie Isaacs

5. Primary School (age 7 – 12)
- History begins in 5th class; pupils are 11-12
years old
- From the prehistory to the French
Revolution
- All subjects are tought by class teacher
- Once or twice a week; lesson lasts 45 min
- Studying is free of charge; pencils,
rubbers,notebooks are given to students,
textbooks are reused
- Methods: activities,drawings,films,stories…
Donnie Isaacs

6. History in Secondary School
(age 13-16)
- From the French Revolution to modern times
- Specialized history teachers
- 2 courses a year (1 course = 30 hours / lessons 75 min)
- argumentation and discussions are common teaching
methods
- Copies from maps, internet,
- learning how to write essays
- To understand which
is reason, which is result
Donnie Isaacs

7. Social studies in Secondary
School
- Last year (= 9th class) in compalsory
school
- 3 courses a year
- ”How the modern Finnish society works?”
- The responsibilities & rights of citizens; taxation, student
allowance…
- Finances and economics; expensies of family, how to found the
company?
- Law and order; a visit to district court…
- Social security; child benefit…
- Media; familiarize to local printing office, influence of
advertising…
Donnie Isaacs

8. History Courses in Upper
Secondary School (age 16 -19)
 Thematic courses; 1 course = 30 hours (the total number is
75 courses)
 4 compulsary courses
 Man, the environment and culture (=economical history)
 European man (=cultural history)
 International relations (=political history 1815 – 2011)
 Turning-points in Finnish history (= 1809 – 2011)
 2 – x voluntary specialisation courses
 Finnish history before 1809
 Meeting of cultures: Non-European Cultures
 Extras e.g. ancient history, world politics, training for the
finals etc.
Donnie Isaacs

9. Social Studies Courses in Upper
Secondary School (age 16 – 19)
 2 compulsary courses
 Political science
 Economics
 2 – x voluntary specialisation courses
 Law
 European Union
 Extras e.g. entrepreneurship, training for the finals, etc.
Donnie Isaacs

10. The Final Exams
 Final exams in history
and social studies are
voluntary but popular
 The popularity of social
studies is rising in the
final exams
 In each subject’s exam
10 questions to choose
from: write 6 essays, 6
hours time
Donnie Isaacs

11. Teacher’s Perspective
 You have to advertise your courses and
 Motivate the students
 About 30 % of my courses are voluntary for the
students: if you teach more courses, you’ll get higher
pay
 You have lots of freedom to choose your methods:
films, debates, cartoons, news portfolios etc.
 If you are active you can make projects and organize
visits outside school
 Sometimes competition between the subjects and
between the teachers
Donnie Isaacs

12. Students’ opinions (18 year olds)
 ”History and social studies give you
general knowledge”
 ”You need to know some basic things
from the past to understand the present”
 ”Finnish and international history are
equally important”
 ”There should be more compulsary
courses in social studies because they are
so useful”
 ”The most interesting subjects at school!”
Donnie Isaacs

13. Thank you for your attention!
Donnie Isaacs