"Inspire 2023: Transforming Education Through Passion-Based Learning"

Momentum is building to bring change into the heart of mainstream education. As part of this, we have our own learning journey to share and years of impact evidence to support it.?

If you have ever wondered how our approach might work in your own setting, Inspire on 9th and 10th of November is the chance to visit us and one of our partner schools to dig deep into that question and find a community that can support you on your own transformational journey.

On 9th and 10th of November, we will once again welcome educators from around the globe who will experience learning innovation in action and take away tangible strategies and tools to stimulate change in their schools and learning environments.

In the spring, we opened the doors of our learning community to welcome and inspire others to turn their vision into action. We made lots of meaningful connections and enjoyed two inspirational days with over 30 education leaders, learning innovators and educators from across the globe who joined us in Barcelona.

Inspire is set to take another set of educators on a transformation journey as they discover how to innovate their approaches and better prepare their learners for an ever-changing world.?

“Inspire you is precisely what we want to do!” says Stephen Harris, Co-founder and Chief Learning Officer at Learnlife.

Be the catalyst to transform education?

Every single learner in the world deserves the chance to bring their passions to light and to feel supported in becoming who they want.?

This is an idea we feel we have the responsibility to share, inspire, and grow together with others. Our goal is to share a human-centred, competency-based learning approach with other educational leaders and plant seeds of change so that, collectively, we can bring about positive change in education worldwide.

It’s an ambitious mission, yes, but one that’s already in motion. So far, Learnlife has impacted 600 schools from public and private sectors in 20 countries worldwide and has attracted more than 5,000 educators and school leaders to its digital platforms.

Parents bring their children to us because mainstream education has underserved them, and they know there is a better path. Our Learning Guides come to us often from traditional schools because they feel that something just isn’t right and want to be in an environment where they can remember the reason this profession called to them in the first place.

Our Alliance members support us because they want to do something about the state of education and perhaps see in us an opportunity to contribute to the much-needed change in education through research and thinking that will actually reach learners and not remain in academic papers and well-intentioned journals.?

Our mission is to build and activate human-centred learning ecosystems, and we exist to inspire all people to love learning and flourish in life. This mission and purpose is growing stronger, and our message continues to be amplified by a growing cohort of partners worldwide.?

It's reassuring that fellow educators and education leaders validate the reasoning behind our actions here at Learnlife. Welcoming yet another group of educators looking for new solutions shows us that the outdated models no longer serve us and the educational world is thirsty for change.?

What to expect?

The two-day event invites educators to visit our Learn Hubs in Barcelona, where they can experience a new way of learning: one that is learner-centred and focuses on self-determined, purpose-inspired and personal learning.

The schedule will combine visits to our Hubs led by learners themselves, who will guide participants through the core components of the programmes and share anecdotal experiences about how the learning approach has personally helped them grow.

The group will begin with a tour of the Urban Hub, based in the heart of Barcelona, our first evidence-based Learn Hub and a lighthouse of learning innovation. They will also have the opportunity to visit a partner hub to see how they have been able to take the lessons they’ve learned at Inspire and implement them into their school.?

Day two will find participants at the nature-based Eco Hub, which lies on the coast 25 minutes south of Barcelona. Nestled between the beach and wooded areas, the Hub is a place to find inspiration for new approaches to nature-based learning.??

Hub visits are not the only order of the day. Attendees participate in a series of interactive workshops facilitated by an expert team of Stephen Harris, Leticia Lipp, Georgi Panayotov and Joan Urgell.?

Covering developing a strategic roadmap, building capacity for innovation and creating frameworks to enhance autonomous learning, the workshops provide practical tools, advice and strategies on how to turn inspiration into action.

It’s a packed agenda, which provides lots of opportunities for connection and relationship-building among participants – positive relationships are a core value and pillar for Learnlife and a tangible legacy of Inspire.

Providing school leaders with inspiration for change

The goal of the Hub visits is to provide inspiration for creating change in schools and learning communities.?

Acesco, a Catalan school network and one of the partner hub tours featured during Inspire, is one of the earliest adopters of the Learnlife approach.

“We were first inspired by Learnlife’s innovative spaces and approach to learning three years ago, and we have since adapted our spaces at Acesco to allow more learner-led activities and experiences, as well as implemented a similar studio model to help learners develop real-world skills”, says Carlos Cami, founder of Acesco.

The event and collaboration with other schools have greatly benefited school leaders and mutually enriched the learning experience for both Learnlife and its partner schools.

“We have experienced first-hand the benefits of sharing and learning from others. Our teachers came away from the training more motivated and with a renewed sense of energy and love for their work and the positive impact they can have on learners’ futures. The beauty is that, as educators and school leaders, we can learn from and inspire each other. The one message I hope participants take away from Inspire is that change is possible for all educators and in all contexts!” continues Carlos Camí.

The change in education starts with re-imagining learning?

What is inspiring to us is the growing interest from other learning organisations both formal and informal, in using our journey and the evidence of impact it bears to reimagine what their own learning community might look like.?

This shift from individual to organisational interest and engagement is perhaps a barometer for a wider current of change flowing through education systems worldwide as we begin to take more seriously the role of education in preparing to meet the challenges of a volatile world ahead.?

Perhaps even, there is a growing acceptance that mainstream approaches to education have long since run their course, in much the same way as we can now accept that the industrial-economic model on which it was based has produced only a hard stop to the idea of infinite growth. We must now grow in other ways.??

Valerie Hannon's thinkpiece, "The Future School," argues that creating schools fit for the future can benefit from drawing on sets of design principles used by organisations that systematically engage in future thinking.?

Learnlife is mentioned as a representative of the 5th archetype (Growing Entrepreneurs and Changemakers) among the six models or archetypes of schools that shape the future.?

It is an honour to be recognised as a learning community contributing to the future of education and inspiring change alongside other great schools from different parts of the world.

Learnlife was also chosen from over 3,000 applicants as one of the most impactful and scalable innovations in education as part of the HundrED Global Collection 2023 .?

Our Elements of Learning Innovation recognises the critical role of learning within a positive community and aims to develop lifelong autonomous learning capability. By authentically activating learner agency, any learner is better prepared for an ever-changing world.

Making new meaningful connections

Following the success of our past Inspire events, we are delighted to open our doors once again.?

On 9th and 10th November, school leaders, education authorities and edupreneurs are welcome to see first-hand how our learning community works with visits to our Learn Hubs. This is a chance to inspire change in other spaces by inviting those who can and are willing to take that forward in their own setting. To be a part of this, our doors are open. Join us for two action-packed days of tours, workshops and building meaningful connections at Inspire, and let’s explore how to move from vision to action together.?

We look forward to welcoming you and supporting your transformational journey! If you can’t make it for the November Inspire, keep an eye out for updates about our next edition, which will be held in May 2024.

Watch the Inspire summary video here:?