Dr. Sayako Kanamori from Osaka University Visit to the Finnish Institute for Educational Research
Engage with Finnish Research Excellence
The program consisted of a range of enriching activities spanned over a week. It started with a lecture by Heidi Layne, Professor of Global Education on "Introduction to Finnish education" where she gained a better understanding of the Finnish educational system, its history and philosophy. She met with Dr. Hanna-Mari Vehmas, Senior Lecturer and President of the European Association for Sociology of Sport and Arja Sääkslahti, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences.
She also joined the brainstorming session of JYU.Wisdom, an open, scientific community actively promoting planetary well-being in society where she gained insight into the Finnish approach to wellbeing and how initiatives are formed with diverse stakeholders within a university. Lecture by Dr. by Jukka Sinnemäki on "Active bodies and minds" also deepened her understanding of the impact of the learning environment, such as the arrangement of chairs and desks, on learning outcomes, and used this as a reference for planning university lectures in the following semesters. She then participated in a STEAM workshop and visited the exhibition space of the Jyväskylä Art Museum among South African children mathematical artworks focusing on various aspects of sustainability. Entrepreneurs from an Indian non-profit start-up, the Circle, who are committed to redesign and launch innovative learning experiences for India’s children also joined a series of lectures and workshop, which enriched Dr. Kanamori’s learning.
Experience with Finnish Basic Education
Dr. Kanamori also gained direct experience with the Finnish educational system by participating in job shadowing at Viitaniemen koulu, where she learned more about Finland's approach to students and learning content in Finnish lower secondary school. Her initial impression to the Finnish basic education was while follow-up with students who are having challenges is very generous, she felt that the school is looking for ways to further enhance its able students. In addition, the amount of communication between teachers was overwhelmingly high compared to that in Japan, and she felt that this had a positive impact on the school's management.
Get the Latest Trends in Finnish Education
Dr. Kanamori also participated in EDUCA 2024, the largest event for the education and training sector in Finland. The event was very well organized, covering 30 topics such as lifelong learning and green transitions, including recent hot topics such as digitalization and artificial intelligence. She was especially impressed by the way the presidential candidates discussed education in the run-up to the presidential elections, which showed the importance and status of education in Finland. She was also interested to find that while there are few opportunities to touch on emotions in Japanese early childhood education, there are many items in Finnish teaching materials that allow kids to think about their own emotions. As a mother of two preschoolers, she had much to gain.
Towards Future Collaboration
In addition to being a university’s faculty member, Dr. Kanamori runs Girls Unlimited Program(GUP), an educational program that empowers Japanese junior high and high school girls to discover their dreams and goals and shine as themselves. Through the visit, Dr. Kanamori were able to find various tips that could be applied to undergraduate and postgraduate education at the Osaka University, but also explored collaboration with GUP. We hope that this visit will lead to medium- and long-term collaboration between ILE, the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥, Osaka University, and the GUP.
