Finnish High-Achieving Students’ Perceptions of the Best Practices in Teaching

According to latest international student comparisons, Finnish students do relatively well at school. But how to maintain this level or even do better? This study focused on Finnish high-achieving students from the general upper secondary education. The purpose was to find out how these special students described their best teachers and teaching and, according to their narratives, what kind of teaching supported their strengths and study success the best. The study was based on the positive psychological theorization of good teaching in which teaching is understood as interaction that supports students’ strengths. A narrative study approach was chosen and the sets of data included the Finnish straight-A graduates’ (N=14) written and spoken narratives. The data were analyzed with narrative analyzing methods. The results introduced five core elements of teaching that support students’ strengths and study success: (1) trust, (2) enthusiasm and zeal, (3) appreciation of achievements, (4) student-centeredness, and (5) dialogue. Based on the findings, opportunities to apply strength-based teaching are discussed. 

According to latest international student comparisons, Finnish students do relatively well at school. But how to maintain this level or even do better? This study focused on Finnish high-achieving students from the general upper secondary education. The purpose was to find out how these special students described their best teachers and teaching and, according to their narratives, what kind of teaching supported their strengths and study success the best. The study was based on the positive psychological theorization of good teaching in which teaching is understood as interaction that supports students’ strengths. A narrative study approach was chosen and the sets of data included the Finnish straight-A graduates’ (N=14) written and spoken narratives. The data were analyzed with narrative analyzing methods. The results introduced five core elements of teaching that support students’ strengths and study success: (1) trust, (2) enthusiasm and zeal, (3) appreciation of achievements, (4) student-centeredness, and (5) dialogue. Based on the findings, opportunities to apply strength-based teaching are discussed.