Charles Leadbeater is doing lots of writing and talking about the future of education and learning int his country. He wrote a document, What’s Next? 21 Ideas for 21st Century Learning for the Innovation Unit summing up these views. If you’re interested in his vision, I’ve summarised the document below:
Despite substantial investment in education, attainment has stagnated. The overwhelming determinate of achieving qualifications remains the social class you are born into. Therefore something needs to change.
The document provides a vision of education in the 21st century, not simply a vision for schools. It is based on the premise that it is positive relationships that are a prerequisite for learning and that learning should be integral to the life of the young person both in and out of the school gates.
In addition to teacher pupil relationships, peer relationships are also heralded as essential if a positive attitude to learning is going to take hold. In addition, the role of the community as a resource, a partner and a user of the school; the involvement of parents and carers, and the school as a social enterprise all have an important role to play in the success of 21st century learning.
Although schools may be linking with others in their area to create learning communities with the possibility of shared management and resources, these structures need to be broken down into smaller groups of no more than 400 people to ensure relationships can thrive. Non teaching staff have an important role to play within these communities providing management, administration and partnership building roles.
Developments with on-line learning platforms, social networking, blogs and wikis will enable learners to be actively engaging in learning outside of core hours, at home and in school. Other locations not traditionally associated with learning should also be used as ‘classrooms’ e.g. allotments, local businesses etc.
A personalised approach to learning will help individuals to understand what makes them thrive and encourages them to find solutions to their problems. The focus should move from passing exams to developing the skills more widely recognised as helping people flourish in the changing environment, those that enable people to work together flexibly and creatively. There is also a new value on social and citizenship skills, tolerance and civic society.
Being able to choose a one-to-one mentor who will advocate for the young person will also support this process. By opening up the school day to accommodate early risers and late starters also supports a more personalised means of learning.
Research has demonstrated that simply being recipients of learning is insufficient, pupils need to be partners. Pupils should be encouraged to choose the tools they want to use to learn and ways they want to present their learning. Peer education whereby children teach other children not only has a huge impact on the peer educator, it increases the capacity of the teaching staff. Where teaching takes place according to ability rather than age, peer support becomes more achievable.
Getting rid of the 6 week holiday that prejudices the educational development of those from less privileged families, will also provide time for young people to engage in a project or challenge whereby they work alongside teachers and peers of different ages and develop strong , respectful and lasting relationships.
Schools need to be calm and orderly for learning to thrive and people need to feel safe, respected and their achievements recognised for them to meet their potential. They need to be emotionally resilient to be able to cope with change and being challenged.
Pupil Voice
Many schools have started on the journey towards this vision. For change to be effective and welcomed, all stakeholders need to be involved from the start and be able to contribute towards the outcomes. This is a vision not a prescription and therefore enables schools to have the freedom to move in the direction they want, uniquely working with the resources within their community.
Whole school councils that give every pupil a voice provide a structure for them to influence this direction. An effective council is given the support, time and space to have discussions and find solutions on issues that affect them. Where this is the norm, students learn to find creative solutions, respect different opinions and become emotionally resilient. Research has consistently demonstrated that relationships between students and between teachers and students are also improved and there is less disruption – all attributes identified by Leadbetter as being essential for a learning environment.
The council also makes it easy to involve them in identifying community partners, expressing how, when and where they learn best, what resources they would choose to access and what opportunities they would like to have and/or create.
School councils are already recognising that their scope should be reaching beyond the school gates with them being actively involved in cluster councils, community and youth forums. They are paving the way for improved relationships within the neighbourhood making the school part of the community rather than an irritating imposition.