Tämän postauksen on kirjoittanut Jie Zhao, johon onnekkaasti olen saanut tutustua. Hän seurasi huhtikuussa 2021 tuntejani kiinalaiselle yleisölle suunnattua luentoaan varten. Jie katseli herkällä ja tarkalla silmällä tuntien tapahtumia ja paneutui aiheeseensa jopa niin perusteellisesti, että käänsi kuvataiteen opetussuunnitelman perusteiden T-tavoitteet kiinaksi!
Visit Pääskytie School
I have lived in this small town, with a population of about fifty thousand, for five years. Instead of getting bored, precious encounters coming into my life all the time, such as warm people and pure friendship, I become more and more fascinated by Finland and Finns. Titta Suvanto is one of them.
In the year I was born, Titta fell in love with art and determined to be an art teacher. 40 years later, in the June of this year, Titta is about to retire. Two months before her retirement, through her kind introduction, I was lucky enough to have a glimpse of the professional life of a Finnish art teacher, who is engaged in art education for 33 years, always with the passion, wisdom, and love for both art and students!
9.4
Almost every appointment with Titta is on a rainy day, whether just a walk or picking mushrooms. Today is no exception. We made an appointment to see her school: Pääskytien koulu (Pääsky means Swallow in Finnish).
At Finnish school, the teacher’s working time is various in different schools, maximum is about 7 hours per day. In Pääskytie school, it is from 8 o’clock in the morning to 15:00 in the afternoon, about 21 hours per week. Like in many other countries, the school has three grades, 7th, 8th and 9th grade. The students are from 13-years-ago to 16-years-old. Pääskytie school, has about 550 students and 50 teachers (teacher-student ratio 1:10). Titta is responsible for art classes, about 250 students in total.
Followed with Titta, after greeting the principal, we headed towards to art classroom. The school’s main space consists of two main buildings and a spacious glass-roof hall. The building on the left, from top to down, contains art classrooms, music classrooms, sewing and handicraft classrooms, and operational classrooms such as life simulation classrooms for learning housekeeping. The building on the right is a place for learning subjects such as language, mathematics, history, and so on.
The first impression is that all the artworks in the school space made by students themselves. Along the way, in the middle of the glass-roof hall, there is a current exhibiting from 7th-grade students: designing chess characters for a board game.
Three tapestries hung in the most conspicuous part of the building’s wall, like a triptych, also made by children. At 9 o’clock, instead of ringing the bell, class begins with a piece of music. Titta told me that one student composed this music, and it is the winner from the competition.
All the art classes and office are located on the second floor. Titta’s office is on the right hand, like a watching tower with the class window towards outside, which brings me the thinking of seeing and seen. It is not simply knowledge, but also self-awareness about being a teacher. Titta’s own painting is sitting at the corner: no matter how heavy, the big stone needs support from the smalls. We saw her last calendar. Titta pointed to the red toenails and smiled: I am waiting for the new summer. (I am wondering how she managed to turn this plain form to be such a charming figure… a perfect curtain call by accidentally.)
Just beside Titta’s office, there is a material room. There are an electric oven for clay, porcelain clay of all colors, and other sculpture materials. The art classroom is on the left side. The largest space is the painting room. Tables and chairs are in the middle, surrounded by student’s temporary exhibition, a reading corner, a theater table…various pens, paints, paper, screen printings, students’ works, and archives… Every drawer and corner is in a perfect order. The next room is a studio space for all kinds of manual equipment and computer devise, like paper cutters, darkrooms, computers, and tools for making models. ”What a luxury art classroom!” I can’t help thinking, “This luxury classroom must require a multitalented teacher with knowledge of all kinds of art skills and methods, theoretically and practically, also the best management skill of materials and teaching environment!”
The first showcase is the latest project about nature, which in collaboration with the biology teacher. The biology teacher requires students to know the most common types of trees in Finnish forests and the insects that live on these trees. In the art class, students are encouraged to use visual methods to depict these insects, and then transfer them to the corresponding tree specimens.
Titta told me that she want students to understand that drawing itself is also a phenomenon of diversity, with different skills, artistic styles, and even emotions. Her demonstration of how to express a pen in maybe hundreds of ways is a wonderful sample. After the drawing process, students are encouraged to print their insects to a real tree specimen. It asks students to connect their art practice to the real world. They need not only to recognize the different trees but also to find out which tree is the home of the insects in their drawings. Teachers believe that this collaboration can help students to understand better about the life cycle and ecosystem through artistic practicing.
Although there are already many excellent reports on the achievements of Finnish education, based on my experience of living in Finland (whether as a student, a mother, or a teacher), I feel that Finnish education is a truly rigorous and systematic project with the core value of human growth. Take visual arts education as an example. First of all, the Finnish national curriculum proposes seven basic competencies, which are the basis for all teaching development. I also found it on the wall of Titta’s classroom. Secondly, the deep understanding of the subject itself, like in visual art education, based on the art history, the nature of art, and the application of art and design in the society, different grades has their own teaching goodness. Furthermore, the cultivation of the seven basic abilities is combined with the nature of the art subject and merged into four basic visual art teaching purposes: visual perception and thinking; the ability to create graphics with different skills and methods; the ability to interpret visual culture; stand at the perspective of aesthetics, sustainable, and ecology of visual. Those four categories are carefully explained and expanded into 11 specific teaching targets, students’ learning goals, and evaluation criteria.
During these over 30 years of teaching experiences, Titta has also participated in writing and planning national curriculum. It is the vital body of Finnish education that taking the voices from the teachers who are working with the students everyday into the national education level. And such valuable experiences and reflections support education to grow and meet the needs of future in a sustainable way. Titta shared her teaching blog with me, which recorded her real feelings and teaching cases in the past thirty years, which opens up a real scene of Finnish visual art education for the audience! For this reason, Titta win the annual ”Wind Award” issued by the Federation of Finnish Art Teachers.
Before came to Finland, I worked in one Chinese art university for six years. Comparing with the Finnish visual art education curriculum, I found that the visual art class at the elementary school in Finland is more comprehensive and systematic than the class in a Chinese art university. This drags me into a ponder…
Titta is not a “boring” person. She said that these forms are not her style. What she enjoys is the inspiration and creativity that teaching brings to her. She took out her ”magic box”, which contained all kinds of interesting tools created by her. “Are you bored, sometimes, and don’t know how to start your artwork? Then try this Idea Generator Machine”! She smiled and excitedly talk to me, “ This is what my students can play again and again…”
I put my finger into her chocolate box and got the first card, “Microscope”, and the second one is “Soft”, the third is “Memory”, and the last one is “Clock”. My task is: to create a close up picture based on your memory, relating a clock, using soft lines.
Yes! I targeted my micro-mirror at Titta, a visual art teacher from Finland, her sincerely and generous sharing, the iconic rainy day appointment between us (it is always unforgettable wherever in Finland or somewhere else), and Titta, your name sounds to me like 嘀嗒, ”dida”, the sound of a clock.
16.4
What a sunny day!
Because the epidemic situation has improved in Finnish, school opens again. Students are arranged to school take turns, for example, day one grade 7, and day two grade 8. I am luckily got the chance to visit the school with its students.
This time I joined the art class with 7th grade students. When I entered, the class had already begun. Titta briefly introduced me and explained what the students are doing today. This is a design project for a character, ”hän” and his or her home. (hän, means he or she in Finnish language). Middle school students are just experiencing their adolescent period. It also brings confusion and maybe problems in their life, when ”I” is awakened. This project allows students to think about I, identity, and maybe the future, although it uses a third-person perspective. I think it is such an interesting project and a good research method about youth, if go further.
Through the works of the students, I saw many vivid “hän” with the different names, ages, occupations; and the different places where they live, even the layouts of the different rooms. Many of them are mixed, for example, with brown color, and are living in all kinds of places and countries.
On the first page of student’s working notebook, there is the mood broad with the analysis of visual styles. Many of the color inspirations are from Finnish sky, from sunrise in the summer to the northern lights in the winter.
I try being quite and walking in the classroom, hoping not to disturb the students and the atmosphere of the classroom. However, maybe because just returned back to the school after a long time, these young people are very active and exciting! We talked just like old friends!
When I am walking in the room, one detail jumped into my eyes that is all the materials and tools are well prepared on the tables surrounding the room: white paper for painting, scissors and glue for scrapbooking, expression techniques of various colors, color pens, colorful papers, cardboard… This small and quite, but well organized setting, done by Titta, is supporting the passionate creation of her young students.
