Pasi Sahlberg

In this speech, Finnish expert on education Pasi Sahlberg will talk about how play is how children explore, discover, fail, succeed, socialize, and flourish. It is a fundamental element of the human condition. It's the key to giving schoolchildren skills they need to succeed--skills like creativity, innovation, teamwork, focus, resilience, expressiveness, empathy, concentration, and executive function. Expert organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Centers for Disease Control agree that play and physical activity are critical foundations of childhood, academics, and future skills--yet politicians are destroying play in childhood education and replacing it with standardization, stress, and forcible physical restraint, which are damaging to learning and corrosive to society.

Pasi Sahlberg has thoroughly updated his groundbreaking account of how Finland built a world-class education system during the past four decades. This speech is based on his international bestseller, where Sahlberg traces the evolution of Finnish education policies and highlights how they differ from the United States and much of the rest of the world. Featuring substantial additions throughout the text, Finnish Lessons 2.0 demonstrates how systematically focusing on teacher and leader professionalism, building trust between the society and its schools, and investing in educational equity rather than competition, choice, and other market-based reforms make Finnish schools an international model of success. He will cover all of those topics in this speech and detail the complexity of meaningful change by examining Finland's educational performance in light of the most recent international assessment data and domestic changes.

This speech, from internationally renowned education scholar Pasi Sahlberg, focuses on some of the most controversial issues in contemporary education reform around the world. Based on his bestselling book, where Pasi devotes a chapter to each of these “hard questions”:

· Does parental choice improve education systems?
· Is there a future for teacher unions?
· What is the right answer to the standardized testing question?
· Can schools prepare children for the 21st-century workplace?
· Will technology save schools?
· Can anyone be a teacher?
· Should higher education be for the public good?
· What knowledge and skills should an educator have?

Each educational change question sheds much-needed light on today’s large-scale education policies and related reforms around the world. Pasi will focus on what makes each question globally significant, what we know from international research, and what can be inferred from benchmark evidence. He will also offer a model for policymakers with implications for teaching, learning, and schooling overall.

Exploring and analyzing how Finland consistently places at or near the top of international student assessments, especially PISA, has become popular in recent years. Pasi Sahlberg now explores this phenomenon from the perspective of the educational leader. With the culture of general and educational leadership in Finland as a backdrop, this resource is packed with strategies and tools that travel well. Rooted in four main ideas, this keynote speech based on his bestselling book covers topics such as:

· Enhancing equity is an essential component of success
· Physical activity is crucial for substantial learning
· Embedding ideas into your current leadership practices takes perseverance.