CREATIVE SCHOOLS: GIVING AN ANSWER TO STUDENT NEEDS IN THE 21ST CENTURY – Ayperi SAL

Introduction

All the people who are different from each other live on the same earth. Our experiences, likes, dislikes, skills are not the same. In a world like this, the school is the first place where we can see these differences. The children enter a big environment when they start school and they begin to learn the differences between each other, how to be a good human, how to communicate and cooperate with other people apart from the scientific subjects. Actually, we start to know and learn life with the education. It starts and never ends throughout our life. As we can see, education is all about human and we are all different. While even a year makes a huge difference, how can we expect the same education system to be successful for centuries?

Main ideas

In such an important institution as education, we should always seek the ways of giving an answer to the needs of students. Especially now, in the 21^st century, we live in a completely different time. There are more source, technology and opportunity to learn new information and improve creativity. So why don’t we use these opportunities in the best way? Why are the children forced to sit quietly in a place, memorize and repeat the given information without adding their own creativity, experience and thoughts to it?

The three videos we watched in the class actually let us know the people who ask these questions and try to create a difference in the traditional education system.   Ken Robinson, for example, thinks that the traditional education system kills the creativity of the kids and he has many explanations supporting his idea. One of these ideas is that the teachers educate the children for a future which is unpredictable for now. The teachers can’t know which changes will take place in the future and if they want all the students to do similar things, they may kill the creativity inside the children. Also he says that creativity is as important in education as literacy. In traditional education system, literacy is seen as the most important thing in education and all the children are educated to become doctors, lawyers, scientists of the future. However, think about a scientist who has no creativity at all. How can we wait new ideas and inventions if he/she cannot think creatively? Just literacy is not enough to be successful if we don’t have a little bit creativity inside us. In order not to kill the creativity of the kids, teachers shouldn’t make them afraid of making mistakes. Because we can create new ideas only by making mistakes. Students should know that their mistake won’t affect them in a negative way. They should be able to see their mistakes as a key to the success and creating original ideas. And this can be possible only by the teachers who are aware of the importance of creativity in education.

Another person who tries to make a difference and seek the ways of giving an answer to the children’s needs is Takaharu Tezuka. He is a creative architect who built the best kindergarten in the world. While designing this kindergarten, he thought all the details that should be taken into account. For instance, he knows that the little children between the ages of 3-6 are in a period in which they feel energetic most of the time. They want to run, jump and play. During this period, it is not realistic to expect the children to sit quietly without moving around for a long time. Consequently, he built the kindergarten in the shape of circle so that the children can run, jump and play freely. There is a roof on the top of the building and the roof is also in the sahepe of circle, which allows the children to run and play not only in the building but also outside of it. The building is designed inside a harmony with the nature. There are trees in the building and the children can climb them. They may fall or injure but Takaharu Tezuka says it is not good to protect the children all the time. They need to be in danger to learn how to solve the problems and how to help others. I think thanks to this idea the children can be more mature adults in the future. However, it is not easy for all the parents to think in the same way. They may not want to let their children be in danger even it will develop them. Another good point about this kindergarten is that the classes are not divided and thanks to this, the children learn how to work in a noisy environment and improve their concentration. The design of this kindergarten is a good example of creativity and innovation in education.

In the last video we watched the speech of a young, creative and innovative teacher. What I liked most about this teacher is that he treats his students as if they are adults. He asks their opinion about an important issue and listens them very carefully. With this behavior, I’m sure the children feel important and they try hard to do their best in order to solve the problem. The teacher not only gives them a chance to use their creativity but also makes them aware of the environmental problems. The children both help their teacher and learn new things through real experiences. This is a good example of educating the children according to the needs of the 21^st century.

All the videos share one thing in common: These people reject the traditional methods, beliefs and methods that kill the children’s creativity. They choose to make research and take the relationship between the conditions of the 21^st century and needs of the children into account. With the growth of these people who tries to develop the education system creatively and critically, more and more children will be able to have a good education in the future.

Now, it is time to look some ideas about ideal schools that we created with our friends. Maybe one day we can be one of these creative people who create a change in the education system, who knows?

