A few months ago, Mater Boni Consilii St Joseph School, Paola, started collaborating with an Estonian school with the assistance of Education Estonia, through contacts and initiatives made by school head Kenneth Vella, who is also Malta’s ambassador to Estonia and Finland. This subsequently developed into a school project called ‘Exploring the Estonian Education System’.
As part of the project, 11 educators and members of the school’s senior leadership team including myself and Vella, recently had the opportunity to visit a number of Estonian schools in Tallinn and Tartu to observe, share and discuss good pedagogical practices.
During our visit, we were curious to learn more about Estonia’s successful results in the 2018 edition of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in maths, science and reading as these are challenges facing Maltese educators.
What struck me on this visit is how Estonia has managed to strike a balance between the use of technology and the use of textbooks. Prior to visiting Estonian schools, I was already aware that Estonia is at the forefront of using technology in the classroom, and has many school textbooks have been digitised and uploaded on Chromebook.
The schools had a blend of both e-books and traditional textbooks
Although all Estonian schools follow the National Curriculum, school leaders and their educators are autonomous as to how they teach in their schools, so teaching methods tend to vary from school to school. Although basic education in Estonia starts from the age of seven (Grade 1) till the age of 16 (Grade 10), the goal is to increase compulsory school-leaving age to 18. All educators are highly qualified up to master’s level.
Schools have no boundary walls and are close to the communities in which they are situated. Students, also, walk or bike to school and are offered free lunches, paid for by the municipality, as well as free textbooks and e-books. Estonians also tend to teach through project-based assignments; in fact, in grades 4, 8 and 11, students are given a creative assignment on a topic of their interest that they need to complete throughout the year.
As Estonia is at the forefront of developing digital apps for education, I expected to see less use of textbooks in the classroom. But the schools we visited had a blend of both e-books and traditional textbooks. Some books were digitised and uploaded on Chromebook, but conventional workbooks were still used for certain parts of the lessons. It was explained the blended method was used because research shows that writing in the traditional way is more effective in developing the learning and thinking processes. Additionally, Estonian educators favour the integrated subjects method – where they combine subjects to teach a particular topic and often discuss and agree between them.
Of particular interest were the textbooks themselves: many subjects are taught in the Estonian language, and the various books used in class are authored by Estonian teachers and reflect local culture and traditions. They are also based on the Estonian learning outcomes framework (LOF) and curriculum. The authorities and educators believe the best textbooks and education material are those prepared by Estonian educators themselves.
As part of their basic education, students are offered lessons in woodwork, sewing and cooking, drama, dance and theatre, and ceramics. These lessons may also vary from school to school, reflecting the traditions of the locality. Complementing basic education, which covers maths, the natural sciences and Estonian, are ‘hobby schools’. These are after-school activities by professionals in the respective fields, and vary from dance to visual arts, woodwork and sport to theatre and ceramics.
Estonian schools and educators also believe in outdoor learning and teaching, and make good use of the excellent educational programmes offered by various museums. The Maltese delegation had the opportunity to visit the maritime museum and observe first-hand the workshops and exhibits that school children can visit. We were told the museums in Tallinn collaborate together and work on topics or themes following the national curriculum and learning outcomes, so that teachers/educators do not need to repeat the topic.
When discussing inclusion, Estonian educators told us they are working on an integration/inclusion method whereby they offer support services of a psychosocial team on the school premises. They also gather students in smaller groups of between six and 12 led by special education teachers, depending on the students’ needs, to support them in maths, Estonian and the natural sciences. The students then join their class for all other subjects. During this visit, we also met the creators of Speak TX, a digital interactive tool to assist educators and other professionals to better support children in their language development by providing them with exercises for language development, and interactive for specific disorders. The tool’s aim is not to replace the professionals but to assist them and empower children and their parents to continue with the support at home.
Ruth Mansueto is assistant head, Mater Boni Consilii St Joseph School, Paola.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank Kenneth Vella for initiating the contacts and facilitating this visit together with Education Estonia, as well as the municipalities of Tallinn and Tartu and the various schools that hosted us, and EUPA, the national agency for Erasmusplus projects, for its constant support.