Math in Finland and Turkey

The base of Finnish Education System has adorable and insprational,however I have to tell that I am not convinced of evidences about their great result in Pisa, Math concept in the schools. Here is the link that you can learn what Pisa is and have a glance at their scores. 

http://www.oecd.org/edu/school/programmeforinternationalstudentassessmentpisa/34002454.pdf

What I have been learning till now is not to teach math  mechanicly but to relate it with as much as things that we can, eventually with daily life, and then let them figure out the rules, formulas with the help of word problems, later on they will be able to get involve with mechanic way of problem solving. Suprisingly, in Math classes we do not teach to think mathematicly. The thing is that if they know how to solve problems, they reach the success. From my point of view, it is of course one way to figure out if they get it or not but not the first or not the vital sign. I usually want them not to solve the problems but to create their own word problems. That is the way it should be, the way I was taught to teach.

Here is the first exercises in integers from the same graders books. The first one is from Turkish book which is published in 2009 to use in 2010-2011, pretty new. And You do not necessarily need to understand the language to comprehend the style of exercises which is exactly word problems. One more thing is to let them think!The second one is published in 2011. I do not feel the need to explain anything, just calculations.

So overall, what I think the reason behind their sucsess? How can they be the top in PISA and famous for education system all over the world?

Without any doubt, they focus on each subject with the same effort and interest. They do care about the special need ones to reach equal level of success. They LISTEN students with a great patience. School is not only seen as a place to  study but also to learn how to live with. Exams are so much according to their lessons. Students are not having extreme and spectecular exams so stress is out. Finnish teachers do their jobs with pleasure! 

And one more thing, Finland is country of peace. Peace makes the difference.