Modern Students

The video of the Modern students started with a scene from their favorite tv series Modern Family, from which they took their group name. This kind of start shows the creativity and originality of their video, I think. They introduced their ideal school with the photos in a combination with the drawings and colorful notes and I think this also shows the effort they gave for the video.

They dream of an inclusive school with high participation and moral responsibility. They suggest that the students should love the nature and animals. Taking care of animals will improve the feeling of responsibility. In the methodology, they want to give more importance to creativity rather than just teaching theories. They think that a good interaction is important in the class, so tables will be in the form of “S”.

They also think that parents are part of the education and explained this idea with a triangle.

The teacher knows the content and she has to know the students. She also has to make the students know each other. All the students have different backgrounds and what the teacher knows about the students is very important for a good learning experience.

Amigos del Football

This group’s video started with a conversation between the group members. Conversation is about the different education systems in Spain, Turkey and Germany. This was my favourite part in the video because we had a chance to know about the real systems of different countries. Also it’s a good idea to make reflection about the school systems before creating their own ideal school.

In their conversation they focused highly on lesson and break durations. They think that it’s an important issue for the concentration of the students.

They wanted to solve the problems of the disabled children and give all the children the same opportunity to have a good education. After the presentation of the video there was a question-answer session. One of the questions was whether there is anything good about the traditional school. They answered this question by giving Germany’s education system as an example.In the traditional schools in Germany there is not grade, there is just feedback. This can have a good affect on children’s development and psychology. They also gave Germany as an example of ideal lesson-break durations.

Wanderlust

Wanderlust’s video was one of the creative and attracting videos. They act as if they were news reporter and they mention the education systems of USA, Indonesia and Finland. They supported the idea that not only scientific learning but also values are important in an ideal school. In their ideal school, the physical shape of the classroom is in the shape of “U”, there is a sound-proof music room where the students can practice their musical skills without disturbing other people,  there is a trust between the teachers and the students, each student has their own tablet and they can make the most of the technology, they use renewable energy in the school and finally there is no competition between the students. Their methodology is based on the idea that students should be able to solve their own problems by themselves.

Cronicas Viajeras

I really liked the way of presenting this group’s video. They explained every detail by drawing and voice recordings in the background. It was colorful, attracting and informative. They dream about a multilingual school where the students will have chance to learn different languages, where there are many cultural activities and where all the children have equal opportunities. They give importance to the natural environment in their school, so they want the students to take care of plants and animals. They also want to make the students aware of the basic traffic rules, which will make them good drivers in the future. Their ideal school aims not only to teach scientific subjects but also prepare the students for the real life.

Dumbledore Taecher’s Army

This group mention the promlems in the schools such as bullying, heavy backpacks, dark and small classrooms, parents’ education and too much information without practice. While talking about these problems they used the scenes from the movie “Harry Potter”. This makes the video more attractive and enjoyable to watch. In their ideal school, they give importance to ethichs and values such as respect in a multicultural environment, trust and also flexibility is an important point for their ideal school. They say their ideal school should be an inclusive school.

Team Perk

This group acted as reporter, principal and teacher in their video and they made interviews about the possible problems in the treditional education system. The main aim of their ideal school is to teach the students how to learn. There are many ways to find information and learn new things in the 21st century. However, if the students don’t learn how to find and use this information, it won’t be beneficial. They also came up with some ideas about how to solve the conflicts in a peaceful way, which was a different point from the other videos. In an environment where the students learn cooperatively and live in a harmony, there will certainly be some conflicts between the students. By teaching the importance of the values such as trust and respect, these conflicts can be solved easily. A peaceful and respectful environment is a key to succeed this.

Unknowns

Unknowns made an interview with a school teacher and a primary school student, which I liked very much. There were also subtitles in english and their conclusion was good. The important points in their ideal school are values, parents’s education, physical changes necessary for the school and the reasons for these changes. They also reflect about the importance of healthy food for the little children’s development. In their ideal school, there are new colors, outside activities and peaceful solutions for the bullying in the school environment

Conclusion

Thinking about creating our own ideal school made us realise the problems in the traditional education system and find solutions for these problems. It was an enjoyable and informative experience for me to create our ideal school and watch the other videos. I saw that everybody has many ideas that can make the education system better. Creativity, values, psychological development of the children are the points to which everybody gives importance while creating their ideal school. We had a chance to reflect about the benefits and diffuculties of Cooperative learning and how to solve the problems in a peaceful way.

