Finland: Satisfied Students, Less Schoolwork, and High Learning Outcomes Can It Be Real?

Book: Happiness Education
Holistic Learning for Sustainable Well-Being
Edited By Gerald W. Fry, Haelim Chun

Chapter 9|13 pages by Arto K. Ahonen

Finland has been ranked the world’s happiest country four years in a row. How is this reflected in schooling and learning outcomes? Also, in the two-decade history of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) studies, Finland’s learning outcomes have provided years of glory as one of the world’s top-performing nations.

When looking at the relationship between knowledge and life satisfaction, Finland stood out in the PISA 2018 study, being the only country with both high reading performance and life satisfaction levels. This begs the question of whether life satisfaction and knowledge are the opposite ends of a double-edged sword, and is Finland only an exception to this phenomenon?

This chapter reflects the Finnish genre of happiness and its association with learning outcomes.

Edition1st Edition
First Published2023
eBook Published31 July 2023
Pub. LocationNew York
ImprintRoutledge
DOI https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003037262
Pages 322
eBook ISBN9781003037262
Subjects Behavioral Sciences, Education

Arto K. Ahonen

Ph.D., University researcher

Leader in Work Package "Assessing Financial Literacy - PISA and background"

National Research Director PISA 2018, 2021

arto.k.ahonen@jyu.fi

+358 40 839 4209

Other research

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