Futurelab has launched its ideas incubator today. Here they discuss why an incubator is needed to explore and identify the ways education can innovate and remain relevant in the 21st century
In recognition of increased educational theory supporting the use of informal learning, education innovator Futurelab’s 2008 call for ideas is ‘Imagine a way to support learning outside school’. Anyone with an interest in education, including school staff, parents and students, as well as creative and technical companies, is welcome to enter. The most innovative ideas will be developed with a team of experts and showcased through a series of high profile events and media to stimulate debate and discussion around innovation in education. The call is open from the 21 Jan to 29 Feb 2008 - for details on how to enter go to www.futurelab.org.uk/ideas.
Why the focus on informal learning?
It is now widely accepted that children and young people are learning all the time – with many of the messages coming out of the new Department for Children, Schools and Families calling for educationalists to recognise and engage with the existence of a 100% curriculum. This 100% curriculum is said to constitute the 15% of time school-aged children spend in formal education together with the 85% of time they spend engaged in other experiences outside of school, for example at home, in the park, at a youth club or even as a member of a sports team.
Interestingly, many commentators have suggested that the experience gained outside school can be more valuable than that within, with significant numbers of young people reporting they have had more positive experiences from learning in informal settings compared with learning within the formal setting of their schools.
This may be due to the nature of learning relationships outside of formal settings: a recent study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that the relationships between learners and their educators had an important impact on their overall learning experience. Findings indicated that learners viewed their informal educators as ‘experts’ who treated them as ‘co-learners’ whereas their formal educators were seen as simply delivering a ‘system’ where the relationship was more one way – that of teacher to learner.
What are the pre-eminent features of informal learning?
The Rowntree research indicated that students gain many benefits from participating in learning activities and experiences outside of school: higher aspirations, greater self-esteem, higher confidence, greater well-being and specialised knowledge, skills and competencies. As a result, formal education is also said to gain from this experience since, even if students and teachers are blissfully unaware, many of the benefits are transferred - such as greater resilience when facing learning difficulties and, improved social skills – learnt through the interaction with adult educators and peers outside of school.
Why the need to make visible informal learning and, why now?
Informal learning is a life-long process in which we learn values, skills and knowledge from daily experience, and from the influences and resources in our environment (for example family, neighbours, work, play and the mass media). This informal learning process is a central and insufficiently understood factor in learners’ identities, aspirations and achievements. There is an urgent need to pay detailed attention to understanding these ‘fonts of knowledge’ that exist in learners’ lives, and the ways in which they might be mobilised to enhance learning – whether inside or outside school.
With the arrival of ICT into the daily lives of so many young people, both the scale and nature of this informal learning has changed. Digital technologies such as home computers, mobile phones and MP3s have revolutionised young peoples’ daily experiences – allowing them to connect, communicate and collaborate, as well as upload and download information as never before. However, even with the huge injection of cash into ICT facilities into our schools, use of such technologies continues to be more prolific and of a higher order outside the school gates than within the average school classroom. Schools need to catch up with young people’s use of digital technologies out of school in order for the curriculum offered to be both relevant to their interests and to fit in with their skills displayed away from the classroom.
Why the need to foster innovation in education and learning?
A lack of innovation is detrimental to educational practice and specifically the learning experience of our school children. Exploring new ideas and incorporating new technology, design and practice will enable our education system to remain relevant to the current needs of learners and their future well-being. However, innovation is often difficult to spot in practice with educators having to react to top-down driven policy and practice. What appears to be missing from the education sector is a culture of innovation from those closest to the learner – including the learners themselves.
Fostering ideas from under utilised sources such as teachers, students, key workers and parents, increases the possibility of new ideas being accepted by the education community - since these ideas are based real experience. This is not to say that other stakeholders with an interest in education should not have input into learning. What is needed is a co-design approach to innovation that enables ‘expert’ voices from all interested parties to have their say and make an input.
Why it is important to promote stimulating debate and discussion?
Recent moves by the government have demonstrated a desire to engage with public debate, for example with the evidence gathered in preparation for the Children’s Plan . This shift towards capturing the thoughts of the public together with those deemed to be ‘experts’ is a move in the right direction. Such debates allow a more rounded perspective to be. In turn, this raises the possibility of any resultant policy or practice being better informed, relevant to the goals it sets out to achieve and, importantly, more likely to succeed.
Education cannot afford to stand still. Education must move towards a culture of innovation through debate and discussion on learning both in and out of school so that our learners and future workforce are better prepared through policy and practice informed by all.
Futurelab (www.futurelab.org.uk) is a not-for-profit award-winning organisation that endeavours to discover new ways to improve education through innovation.