Education Systems: Policies, Outcomes, Contrasts, 5 cr

The success of the Nordic countries’ education systems have held the interest of educators and policy makers globally for years. Scores of teachers, principals and legislators from the US and elsewhere have visited Finland in hopes of understanding what it is that Finland does that could be copied and applied at home to obtain similar results.

This course explores the goals, structures, incentives, resources and outcomes of various education systems and education policies, with a focus on the Finnish and American systems. The course highlights research articles and methodology on a given topic, examining policy decisions both in theory and in practice. Recognizing that education systems are complex, the aim is to look into a combination of factors such as teacher and student attributes, school types, or policy tools such as standardized testing, and what intentional and unintentional outcomes they can yield in terms of encouraging and educating the student population, managing individual and collective incentives, and shaping education systems."