Learning Lab #4: Inspiring Change

Welcome back to Learning Lab!?

We’re fresh off our summer break, our batteries are recharged, and we hope you’re as excited for another school year as we are.?

In this edition, we’re focussed on change and why it’s the key to improving education for all learners.?

Since the beginning, we’ve been convinced that the educational system needs an overhaul in order to support learners to be ready to thrive in an increasingly uncertain world.?

You’ve heard it from educational leaders and thinkers from all across the globe for years. Decades even. But to hear about it and to think about it is different from putting the ideas into practice. There’s a perceived risk in being a leader in innovation and stepping beyond the norm.?

What happens to the learners if we mess it all up??

Our Innovation Director, Devin, talks a lot about fear?in his book . With his blessing, we’ll summarise: Change is scary. Change is hard. But you do it, because you know it’s the right thing to do.?

We feel gratified when the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development recognises that

“It has become increasingly evident that to realise human potential in today’s societies and economies, lifelong learning is required….”

Lifelong learning is key. It means that we, as learning institutions, aren't responsible for simply giving learners all the knowledge they will need to be successful in life and work. It means that we need to unlock a love of learning in children so that they can continue on their personal learning journey for a lifetime.?

But how do we do that??

It means handing over the reins. It means giving learners the freedom to explore their interests and discover their passions. It means helping learners realise that learning is more than just someone telling you what to do and when to do it.?

That’s a scary thing for a lot of us. We’ve learned how to teach the old way. How to build learning environments that are tried and true. There’s no clear roadmap for how to do it differently.?

Even when we embrace the fear and commit to change, the questions never stop.?

What does it actually mean to utilise personal learning? How can we embrace AI-assisted learning as a tool rather than perceiving it as a threat? How can competency-based learning actually replace the high-stakes exams that dictate so much of what we do? How can we, as teachers, get out of the learner’s way and let them drive their own learning?

It’s brave to commit to change, but being brave doesn’t have to mean making deep and drastic changes to your whole organisation. It doesn’t mean reframing your vision or reshaping the core of who you are. Change can be small and still make a great impact.?

For some schools, being brave might be finding ways to give learners more voice and choice. Or perhaps supporting teachers embrace the shift to guiding from the side.

Maybe it means moving to competency-based assessment or maybe simply creating space for learners to explore their passions.?

How to Get Inspired?

When we launched Inspire two years ago, it was with the intention of sharing our beliefs about how education could change in theory and in practice, showcasing the real learning that happens at our hubs.?

It was meant to show how we worked through the answers to those questions and more.?

Our co-founder Stephen Harris talks about that in the video below when he reflects on how innovating our practice gives every learner a leg up.?

Inspire has been an incredible and often eye-opening experience for those who’ve attended. The feedback comes rolling in throughout the event.?

“Actionable.” “Inspiring.” “Motivating.” “Relevant.”?

It also comes in the form of thank yous, hugs, and ear-to-ear grins.?

As one past participant noted, Inspire provides...

“A real snapshot of how we can create the necessary change in the future.”

Yet, many schools want more than just a snapshot. They want the playbook in their hands.?

We can’t hand over the magic formula for what we do because there isn’t one perfect fit for all. What we do best is help each school figure out what they need to prepare confident, agile, lifelong learners to be successful in an uncertain future. Then we help them develop the tools to do it.?

ZBA: A Case Study

One organisation we’re excited to work with is Zentrum für Brückenangebot Basel (ZBA) in Switzerland.

ZBA provides a programme for learners as they decide the next step in their personal path. Since obligatory schooling ends at grade 9, many learners are not yet ready for what comes next, and ZBA is there to help them.?

Members of the leadership team started their journey with us at Inspire. Seeing the framework in practice both in Learnlife's hubs and at a local Catalan school trained in passion-based learning by our team sparked their curiosity. It initiated deep conversations about how they might reimagine their own organisation.

Like many schools, ZBA faced several challenges that led them to innovate. They wanted to address learners’ language and socio-emotional hurdles but also learners’ lack of engagement. They also face the added complexity of having different learner profiles across their four centres.

After seeing our hubs in action during Inspire, the leadership team realised that, even as a state-funded organisation, change was possible. However, the approach would need to be strategic, and that’s where we jumped in to help.?

With the support of our training team, they began their journey by creating a cohesive vision for what a change mindset among the teachers and a cultural shift could look like for ZBA.?

Then, we co-created a competency framework for the learners and created a cohort of 15 teachers to pilot the programme across the four schools. Along with the leadership team, these teachers would create the joint vision, develop a first draft of the competency framework, test it with the learners and reiterate.

In the second phase, we helped ZBA with the selection process of the teachers who would be a good cultural fit for the training.

At the two-day in-person kick-off event, the selected teachers had the chance to experience for themselves the difference between a teacher and a learning guide, and as always, it was eye-opening.

Learnlife will continue to support the team by guiding their work in reshaping the profile of the learners and defining a competency framework. At the end of our time together, ZBA will have created a programme which fosters these competencies, connects concrete building blocks to the competencies, and ensures mastery with evidence provided through concrete learning outputs developed by the learners.?

Taking the First Step

Not every school is ready for an in-depth training experience.

In the case of ZBA, they wanted to fundamentally restructure their programmes to offer deeper, more meaningful learning experiences for their learners. But others simply want to take the small step.

For those organisations and individuals who are interested in change but don’t know where to start, Inspire has been an ideal launching point.?

Inspire isn’t just like any other conference. It’s not just panels and workshops. It’s not just ideas in the air. It’s a unique peek inside Learnlife to see exactly how it ticks.

It’s a marriage of theory and practice that allows educators to explore what change looks like on the ground. And, more importantly, how it will work in their own context and communities.?

Many attendees talk about the community, passion, and meaningful learning that they witness in our hubs. Over the course of only two days, they begin to see that the change in education that they’ve been dreaming of is a real possibility, and they have the tools to effect it.

As recent attendee Anja Engerer said,

“Our minds–my mind, my team's minds–are really buzzing. There's lots of ideas. We've got the practical, we're getting some of the theory, and now we're putting the two together, and getting some frameworks and strategies. It's becoming very tangible in our team’s minds of what it could actually look like. It’s not just a grand vision without being grounded in something actually that we can do tomorrow.”

People who come to Inspire are often those who have been following our journey for years.?

Many are inspired by the idea of a learner-centred educational model but unsure of how it could actually work in their individual context. But we give them the frameworks for how it can be done. For how to transform assessment into something beyond examinations. For how to ignite learner motivation by helping them discover their passions. For how to create a strong, caring community.

If it sounds too good to be true, don’t worry. We pinch ourselves, too, sometimes.??

As one attendee reflected,

“It is possible to integrate more meaningful learning experiences for our students while maintaining an opportunity for students to enter universities.”

It’s hard work creating a community that moves together and that grows (better) together. Devin writes about the pitch and sway that Learnlife went through while building a true community from an idealistic vision.

It takes grit, determination and patience. And as Devin candidly admits, it takes righting the ship from time to time. But we did it, and you can too.?

Join us at Inspire

Join us on 7-8 November at Inspire and discover how you can make the change you want to see happen in your community possible.?