Organised by Finland University, a group of Indonesian experts of early childhood education and care is currently visiting Joensuu. During their three-week stay, the visitors will learn about educational sciences at the University of Eastern Finland, with a particular focus on early childhood education.
“Finland has a very good reputation in education, and that is why we wanted to come here and learn about Finnish educational practices,” Eriva Syamsiatin says, summing up the motivation for their visit.
The group comprises 20 people. The majority of the visitors are university teachers and lecturers who train early childhood education and care teachers and experts in Indonesia.
“Some of the visitors hold a doctoral degree; however, the majority has a Master’s degree. Already after their first week, many of the Master’s degree holders are so excited about everything they have seen here that they are planning on applying for admission to the Doctoral Programme in Educational Studies here at UEF”, says Professor of Education Ritva Kantelinen, who is responsible for the visit.
The practical side of the visit is being taken care of by researchers and teachers of the Philosophical Faculty's School of Applied Educational Science and Teacher Education, and School of Educational Sciences and Psychology.
During their visit, the group visits a couple of kindergartens, and last Tuesday was reserved for a visit to Linnunlahti Kindergarten. According to Kantelinen, having the opportunity to visit genuine settings of early childhood education is among the most valuable outcomes of the visit.
“This allows our visitors to see how day care and the individual early childhood education and care plan that guides the activities work in practice here in Finland.”
Euis Kurniati says she is already pleased with the outcomes of the visit.
“It is wonderful that the visit has been tailored specifically to us. We compare practices between the two countries, and we want to take some good practices with us back to Indonesia. Many things are done in the same way, but there are also differences.”
According to the visitors, the most striking difference is the group size. In Indonesia, two teachers are responsible for a group of 20–30 children. In Finland, groups are usually smaller, and the number of teachers required to look after each group depends on children’s ages.
“I’m also interested in how children are taken into consideration as individuals in Finland. I’m especially keen on finding out how Finnish teachers encourage and motivate children with special needs. Due to large group sizes, we don’t have time for that in Indonesia,” Kartika Rinakit says.
The visitors were also interested in topics such as preschool practices, day care costs, female dominance of the field, and practices relating to early childhood education students’ practical training.
“I hope we’ll get some tools for reforming the early childhood education plan of our own country.”