A guide to Finnish Early Childhood Education and Care (ebook)

Finland is said to be the happiest country in the world, also having a pedagogy and school system known be to among the best in the world, producing creative and innovative people. All this starts with the methodology and activities in early childhood education. How do we do it?

 The textbook “A guide to Finnish Early Childhood Education and Care” gives a comprehensive insight into how we in Finland structure the days in our early childhood education, how we teach, what we focus on and how we help the children be active participants in the pedagogical process. You will learn about our curriculum, how we work with transversal competences and what kind of learning areas we focus on. Whether you are a teacher, school owner or an interested parent, this book will guide you into the early childhood education secrets that the Finnish educational wonder is all about.

The textbook presents all the major themes and contents for transforming existing schools, or starting new schools, to follow the Finnish methodology and operational structures.

Basic features of Finnish ECEC

Operational guidelines

Learning environments

Pedagogical planning

Pedagogical implementation and pedagogical activity, curriculum

Learning areas

Transversal competencies – future skills

Curriculum building in different age groups

Children´s needs and interests – individual early childhood education and care plan

The textbook has been certified by Education Alliance Finland to “…represent high educational quality and is proven to promote learning efficiently.”

Also available is a workbook, “Finnish ECEC activities”, which includes a wide range of activities meeting the requirements for the various learning areas and transversal competencies. With this workbook you get examples and ideas on how to engage the children, how to include several learning areas in your activities as well as tool on how to further develop and create activities that suit your own need best.

About the author

Minna Björkman is a psychologist and educator, who has a long experience in early childhood education and pedagogy. She founded a successful group of early childhood education schools and took the Finnish National Core Curriculum and further developed it into the successful pedagogy used in these schools.