learning schools

Innovative learning environments

It is important to re-engineer schools to adapt them for 21st century learning.

OECD findings (2015) suggest a focus on four elements: learners, educators, content, and resources. The report concluded that schools are most powerful when they:

Transferability

We consider this knowledge has significant transferability. The focus is on placing learning at the centre of schooling and this emphasis on the things that matter in schools to advance learning will be applicable worldwide. 

Characteristics of learning schools

The most important characteristics are –

School vision and mission

Clear and accessible to most staff

Shared by staff

Perceived to be meaningful by most staff

Pervasive in conversation and decision-making

 

Culture

Collaborative

Shared belief in continuous professional growth

Mutual support

Belief in providing honest feedback to colleagues

Sharing of ideas and materials

Support for risk taking

Encouragement for open discussion of difficulties

Turning schools into learning schools

This section is the main core of the MESH Guide and introduces the idea of schools as learning organisations. Schools as learning organisations (SLOs) is proving a very popular concept in policy and in practice for those schools seeking long term change and improvement (Doherty, 2018; Doherty, 2020; Harris & Jones, 2018; OECD, (2016); Welsh Government, 2017). Creating such schools requires a significant cultural shift, often a change of mind-set and definitely a schoolwide commitment to self-reflection and evaluation.

Learning organisations

A number of models of the learning organisation exist, mostly from the business world and the principles are easily transferrable to schools. Summarising the main ideas behind these, are seven dimensions as shown in the table below.

Strength of evidence

There has been a long history of research in this field and this MESHGuide pulls together core information for those interested in the field.

Resources

School Improvement

Chapman, C., D. Muijs, D. Reynolds, P. Sammons, and C. Teddlie (Eds) (2015). The Routledge International Handbook of Educational Effectiveness and Improvement: Research, Policy, and Practice. London: Routledge.

Websites

Learning schools

Schools as learning organisations

Innovative learning environments

Schooling Redesigned

School case studies

Professional Learning

Case for change

This first section in this Guide puts a case for a change in traditional thinking and working in schools. In today’s fast changing world, education needs thinking that is creative and critical. It needs problem-solving and decision-making, all to prepare students to be lifelong learners and enterprising citizens. Traditional models of schooling and conventional approaches to teaching and classroom organisation are inadequate for delivering 21st century learning agendas, especially for the most disadvantaged students (Schleicher, 2012).

Learning Schools

Schools as learning organisations (SLOs) are undergoing a resurgence for Primary and Secondary schools seeking long term change and improvement. Such schools replace ‘schooling’ for learning. They embrace learning, not only for students but all staff.  They create cultures, systems and structures that support “learning to learn” on a whole-school basis. These schools bring together shared values where everyone works toward a goal of sustained excellence in learning. They reflect on what they are doing and adapt accordingly. They are flexible to change. They do not stand still.

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