The relationship between centrally stated educational aims and those really in use at the classroom level is addressed. A critical review is presented of what has been achieved in this area, especially in Finland, both within legislation and by recent researchers. According to the authors, the lists of educational aims produced by policy-makers as…

The extent of democratization of Scandinavian higher education is evaluated. Democratization is considered to include: (1) the subordination of university decision-making to parliamentary democracy and, in Sweden, to corporate representative bodies; (2) the decentralization of higher education regionally, important particularly in Finland, Norway,…

The gap between researchers and teachers has minimized the impact that research should have on school development. Using teachers as researchers is one way of empowering them to adopt the perspective of the researcher. Research-oriented activity is then seen as one promising means of improving the teachers' pedagogical expertise. It is assumed…

This article, in Section 1, describes language learning as learner growth or development in three interrelated areas: personal awareness, awareness of learning processes and task awareness. These are the three angles of a triangle that constitute the notion of school learning as learner education. The second section discusses how to promote the…