Michael Lawrence is an Australian school teacher with more than 30 years of experience. When he visited Finland to take a look at their world-leading education system, he came away in a state of shock. "Finnish teachers looked at me like I was insane when I described the NAPLAN tests (National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy) given to children as young as eight. With shocked expressions, they asked why Australian teachers allowed this to be done to such young children..." Michael felt that there was no reasonable answer to this. His investigation into what made the Finnish system ..read more

Linda Liukas is a programmer, storyteller and illustrator from Helsinki, Finland. Her book series Hello Ruby introduces the whimsical world of technology to kids and has now been translated into over 25 languages. Her fabulous TED talk about ‘A delightful way to teach kids about computers’ has been viewed over 2 million times. Linda is a key figure in the world of programming and worked in edutech before it was called that. She’s the founder of Rails Girls, a global phenomenon teaching the basics of programming to young women all over the world. She believes that code is 21st-century literacy ..read more

Kaisa Vuorinen is a doctoral researcher of positive education at the University of Helsinki. She is the founder and CEO of Positive Learning Ltd. Kaisa has extensively studied the strengths-based approach to teaching and work, and trained school teachers and companies in this important field. The key themes of her lectures include creating a work culture of compassion and co-passion and building teams through the recognition of strengths. In 2017, Kaisa was awarded the best innovation prize for her Positive CV work. The half a million euro prize helped her scale the idea globally. Kaisa’s wi ..read more

Dubbed ‘the face of Finnish education abroad’, Pasi Sahlberg is a passionate educator, author and researcher. Currently, he’s the Professor of Education Policy at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.  Pasi’s professional background is varied, but the common thread throughout his service is equity in education and trust in teachers. He has served as a Senior Education Specialist at the World Bank, as a Lead Education Expert at the European Training Foundation, as Director-General at Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture, and as a visiting Professor of Practice at H ..read more

Today’s chat hosts two enthusiastic educators from one of the best international schools in Spain - British Prince School. Paloma Lopez is the Director and Debbie Musgrove is the Head of the Primary Department. Together with their staff, they’ve adapted to the sudden changes that COVID-19 brought, with openness, curiosity and flexibility. In today’s chat, we hear all about this holistic international school where students have the opportunity to get their hands dirty in the school’s garden, participate in arts programs, as well as sink their teeth into digital learning tools (such as Eduten ..read more

A well-known name among international educators, Olli-Pekka Heinonen is the Director-General of the International Baccalaureate (IB).  Before joining the IB, Olli-Pekka served as the Director-General of the Finnish National Agency for Education, and held various positions in the Finnish Government, including State Secretary, Minister of Education and Culture, Minister of Transport and Communications, as well as Director of the Finnish National Broadcasting Company. In today’s chat, we hear about Olli-Pekka’s early life as the child of educators and how he continued along the path of life ..read more

Today’s guest is the very bright and interesting, Laura Tuohilampi. She’s a multi-award winning mathematics education researcher, a teacher trainer and the founder of Math Hunger. Currently, Laura is a research fellow and lecturer at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. After publishing the Finnish version of the book entitled Math Hunger, she kick-started a global movement to make mathematics mainstream, or in other words- an enjoyable activity for all of us. Laura isn't afraid of discussing the tricky emotions that mathematics sometimes evokes. In this chat we speak about: How to he ..read more

Today we talk learning analytics with Eduten’s very own, Dr. Eikka Kurvinen. Eikka is the Head of Pedagogy at Eduten and has trained thousands of teachers to use the Eduten platform both in Finland and abroad. He holds two master degrees in education and science as well as a PhD. His thesis was entitled “Effects of Regular Use of Scalable, Technology Enhanced Solutions for Primary Mathematics Education”. This guy holds learning analytics in the palm of his hand. As one of the original brains trust behind the Eduten product, I took the opportunity to ask: What is learning analytics in educat ..read more

Episode eight takes us to India! Our guest, Raghav Podar, is the Chairman of Podar Education. Podar Education has hundreds of schools across India and 'strives to create modern citizens who are ready to make global changes'. With a blend of global thinking & Indian values, Raghav is a senior educator and thought leader in constructing optimal learning environments. He has studied the education systems of Finland, Singapore, the U.K. and Australia, and has been most interested in upgrading the quality of schooling in India. He is particularly fond of the Finnish education model and has spe ..read more

In this episode, we're joined by the Head of Research and co-founder of Kide Science - Dr. Jenni Vartiainen. Jenni is a researcher, university lecturer, writer and entrepreneur. Her research interests are young children’s playful STEAM education and scientific literacy. Within her research, Jenni has developed a play-based science education model for young children called Kide Science. The model combines play, stories, imagination, and early STEAM education. In this podcast we hear Jenni's expert opinions about: Why STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) is so important for kids ..read more