All the groups gave much time and effort to prepare the videos and presentations. I would like to congratulate all the group members who have great ideas to improve the education system in the way that will give answer to the needs of the students.

“CREATIVE SCHOOLS: GIVING AN ANSWER TO STUDENT NEEDS IN THE 21ST CENTURY” Irene Megías

               For this project, we had to design our ideal school, a school that answers the needs of all our students, a school that fosters conviviality and also, an inclusive and innovative school. No doubt, it was a very useful project, besides entertaining, because it has helped me to understand better what failures schools today are, what could be improved and what aspects need a radical change.

                Thanks to this project I realized that it is possible to change education and that one of the most effective strategies to achieve this is by transforming the centers. A transformation that addresses the organization and curriculum but especially focusing on the culture of the school. If we want to improve education, we must change our schools.

                As we read in one of the documents at the beginning of our project, to create personalized experiences for students we need to help them connect to the building and the people inside it. For example, in my team, we thought of creating a building that promotes open and bright spaces. In this way the child doesn’t fell locked in a physical or psychological way, and also it allow a more creative and imaginative intellectual development. This is good if we talks about innovate, create, develop new ideas… not only in a personal way in a social way too. The Saunalahti school, in Finland, also supports this idea and therefore has large windows facing outward and into other classrooms, as our ideal school.

                Furthermore, we thought that was important chanqe out the classroom furniture when posible because it offers numerous possibilities to perform different activities, especially in groups or teams. The main idea is the possibility to change the class in the way not to have the same order always, and in this way, all the furniture could be move, keep, fold… so it will be change in other thing. It depends on the needs. For students is bored sitting at individual desks facing the front as in the traditional classrooms, so we thought to group the tables so that students can helping each other. In this way we promote cooperative learning.

                In addition, it is important to maker different areas within each class, for example a corner to read books and stories (like a small library with books available for students), a space for new technologies where we can find computers, tablets or even video games, an area to study or  a leisure area to play where children can have fun playing.

                From my point of view, it is also important that the school counts with areas to chat with classmates, reading, drawing, study, doing some exercise or just relax; thus, all areas are potential places of learning. It is also important that all areas of the center is designed to encourage teamwork, in this way we can encourage collaboration between students and between them and their teachers. This zones and also the classrooms can be design to look for children’s motivation depending on the function of the activity that we want to develop. We could get it through colours, textures, heights, the distribution, music…

                All these ideas are shown in the video that showed the teacher in class where Takaharu Tezuka told us how was the building of an innovative school in Asia. In this nursery children have total freedom to run and play in the yard, because its structure is quite peculiar to what we usually see. Classes are not divided, it is all the same structure without bunds, so it helps them to develop concentration skills because they have to learn how to work with noise and how to concentrated in their tasks.

                On the other hand, this school is aware of the contact with nature. Also, Wanderlust focus in this point. For me is important the contact with the nature, I believe that to have a better children’s develop is a good idea to get the children in touch with it. It will be getting through many gardens inside and outside, green corners with different flowers that children should take care of them to interiorise responsibilities… Also al the glass windows which allows look outside.

                Leaving aside the structure of the school, it is necessary to talk about the methodology and how to educate our students. It is important to promote in they the ability to create their own knowledge. This will make our students feel more motivated and create in them a certain curiosity to learn. Also, the teacher is no longer the sole source of information, his/her role is to be a "guide" for they. Students will be challenged to be more proactive and independent, with teachers taking the role of facilitator. In addition, as we have seen in psychology with Ana Belen, we have to experimenting with problem-based learning kids work on projects where have that authentic contexts, often within their communities.

                Also, as Ken Robinson said in the video that we saw in class, creativity is important, so in order to take a good methodology we have to give more importance to the creativity. Creativity is essential so we have to encourage children in any way, have to imagine, dream... ultimately be free. Encourage creativity supposed to develop an abstract thought, to express themselves and be easier to solve problems throughout his life.

