Category Archives: 2.2 Education Systems & Prof. Responsibilities

Differences Between Sweden and UK

Photo taken from Google Images – www.ucl.ac.uk

A few weeks ago we had an input where we discussed comparative education. We mainly focused on the differences between Sweden and the UK and the different perspectives they had on learning in the early years.

The Swedish School system contrasts with the UK school system in so many ways. The first one being their school starting age. In Sweden, children do not start school until they are 7 years old, which is a whole 2-3 years after we do in the UK. When this was first mentioned I assumed that they would be so far behind in their learning compared to children in our country who start so much earlier. However, I was shocked to discover that this is not the case. According to The Guardian in 2010, Sweden has over taken the UK in reading and Maths! They also are not to far behind the Uk in the science rankings either. (Shepherd, 2014)

Sweedish Children attend Pre-school from the age of 6 where they place a strong emphasis on the importance of play. However, In most other countries play is looked at as more of a chance for children to relax and relieve stress. As in the Uk children are in school at this time trying to build on their reading, writing and numeracy. Sweden’s pre school prioritises play and social skills as well as sharing, being considerate and tolerant towards others. (Swedish Institute, 2014) These are qualities and values which I feel are extremely important to learn at this age. Tolerance for reasons which seem obvious to me, Children learning how to be tolerant of others makes them realise that people are different (whether by skin colour, disabilities or things as simple as the clothes they wear) and understand how to deal with those differences effectively so they will not be causing anyone to be left out because of this. Consideration is also important as it allows children to consider other peoples feelings and show a level of compassion and kindness for others and situations they may be in. In my opinion, so many more children (in our country, specifically) should be taught these important values and social skills before starting school as I am sure this would lower rates of bullying in and around schools, and even just to help ease everyday stress on the teachers in the teaching practice. Swedish pre-schooling is now viewed as the foundation stages of life long learning as it is well known for the high impact it has on the children’s dialogue, interaction and communication.

Picture Taken from Google Images – globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com

Outdoor Education is another HUGE focus in Swedish schooling as children play outdoors any opportunity that they have. No matter what the weather may be. (Swedish Institute, 2014) In my opinion, this is what children should be doing at that age rather than being stuck in a classroom, children need to explore the environment and the weather first hand instead of being shown flashcards of rain and different types of weather… go out and feel it!

The homely environment in Swedish pre schools is something else which is to be desired in British schools. The staff are called by their first names instead of their last which makes everything more casual and gives the children a sense of security and comfortability. Just more of a friendly atmosphere I would say although it can be argued that first name terms does not show children how to be respectful. The room itself is also very homely. There is huge amounts of space for the children to play and a kitchen where they can snack in when they would like. They eat all meals and snacks around a table as if it was a sit down family dinner with pupils and staff. As well as this, children and staff members both remove shoes on entrance to the building as if it was their own homes. Comparing this to British schools, everything seems to happen at a certain time and things are a lot less relaxed. Children are allowed outside to play at 2 distinct times of the day and only weather permitting as they are made to stay inside if the weather is “too bad”. Now comparing the 2 school systems, it seems to me, that UK schools need to allow children a little more freedom in this regard.

Money is also an issue in the UK as childcare is becoming more and more expensive.Over the last Parliament the cost of a part-time nursery place for a child under two has increased by 32.8 per cent. A family paying for this type of care now spends £1,533 more this year than they did in 2010, while wages have remained largely static. (Rutter, 2015)

This quote from the Family and Care Trust article shows us just how expensive child care in the UK is and how much a family would have to pay to have their child to be in a nursery so they can go work to make money to provide for their family. When in actual fact the money they make from work will most likely be spent on the actual child care facilities. In Sweden there is a maximum fee policy which makes childcare affordable for everyone. The price is capped for the highest amount families can pay for childcare SEK 1260 per month (which works as just about £100 per month) where as low income families will pay nothing. (Swedish Institute, 2014)

From my research on the subject, I feel that Swedish children have more opportunity to learn first hand and in a more enjoyable way. Even starting school a few years later than what we are used has shown not to make a huge impact on the learning of the child. Maybe the UK should begin to follow in the footsteps of the Swedish Schooling System?

References

Rutter, J. (2015) Family and Child Care Trust. Available at: http://www.familyandchildcaretrust.org/sites/default/files/files/Childcare%20cost%20survey%202015%20Final.pdf (Accessed: 23 October 2015).

