The Evaluation of National Curriculum Framework for Basic and Early Childhood Education in Finland

Author(s):

Eero Ropo(presenting)Eero Ropo(presenting / submitting)Ria Heilä-Ylikallio Esko Korkeakoski Niina Junttila Katriina Sulonen Tuula Laine

Conference:

ECER 2011

Network:

11. Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance

Format:

Round Table

Session Information

11 SES 04 A, The Evaluation of National Curriculum Framework for Basic and Early Childhood Education

Round Table

Time:

2011-09-14

08:30-10:00

Room:

JK 26/101,G, 36

Chair:

Eero Ropo

Discussant:

Wiel Veugelers

Contribution

The evaluation of the Finnish national curriculum framework for basic (2004) and early childhood education (2000) took place during the years 2009 - 10. The Ministry of Education and Culture funded the evaluation project and it was organized by the Secretariat of the Education Evaluation Council with the assistance of an expert group consisting of teachers, school principals and researchers.

The specific goals of the evaluation were to find out answers to the following questions. First, in what extent the national framework and the official lesson hour division have been successful and functional in the municipal and school levels? Second, how well the goals and contents of the curriculum framework fit with the practice of education and the lesson hour division? Third, what are the effects of the national curriculum framework? Fourth, how has the curriculum system been implemented and what kind of problems can be found in the implementation process?

The evaluation is part of the renewal cycle to national curricula taking place in 2014.

In this round table proposal we will focus on the problem how to combine the evaluation results from the empirical results of different informant samples. This question is crucial for the evaluation process. We will report the the experiences of the process applied in this project and discuss the implications for the future evaluations.

Method

The evaluation project was large and the data in which the evaluation is based on were extensive. The data were gathered with group and individual interviews, written and electronic questionnaires, documents, and school visits. The informants consist of politicians and state officials (n=9), municipal education officers (n=401), school principals (n=539), teachers (n=633), parents (n=1850), and students (n=787). The subjects were selected applying random sampling methods. The data are both quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative data were analyzed statiscally and qualitative data applying content analysis methods.

Expected Outcomes

The results of the evaluation will be published at the end of January 2011. The evaluation report will suggest and discuss seven propositions to improve the national curriculum framework in basic and early childhood education. In the round table presentation we will discuss in detail both the results of national level evaluation and the experienced problems in the evaluation process. One of the most crucial questions in an evaluation of this scale is how and in what extent the empirical results from different informant groups can be combined to make proper conclusions for the evaluation.

References

No references at this point

Author Information

Eero Ropo (presenting)

University of Tampere

School of Education

Tampere

Eero Ropo (presenting / submitting)

University of Tampere, Finland

Ria Heilä-Ylikallio

Åbo Akademi University

Esko Korkeakoski

University of Jyväskylä

Niina Junttila

University of Turku

Katriina Sulonen

University of Turku

Tuula Laine