Over the years, American students consistently have ranked below those from Finland, Canada, Japan, and at least a dozen other industrialized nations on international tests of mathematics, science, and reading. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has done nothing to close this gap. And the authors suspect that the law may be making matters worse.…

The eight contributions to this special issue provide an informative focus on many aspects of peer-based victimization in schools. Often using sophisticated quantitative and analytic procedures, they advance our knowledge in several important domains, pointing out important contextual variables, interactions, and mediating factors in the negative…

This article presents the authors' critique of lessons proposed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21). The authors initiate a discussion about content that they hope will play out in schoolhouses and statehouses across the country. They take on a different task: they present a handful of lesson ideas from P21 that could enhance studies…

Examines the kinds of materials used in the Finnish school system and discusses how learning materials can be developed to promote a higher quality of learning. (JOW)

Examines changes in official Finnish school-reform discourse over the past 30 years, noting four discursive changes from the 1860s to the 1990s (individualization of students, disciplinization of teaching knowledge, goal rationalization, and decontextualization). Interprets these shifts as the result of a blend of utopianism and rationalism which…

The development of special education in Scandinavia is outlined, with special emphasis on Finland. Factors influencing the future of special education include emphasis on independent living, decreasing numbers of workers needed, increased mobility, disabled populations in third world countries, influence of information technology, etc. (Author/JDD)

The author analyzes the stages of development of adult educators in Finland in the context of educational reform. To do so, he provides a sketch of the Finnish economy, 1960-1979, and discusses reforms in the educational system, 1960-1980, and government efforts to improve adult education nationally. (SK)

The first of the six sections in this description of the national educational system in Finland discusses the system's goals, its structure and size, the curriculum in the comprehensive and upper secondary schools, and studies in higher education and at the post-graduate level. The second section describes the organization and funding of…

The increasing need for special education in the twentieth century is connected to the institutionalization of the modern school model exemplified in Finland. The more modern the school, the stricter the criteria for normality, the finer the evaluation system, the finer the screening used, and thus, the greater the amount of deviance handled by…

Discusses the concept of democracy as a social contract between equal individuals. Argues that women's individuality is relative rather than absolute despite the formal equality of Western societies. Questions the neutral definition of pupils when students are socially, politically, or economically unequal. Explores child-centered education and…

Discusses the development of self-concept as an educational aim, the effect of the school's evaluation system on self-concept, the purpose of evaluation relative to elementary school aims and the pupil's self-concept, and computer-aided evaluation. Describes in detail the attributes of children with healthy self-concepts. (GEA)

Argues that (1) English should be a compulsory foreign language in Finnish schools; (2) options to teach subjects in foreign languages should be expanded; and (3) the variety of foreign language choices in rural areas of Finland should be enlarged. (SK)

Noting that metaphor has become a multidisciplinary concern, this monograph examines the concept of metaphor in an educational perspective and describes and analyzes how certain specific metaphors are used in education. To define the concept, the monograph studies different theories of metaphor and previous definitions. To study how metaphor is…

Discusses the connection of the arts and art education with politics, advocating that art educators can improve the status of arts in U.S. schools by applying political leverage and the insights of political science. Examines the Finnish system of arts education as a possible model for the United States. (GEA)

Bruce Jilk, conference chairman for the American Institute of Architects' Committee on Architecture for Education Fall Meeting (Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 7-10, 2000) provides his views on the future of schools, school/community integration, and shared spaces with surrounding businesses. Mr. Jilk comments on Finland's Heinavaara Elementary…