In my previous article, I mentioned that the number of special needs schools is being reduced in Finland in response to the trend of promoting inclusive education. Consequently, special needs classes have been located in local schools to accommodate students requiring individualized attention. In 2017, before the COVID-19 pandemic, I spent a few days undergoing practical training in a special needs class in a public elementary school in Jyvaskyla, where I live. Although this information is a bit out of date, I would like to share some of the activities in the special needs class and my thoughts during the practical training.
Basic information on the school and the special needs class
The school I visited for my internship was a typically sized school in Jyvaskyla, an elementary school with grades one through six, with three classes per grade. At that time, the school had six full-time special needs education teachers with certifications, two of whom were not in charge of classroom teaching, but were in charge of special needs students for the entire school. The other four teachers were in charge of small groups of special needs classes that were roughly divided into 1st to 3rd grade classes and 4th to 6th grade classes. Among the four classes, two required individualized instruction but followed the conventional curriculum, and two followed an individualized curriculum. I was assigned to the 4th-6th grade class, which were taught using an individualized curriculum. All children in this class were receiving "special support," one of the three levels of support (see Inclusive Education in Finland (2)), and each child had his or her own curriculum based on an Individual Educational Plan (IEP). The class structure was such that there was always one classroom teacher and three support staff members for each of the six or seven children. The classroom teacher, a special needs teacher, was responsible for developing the IEPs for all children, and the plans were developed with inputs from children, parents, support staff, and other professionals.
Some of the children lived in the area and walked to school, while others traveled from far away by cabs. In Finland, children are enrolled based on the school district system, so students attend schools closest to their homes. However, since Finland encompasses a large land area in relation to its population, cab fares to and from schools are covered by public funds in cases where students cannot walk to the nearest school or have to go to a school far away owing to circumstances. Finland's goal is to place special-needs classes in local schools as much as possible so that children with special needs can attend the nearest local schools. However, not all schools have special-needs classes yet, and some children need to go to distant schools.
Classroom environment and a typical day schedule in the special needs class
The classrooms are divided into four spaces: the main classroom, a relaxing space with a sofa, a small room for crafts, and a computer room with several computers. Some children need alone-time to calm down, while others are sensitive to certain noises depending on the circumstances of the day; therefore, I got the impression that there was enough space for them to concentrate on their work alone and calm down.
A visual schedule of the day's activities is posted on the wall, as seen in special-needs schools and classes in Japan. The children performed morning activities together and then worked individually or in small groups according to their own curricula. Half of the children in this class went to a regular classroom three times a week to take classes together; the other half spent all of their time in the special needs class. In Finland too, the trend is to promote inclusive education; however, I sensed a cautious attitude toward full inclusion in situations where the child is not in an appropriate learning environment.
Memorable event (details have been changed to prevent personal identification)
One incident made a strong impression on me. During my internship, I was assigned to accompany a child to attend a regular class. The child (let's call him "Aaron") was a child with varying learning abilities, who needed a separate curriculum for Finnish and English, but was learning math content three grades lower than his actual age according to the National Core Curriculum. Aaron walked into the class three grades lower than his actual age and sat in his designated seat. The difference in size compared to other students was quite noticeable because they were three grades lower than him in the elementary school. However, the children around him did not seem to be bothered by this and greeted him with a "Hey, Aaron," and the class began. Once the class began, Aaron raised his hand when he understood something and sometimes asked the child next to him what he did not understand, without any help from me. As I watched this class, the situation struck me deeply. In Japan, at least in the early days when I was working as a psychologist, when children in special needs classes went to exchange classes, they always went to classes in their own age-appropriate grades. I had seen how difficult it was for them to go to exchange classes, particularly for academic classes, because the content of study in their own grades was difficult. However, this experience made me think that there could be more opportunities for exchange in Japan if students were to attend classes that matched their abilities, rather than being confined to their own grade levels.
However, as mentioned previously, cultural and social backgrounds must also be taken into account when considering inclusive education. In Finland, human relationships have always been flat-structured with no age-related hierarchy. Children call their teachers and each other by their first names regardless of their age, and play together well. I believe that this is embedded in the Finnish culture that older students like Aaron are well accepted in lower grades. In a school culture such as that of Japan, where relationships are hierarchical and strongly based on age and the framework of grade levels, this kind of support may be difficult to achieve. This makes me realize that we cannot import other countries' approaches as they are, but we need to be sufficiently flexible to adopt their ideas and customize them to fit the context of Japan.
What I felt through the practical training?
A Canadian friend of mine once told me that he was disappointed to see that schools in Finland were not fully inclusive. Indeed, there were several children in the class where I attended practical training who did not attend regular class at all and were receiving their entire education separately. However, by having special needs classes within regular schools, they use the lunchroom and conduct events together. I think that this provides students the opportunities to get to know each other slightly better as they are in the same living space every day. In Finland, the final goal is full inclusion; however, the schools are not forced to be inclusive if they cannot provide an appropriate environment in the regular school for the children to learn. I believe that Japan shares the same orientation of valuing individual growth, and that Japan and Finland can learn from each other's efforts.
Ph.D. (Education), University of Jyväskylä, Finland; Licensed Psychologist and former Clinical Psychologist, Japan. She is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre of Excellence for Learning Dynamics and Intervention Research (InterLearn), University of Jyväskylä and University of Turku, and a visiting researcher at the Center for Sustainable Development Studies, Toyo University.
After completing the master’s degree program at Aoyama Gakuin University, she worked as a clinical psychologist for six years at a child developmental center, a child psychiatry clinic, and an elementary school. She mainly provided counseling and consultation to children with special needs and their parents and teachers.
Interested in inclusive education, where children with and without special needs learn together in the same place, she moved to Finland with her husband in 2013. She continues her research on inclusive education. Based on her experience of childbirth and childcare in Finland, she is also interested in Finnish neuvola, early childhood education, and social welfare systems. She has conducted extensive research on these topics.