Yleissivistävään

Yleissivistävään is a Finnish illative singular form of the adjective yleissivistävä, meaning general-education or broad-based. The term is used to describe education, curricula, or instruction that provides a broad foundation of knowledge and fosters critical thinking, as opposed to vocational or highly specialized studies.

Linguistically, yleissivistävään is the case-inflected form that appears before a noun in the illative case, for example yleissivistävään opetukseen or yleissivistävään koulutukseen. In typical educational and policy language, you will encounter phrases such as yleissivistävään opetukseen, yleissivistävään koulutukseen, or yleissivistävä opetus. The form signals direction or movement into the referenced general-education context.

Context and usage in Finland, education policy, and curricula: yleissivistävä koulutus refers to the general education provided to all students, intended to develop broad knowledge across subjects (languages, mathematics, sciences, social studies, arts) and to cultivate critical thinking and citizenship. This stands in contrast to ammatillinen (vocational) education or other specialized tracks. The concept is common in national core curricula, syllabi, and discussions about the aims of perusopetuksen (basic education) and secondary education, where istrategies emphasize a broad, foundational education for lifelong learning.

See also: yleissivistys, sivistys, perusopetus, ammattiopetus, koulutuspolitiikka.