Pasi Sahlberg

Pasi Sahlberg Speaking Topics

• Education Reimagined: Four Ideas for the Future We Could Start Now

  There is no better time to think harder about what future school could be than right now. The global health pandemic paused many earlier efforts to rethink the future by disrupting education as we knew it before 2020.

  Technology, wellbeing and the role of schools in students’ learning are some of those issues that are at the heart of new considerations for schools of tomorrow. In many ways we need to think again how we think about the future. In this keynote, Sahlberg argues that we need to have good common understanding of the state of education today to be able to reimagine education for the future. Based on that big picture he suggests four ‘moon shot’ ideas that could be considered today. Every crisis leaves new opportunities. In reimaging education those opportunities should be utilized without delay.

  Sahlberg's presentation helps participants to:

  • understand some of the key challenges and opportunities in today’s education;
  • become aware of the educational lessons learned from the past two years;
  • realize how American education compares to education in some other countries; and
  • reimagine education for the future by relying on contemporary knowledge and thought-leadership

• Inconvenient Truth about American Education

  American schools are lagging behind most others. American children spend much less time in school than children elsewhere. And yet more tax-payer money is spent on education than in other countries. These are all myths that have created a sense of crisis among American parents and employers. In this presentation, Sahlberg argues that American schools are blamed for things that are far beyond their control and that they way forward would be to accept that schools need more resources to help all children to succeed. The purpose of this presentation is to bust prevalent myths about American education and suggest concrete steps any school, community or state can take to make American education better.

Innovation Overload in American Education Reform

Education reforms in the United States look intensively for the next great innovation that would unlock the door to school improvement. Billions of dollars have been spent each year on innovation through special programs, initiatives, structural changes and research. In this presentation, Sahlberg argues that it is the overemphasis on innovation that prevents American education system from learning from its rich past and from other countries. The way forward, therefore, requires that education policies and reforms in the United States build more on ideas and innovation that have made other education systems bloom, most of those are American ideas anyway. The purpose of this presentation is to bring new perspectives to American education and hope to those who think there is nothing to do to improve education for all children.

What have we learned from Finland’s educational success?

Finland’s education system has been explored and used and an admirable model since early 2000s. Often, however, lessons drawn from Finnish education system are misinterpreted through inadequate analysis leading to myths and errors that can be very harmful for policies and practices in other places. This presentation challenges these fake news about Finnish education and outlines the key takeaways from international investigation of high-performing education systems.

Leading with small data

Schools around the world are being prepared to new digital solutions and smart machines that are about to make teaching and learning better and improve all schools. More and better data promises rapid learning gains and decreasing rates of failure through Big Data solutions. But educators should also understand what learning analytics, data mining and Big Data cannot do. This presentation explores the key opportunities and limits of datafication in school education and argues that rather than accepting that more data will make schools better, school leaders need to lead with small data and reclaim the professional wisdom and power of human relationships in every school.

Let the children play

For as long as there have been children, they have learned through play. They have learned by moving, exploring, discovering, practicing and experimenting with life. Play, both intellectual and physical, is critical for the healthy growth and learning of a child. Despite strong medical and scientific consensus for play as a foundation of education, play is an increasingly endangered experience for many of the world’s children. This presentation focuses is on children’s play as an essential element of early childhood education, learning and growing up. The conclusions include practical suggestions to early childhood educators and leaders to strengthen the role of play or otherwise improve work with young children.