NARRATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING IN TEACHER EDUCATION

The Finnish school system has been evaluated positively in two PISA studies in 2000 and 2003 (OECD 2001, 2003). The success was explained by referring to system effects: “Finland’s high achievement seems to be attributable to a whole network of interrelated factors, in which students ’ own areas of interest and leisure activities, the learning opportunities provided by schools, parental support and involvement as well as the social and cultural context of learning and of the entire educational system combine with each other (Välijärvi et al. 2002, 48). Among system characteristics we can emphasize problem-solving orientation of school work in all school subjects. The comprehensive school reform introduced in the 1970’s a unified school form in the whole country with regulated subject matter teaching (the number of lessons is defined in law). During the nine years in comprehensive school each student solves about 15 000 problems and tasks having cognitive emphasis. These factors may explain at least partly the fact that there were less weak students in the Finnish sample than in other countries and the dispersion was clearly smaller. In this sense the school really unifies and problem solving in the two first PISA tests is similar with dail