National curricula in Norway and Finland: The role of learning outcomes

The core curricular category of learning outcomes has entered the educational policy scene in Europe. While content-oriented curricula have dominated the Nordic countries, a shift towards outcomes can also be observed. In this article, we describe the fundamental distinctions between Didaktik and learning outcomes and examine how learning outcomes are incorporated into written national curricula for compulsory schooling in Norway and Finland. We find that learning outcomes are integrated in both countries; however, the Norwegian curriculum is positioned further away from a Didaktik-based model than that of Finland. The Norwegian approach neglects an essential distinction between matter and meaning by employing an outcome-oriented curriculum.