B2 Book section
Reading literacy work in Finland : a response to declining PISA results (2022)

Sulkunen, S. (2022). Reading literacy work in Finland : a response to declining PISA results. In M. Jörgens, J. Sander, & S. Werner (Eds.), Leseförderung in der Ganztagsschule (pp. 128-148). Verlagsgruppe Beltz.

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Sulkunen, Sari

Parent publication: Leseförderung in der Ganztagsschule

Parent publication editors: Jörgens, Moritz; Sander, Julia; Werner, Sybille

ISBN: 978-3-7799-6459-9

eISBN: 978-3-7799-5776-8

Publication year: 2022

Pages range: 128-148

Number of pages in the book: 253

Publisher: Verlagsgruppe Beltz

Place of Publication: Weinheim

Publication country: Germany

Publication language: English

Publication open access: Not open

Publication channel open access: 

Abstract

Finland has been considered one of the top countries in education since the first PISA assessment in 2000. Finnish 15-year-old students have consistently shown high average performance in all core assessment areas of PISA, i.e. reading literacy, mathematics and science (OECD, 2001, 2004, 2010a, 2013a, 2019a). Additionally, Finnish students’ performance has been characterized with relatively high level of equity since the percentage of variance in students’ performance explained by economic, social and cultural status has been statistically significantly below the OECD average (OECD, 2010b, 27; OECD 2019b, 56). According to the OECD, this places Finland among the most successful school systems (ibid.). However, the most recent PISA assessments have indicated a decreasing trend for Finland. PISA 2009 results showed a decline in reading literacy and science scores. The results from 2012 confirmed the trend and revealed a similar development in mathematics. The results from PISA 2018 confirmed the descending trend in all assessment areas (OECD, 2019b). In this chapter, I review the trends of the key findings in Finnish PISA results. The focus is on reading literacy that has already been the main area of assessment three times, in 2000, 2009 and 2018. This enables a reliable and valid comparison of performance in three time points with a nearly twenty-year interval. In some cases, I will present results from 2012 and 2015 if necessary to describe the changes in PISA results in more detail. Additionally, I describe the key educational developments implemented in Finland as a means to maintain high level of achievement in reading literacy. The focus is on basic education as adolescents are assessed in PISA at the end of the basic education.

Keywords: literacy; evaluation; learning results; Programme for International Student Assessment; international comparison; OECD countries; education policy

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2022