This document summarizes education in Estonia, including its success on PISA tests in mathematics, reading, and science. It provides statistics on Estonia's population, economy, and information society indicators showing widespread computer and internet access. Educational statistics are presented showing Estonia ranking highly in the world and Europe on PISA from 2009 to 2015. Possible factors for this success are discussed like school autonomy, qualified teachers, equal opportunities, and educational expenditures. The document concludes by discussing Estonia's digital turn in schools toward 1:1 computing and new learning paradigms.

1. Education in Estonia:
PISA & digital turn
Mart Laanpere, PhD
Senior researcher
Centre for Educational Technology
Tallinn University

2. Call me Mart
O I am third-generation mathematics
teacher
O Principal of a rural K-12 school 1992 –
1996
O Researcher in the Centre for Educational
Technology, Tallinn University since 2003
O Research interests: digital competences,
pedagogy-driven design of online learning
environments, digital textbooks, online
assessment, smart schoolhouse, learning
analytics, didactics of informatics
mart.laanpere.eu

3. Population: 1.3 Million
Size: 45 227 km²
Capital: Tallinn
Language: Estonian
Ethnic Estonians: 69%
Member of EU: 2004
Currency: Euro (2011)
GDP per capita: 29 543 USD
Public debt: 9% of GDP
Unemployment: 6%
Exports: machinery 21%,
wood 9%, metals 9%,
furniture 7%, food 4%

4. INFORMATION SOCIETY INDICATORS
O Over 80% of families have at home computer
and broadband connection, independent to their
SES
O 95% of income tax declarations submitted
online, 99% bank transfers made online
O Online elections since 2005, over 30% e-voted
in 2015 parliamentary elections
O iBanking, eHealth, ePolice, ePrescription,
eSchool
O eResidency: https://e-estonia.com/e-residents
O Internet as a human right, free public wifi (500+
access points provided by municipalities) e-estonia.com

5. 30%70%

6. Educational statistics (OECD)

7. Succes in OECD PISA
2009
World / Europe
2012
World / Europe
2015
World / Europe
Maths 17 7 11 3-6 9 2
Reading 13 5 11 3-6 6 3
Science 9 2 6 2 3 1
The place of Estonia in the PISA ranking list (global and EU level)

8. PISA results 2015
O Results in Russian-speaking schools
have improved, but still lagging behind
O Gender differences: boys are much
worse in reading, but slightly better in
maths
O Equal opportunities: socio-economic
status does not affect the results, school
compensates
O The share of low-performing students is
the smallest in Europe

9. In addition
O Estonian pupils are the most active users of e-
school and school web site
O 90% of Estonian pupils feel content with their
life
O Only 14% on the level 5-6 in maths (55% in
Shanghai, yet OECD average is 8%)
O Students have generally positive attitude
towards school
O Qualified, but ageing teachers (avg 47 y),
radical gender imbalance among teachers

10. Explaining our success in PISA
O High autonomy of schools
O Highly qualified teachers
O Schools provide equal opportunities, no
difference between urban and rural
schools
O More books at home
O Metacognitive learning strategies applied
O Increase in educational expenditures
O Very few new immigrants

11. Your impressions?
O Based on your impressions today, how would
you explain the success of Estonian schools in
PISA?
www.hm.ee/en/activities/statistics-and-analysis/pisa
O In case you are interested in comparing your
national curriculum with the Estonian one:
www.hm.ee/en/national-curricula

12. Digital turn in
Estonian schools
Towards 1:1 computing and new
learning paradigm

13. Technology generation shifts
InshopInschool
?

14. Old and new pedagogies
Tech
use
Pedagogical
capacity
Content knowledge
Master required
content
Outcome:
Content
mastery
OldNew
Outcome:
Deep
learning
Teacher Pupil
Discover and master content together
Pedagogical
capacity
Create and use new
knowledge in the
world
Ubiquitous technology
(Fullan 2013)

15. Helsinki University: future
classroom

17. Thank you!
O Questions?
O Evaluation form:
www.surveymonkey.com/r/Benchmarking16-17
Shortened: goo.gl/6EoGMq