23. 4
I already visited Titta’s classroom for two times, but still today is a special day for me, because I will stay the whole day at school to experience a normal day of an art teacher.
Nine o’clock in the morning, we are standing and waiting for the students. Everything is already prepared at last evening, typical Titta style. Door is open, and students are coming one after another, greeting to each other, and washing their hands. Titta told me she likes this small ceremony of opening door.
The first class was for eighth grade students, an art project collaborated with biology teacher, tree and its inhabitants, insects. I was told when the first time’s visiting that this projects already began several weeks ago. The content of the biology part is to introduce students to different insects that live on different trees in Finnish forests. Understanding the diversity of species and the unique ecosystem is the main teaching content. The part of art is to practice observation and use different painting techniques to represent insects. In addition, considering the application of visual elements, Titta arranged two additional challenges: the first one is using special printing ink to transfer the painting onto the surface of the tree specimens. Secondly, make a cartoon based on this little insect drawing.
From student’s visual notebook, I knew that during the past several weeks most of the students already finished the drawing part. The little creature was already done. Now students need to print them out and transfer the drawings on the surface of the tree specimens. Once again, beforehand, Titta arranged the tools and materials that students might use, on the table surrounded to keep the classroom in a good order.
Then students began their experiments with the special printing material. A girl stared her first try: she arranged her drawing and brushed the painting liquids on the surface of the wood, and wait. That’s it! One by one, students finished this process. Titta suggested students to continue with their animations when they are waiting the paints dry. So there are always plane B for those who are quick.
After half an hour, the paints are almost dry. After cleaning, two small green creatures appeared which bring the vivid life to the piece of wood, also the classroom. The students started to talk and look around, at the same time, the snow, outside, is getting smaller.
Kuva: Veera Lampinen
I asked a student if she remember the name of the insect in her drawing. She said honestly that she didn’t remember because the name is too long and too complicated, but she got a surprise that there are so many different species living in the Finnish forest that she didn’t know before. Another student turned a little insect into a dancing man in her animations. I had thought it is her imagination. When I took a closer look, it turned out that from another angle, this insect really looks like a dancer.
When the class is over, I am watching and touching those small insects, which are “reborn” back to their wooden home, full of joy and happy, even though I was so afraid of insects!
At lunch, we happened to meet the biology teacher in the cafeteria. During the conversation, she told me that each semester has at least one 30-hours interdisciplinary project. Since our phenomenal world is presented to us in the fusion way, the combination of biology and art is such a natural thing.
In the afternoon, Titta started the second class for seventh grade, an online class about 3D and perspectives. Because of CV 19, it is a challenge to show the perspective through one screen. In order to better explain, Titta tried all means of methods and showed steps of painting. I cannot help thinking that in her thirty years of teaching experience, the same content like perspective must repeat more than twenty times. But all the difficulties seem cannot stop Titta’s passion about teaching and communication with her students.
Conclusion:
Although it is only a glimpse, Titta’s generous sharing allows me a deep observation and a real experience of the Finnish art classroom, even though just the top of the ice mountain. Some thoughts below are
First, the education is a systematic project. This system is not only reflected in the curriculum and evaluation as mentioned above, but also reflected in the students’ practice during the whole learning process. For example, I checked the visual notebooks of 7th and 8th grade students, from the understanding of art, to the attempts and expressions of various artistic techniques, to the practice of the final comprehensive project, the whole process coincides and echoes with the teaching task. Furthermore, there is a digital system, which also supports teaching. As I known that Finnish government and companies have developed many online platforms such as Wilma and Microsoft Teams to support education. On these platforms, students can participate in self-evaluation; teachers can share teaching resources, display results, and so on.
Secondly, I saw the independent students and happy teacher. In Titta’s class, young people I met, they think and draw independently. They express their ideas freely and confidently. In the students’ self-assessment form, I saw that most of the students thought they are performing well and deserved a good mark, and a few students thought they could get full marks. Of course, the teacher has never been mean in encouraging children. In a good teaching and learning communication, students’ voices are fully heard, and teacher is also happy because of satisfied by their own passion and the pride of their students.
In addition, this visit recalls me to reflect on my own learning experience as a graduate student in Finland. I realized that the best way to understand and study on Finnish education is not reading, essay, speculation; but in-depth observation and experience in a real teaching and learning environment.
PÄÄSKYTIEN KUVISTA 