About
The goal of MixEd is to investigate the effects of student grouping practices on motivation, learning and school pathways in urban Finnish schools. In general Finnish students begin their school path in a appointed nearby school. However, in highly populated urban areas some schools organize selective teaching in classes with a special emphasis. These classes enable school choice, as families are able to access other schools in the same catchment area by applying to emphasized teaching. While the entrance exams to emphasized teaching are open to all, in practice academically gifted students from well off families tend to, on average, apply at higher rates. Pupils in emphasized teaching are generally grouped into their own classes (afformentioned classes with a special emphasis). As a result, the learning environments of classes tend to differ in accordance with the general level of academic ability and student background. Classes with a special emphasis also have less students from a migrant background, and less students, who have special needs in terms of differentiated instruction. The selective nature of classes with a special emphasis leads to them being generally more homogenous in terms of academic ability, which could allow for faster pace of instruction, even while all classes in Finnish comprehensive schools follow the national curriculum. This could lead to students in classes with a special emphasis gaining a cumulative advantage in the development of their academic abilities.
The selective uptake of classes with a special emphasis could lead to residential segregation, if parents select their living area on the basis of education selection. On the other hand, if families use emphasized classes by selecting a different school from their catchment area, segregation will occur at the level of the schools, possibly leading to reduced residential segregation. In either case, schools could face having too little resources, if there are too many students with difficulties in learning. In practice students from different classes, schools and residential areas in urban Finnish comprehensive schools could have fairly different school paths, even if curriculum differentiation doesn’t occur until the age of 16. Research produced by MixEd could provide significant information on equality of the Finnish education system.
MixEd approaches the research questions from a multimethod framework. At the start of the research project, we’ll conduct a systematic review on the practices of student grouping from a multidisciplinary point of view. In the spring of 2026, we’ll begin data collection in collaboration with TAR-project lead by the Research Centre for Education, Assessment and Learning (REAL). The data will include approximately 4000 sixth grade students and 6000 9th grade students from primary education in Helsinki. Students will be asked to complete tasks that are designed to measure cognitive capability, specifically mathematical thinking skills, reading comprehension and general problem solving skills. In addition to the cognitive measures, students will answer questions relating to, for example, their learning disposition. We’ll also use register data to get information about students’ living area and their further education. MixEd seeks to repeat the data collection on the 6th graders when they’re in seventh, eighth and ninth grade, forming a longitudinal dataset. Updates on these further data collections will be added to this webpage at a later date. Additionally, we will seek to collect more specific intensive data seeking to investigate classroom dynamics and their relation to grouping practices. Finally, we are also planning on conducting questionnaires for principals and follow up with 10 of them for interviews about grouping practices. More information on the intensive data collection and prinicipal interviews will also be added here at a later date. This research project will span four years.
MixEd is committed to the principals of open science. Research results will be published in open access journals and the methods used will be preregistered to ensure reliability and replicability. In addition to journal articles MixEd will organize a workshop and produce popular publications. This webpage will be updated regularly, as well as our social media. MixEd is funded by the Research Council of Finland. The principal investigator of MixEd is academy research fellow Satu Koivuhovi.
More information about the research project will be provided by: