Throughout the 2000s, Finland emerged as the country with the best performing educational system in the world. It did so by defying much of the educational conventional wisdom. While the Global Educational Reform Movement (referred to by Professor Sahlberg as GERM) has swept the world, spreading a message of centralization, standardization and accountability, Finland has focused on decentralization and local autonomy. In Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn From Educational Change in Finland?, Pasi Sahlberg explores how Finnish students get better results by doing less work than other students and with far less stress.

In this episode, Bryan and Hunter discuss with Professor Sahlberg the success of Finland’s educational system and how it fits with everything else they’ve learned through the show.

Finnish Lessons is available on Amazon. Finnish Lessons 2.0 (the updated version as opposed to the sequel) will be available on Amazon December 19th, 2014