Last Saturday I had the privilege of hosting the very first RSA Innovative Education Faculty workshop. Members of our Faculty were invited along to Fab Lab London to take part in a creative afternoon of education workshops.
On the agenda were two tricky questions:
- What are the key features of successfully creative schools?
- How do you decide who should go to university if qualifications were not used as the measure of ability?
Successfully creative schools
In the first of our workshops Faculty members unpicked the realties faced by schools wanting to be creative. We recognised that although many schools aspire to be more creative in their practice, there are often limiting factors both political, societal and practical which contain them. Working within these sensible boundaries the faculty set about developing two prototype frameworks designed to help schools identify what actions are needed to be successfully creative. You can check these out below and we invite your ideas, additions and comments on these initial thoughts.
|
Curriculum |
Leadership |
Response to Context |
Ethos |
Collaboration |
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Interdisciplinary |
Risk-taking |
Realistic |
Global learning |
Include lifelong learners |
|
Creative assessment models |
Initiative- taking |
Recognising that the environment is dynamic |
Work across age groups |
Networked thinking |
|
Focus on process and outcomes |
Articulate |
Ability to embrace change |
Open to industry and academia |
Work with schools, colleges and universities |
|
Based around a defined philosophical; position |
Collegiate |
Inclusive of wider community |
Interdisciplinary |
|
|
A focus on meta-cognition |
Willing to create space for innovation |
Engagement with the Global and Local context |
|
|
|
Curriculum |
Leadership |
Context required |
Ethos |
Collaboration |
|
Holistic |
Open to risk-taking |
Informed policy makers |
Willingness to make mistakes |
Engagement with outside industries |
|
Innovation focused |
People focused |
|
Empowerment |
Engagement with alumni |
|
|
Distributed leadership |
|
Agency |
Strong links with other schools |
New approaches to university entrance
Our afternoon workshop focused on the problem of University selection. Teachers are still responsible for ensuring young people have the grades required to progress to the next level of education yet are continuously being asked to make their teaching more innovative and creative. In an attempt to address this, faculty members were asked to imagine alternative systems allowing for more creative practice within schools, in addition to creating a fairer recruitment process in higher education institutions. Our discussion ranged from radical propositions of ‘a lottery of places’ to the slightly more mainstream idea that portfolios rather than qualifications might be a more accurate reflection of a pupil’s aptitude.
RSA Innovative Education hopes to pursue this topic further in the coming months with the intention of developing some ideas into a prototype. If you work in schools, further education or higher education and are interested in being involved with this work please get in touch and let us know.
Get involved:
JOIN THE INNOVATIVE EDUCATION NETWORK
BECOME A SCHOOL GOVERNOR OR TRUSTEE
TELL US ABOUT YOUR INNOVATIVE EDUCATION IDEA
Follow Innovative Education @RSA_IE
Follow Tom Gilliford @Tom_gilliford
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