Shepherd, J. (2014) World education rankings: which country does best at reading, maths and science?. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/dec/07/world-education-rankings-maths-science-reading (Accessed: 22 October 2015).

Swedish Institute (2014) Play is key in preschool. Available at: https://sweden.se/society/play-is-key-in-preschool/ (Accessed: 22 October 2015).

Number Systems

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Numbers are everywhere we go but why do we have them? Time, temperature, weight, height, phone numbers and even on the front of buses. Something I learned from this input was that in fact numbers were thought to have came about through trading a long, long time ago.

Number Systems have never crossed my mind before this recent maths input, to be honest. I have always just assumed that people everywhere stuck to the “normal” , being the European system i am used to. I was aware of Roman Numerals from past school projects and some watch collections. However, I was not aware it was still used, as such, but now that I have looked into this, I see that I must have been pretty narrow-minded to think that maths and numbers would be the same worldwide.

Picture from Google Images – education.scholastic.co.uk

From further research after the workshop, I realised there was far more number systems that again I had never heard of such as Hindu- Arabic, Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian, Chinese. Which are displayed in the chart below.

Picture from Google Images – www.earth360.com

The task in this workshop was to create our own working number system. Our group decided to use a line per number and join them up… it worked but the higher the number the longer it would take to write. So we decided to stop at 9 and put a simple dot next to our number 1 to make 10. Our number system was a success.

Integration of Special Needs in the Classroom

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Integration within the primary school is a big concern for many people in our society, children and adults, but I do not see the issue with it. In my opinion, I feel that children from the age of 5-12 need to be able to see the world for what it is. They need to realise and understand that there are children, just like themselves, that face extreme struggles every single day. These by mental difficulties or physical disabilities some of which are long term. However, that does not necessarily mean that problems will not occur with this. Sometimes we can notice that other children look at the Additional Support Needs children differently simply because of their disability. This is why I feel that inclusion of special needs should happen very early on in the children’s school experience, as by the later years of their education they will be looked at as no different from anyone else.

Picture found on Google Images from cnotinfor.imagina.pt

On my MA1 placement and my previous experiences in the primary school, it is clear to see that with inclusion of ASN children they are still looked at by their peers as “different” but we can not make this any worse by not including these children in “normal”activities which could make them stand out more. Yes we will come across certain activities that these children will not be able to do but there will still be some way in which they could take part. For example, a disabled child that is in a wheelchair will not be able to take part in a class game of rounders on either the batting or fielding team. However, this child can still be made to feel important by giving the child the role of time keeper or score taker, therefore working on other skills which are just as important in a team sport. This way they will not be made to feel discouraged as they are still a valued member of the class game.

Picture found on Google Images from www.haltontennis.co.uk

“Special” schools are looked at as a good thing, for better use of money/ shared resources, but i do not necessarily see them as beneficial to all children either. Although the pros of this could be one to one support? …but would children really achieve the one to one support they need in a school of this kind, where all children have a need for extra help?

However, putting my views aside, research shows that sometimes the inclusion of pupils with additional support needs can have non-inclusive outcomes. (Dyson and Millward, 2001) When Inclusion fails it can be down to the lack of training for teachers on how to handle and prepare for children, of all abilities, inside the classroom, as well as limited funding for resources. (SEDL,1995) This is where the need for specialist teachers come in. Again on my placement the class teacher was appointed an ASNA who was in the class to aid the ASN children. All children bonded with her, even more so the ASN children. She was a huge asset to the class and the class teacher, although I realise that due to staff shortages this will not be the case in all schools.

Although I realise that cost, training would be factors for inclusion to not take place everywhere. I think inclusion of these children pose many benefits to other children and teachers. We can learn a lot from their strengths and teach to their weaknesses.

Me, I would hope that if my child was born with special needs they would not be made to feel singled out, discouraged, disheartened or looked at as different in anyway. My child would be loved for who he or she was, their strengths, weaknesses and personality just like any other child in their school or community.

References

Dyson, A. and Millward, A. (2001) Schools and Special Needs: Issues of Innovation and Inclusion. 1st edn. United Kingdom: Paul Chapman Educational Publishing.

SEDL (1995) Concerns About and Arguments Against Inclusion and/or Full Inclusion – Issues …about Change, Inclusion: The Pros and Cons, Volume 4, Number 3. Available at: http://www.sedl.org/change/issues/issues43/concerns.html (Accessed: 7 October 2015).