Australia and Finland : a comparison of textbooks and teaching and learning materials

Australia is developing a national curriculum to be implemented in 2011. A critical aspect of the development of this new national curriculum is how teaching and learning resources should be developed to support an Australian national curriculum. To inform this development, this paper will compare aspects of teaching and learning resources between Finland and Australia. In preparation for this national curriculum, a research project was developed to compare how the Finnish and Australian education systems funded textbooks and teaching and learning materials. This article also presents data on the use of textbooks in the classroom and the role of textbooks in the education system. The research draws on a comparative analysis and is also informed by research on the reasons for Finland’s continued success in the PISA measures of international student evaluation.