                Teachers who want our students to be able to think for themselves and generate creative ideas, we have much to offer they, just requires a little effort on our part; we must strengthen that generate personal ideas about any situation to talk in class, promote freedom of expression, encourage teamwork and let the kids fly with your imagination. In my view, creativity is more than just an artistic skill, is also about how we think and how we build and share our knowledge.

                In addition, is important to talk about have fun in class. It not refers that there aren’t concepts; it means that children will learn playing. When something is interesting for us we are motivated and work better so the teacher should generate an interest in children about concepts. With this they will learn without realizing.

                Following this point, the methodology, it is important to discuss how to assess our students (exams? projects? homework?…) I think it's important not to focus in the mark of a exam, but take into account other aspects, which for me are more important, such as attitude, interest and student work. From my point, we must teach children learn to practice and make them see that mistakes are not a bad thing, but a way to learn through them, which is known as “Learning by Doing”. Learning should be a succession of errors that are solved and acquires the ability to solve or avoid them. On the other hand I don´t think that is necessary to do a exam or a test every week; the near and worried teacher doesnt´t need exams, perfectly knows the note that deserves everyone. For me, the best option would be to opt for a continuous and formative evaluation. An assessment must address the needs of children, and therefore, must be rich and varied, so that the curriculum is open and flexible.

                As for homeworks, it is important to say that all teams talk about them. For example, “Amigos del football” said it is not necessary to send homework to children because they need time to play and have fun and we all agree. At this age children should develop certain skills and abilities are encouraged to play. Can only children learn with duties, responsibilities and homework...?. I don `t believe it. There are other substitutes like promoting project-based learning. Doing different projects, children develop their autonomy and responsibility  and also become the protagonists of their own learning. From my point of view, it is a good way to learn, work and especially what has been seen in class, so it seems a good substitute for homework.

                Another important thing we should talk about is values. Children should not learn concepts only, they should learn how to live in a society too because they live in one. Schools should educate professional but also people. The idea is to show children about the importance of respect and take care of environment. Each group mentioned differents ideas to implement it in our schools. I liked the idea of Modern Family, that said than it can be a good idea to have pets in class, thus the responsibility is fostered in students and also take care in living beings. Other groups such as The unknows, spoke about bullying and how to eradicate it. One idea that I really liked was to give children the opportunity to solve the problem through meetings where, together, try to find a solution. Thus, in addition to solving the conflict, students feel important because they feel heard and see that their opinions really count for something. It would ultimately create a democratic school, where students and teachers as parents can give their opinion openly.

                The role of parents is very important, and many teams talked about it. Educating children is not just a work of teachers, parents have a lot of work on it, so it is important that families and teachers are in touch and have a good relationship. Team Perk, for example, proposed the Family Day, it would be something like an Open Day, where parents can chat with teachers, meet other parents, see the work of their children, etc.

                Finally, is Important to talk about the time tables of our students and also the lenguages they will be taught. Referring to the schedule, I liked the idea of Team Perk: proposed a schedule in which each two subjects had a break. And as for the teaching of other languages I liked the idea of Crónicas Viajeras, who proposed that English is essential and we have to promote it, so all teachers (or the most of them) should native for teaching the lenguage in a more real way.

                I want to say that I know that this change is difficult and takes many time, but I believe that little by little, if we all get involved (teachers, pupils, families, the government…), we could make a better education system, and thus build a better future for our society. It is true that we can imitated another educational systems such as the german, which also we speak in class. The team Amigos del Football told us about how the education system in Germany was, and the truth is that it brings certain characteristics that, for me, are important and necessary, but we can not forget how strict is this system. With just 10 years children are divided according to their results or academic progress in previous years. As a future teacher, I do not think this decision is the right one. It does not seem right that at such a young age and children are separated between those who get good grades and those who not.

                As a conclussion, as I said before, is a very difficult task because it is not only in our hands, influence other aspects as we have seen in sociology like the context in where we live. We must work together to try to solve all these failures or difficulties as soon as possible to have a better education.

CREATIVE SCHOOLS: GIVING AN ANSWER TO STUDENT NEEDS IN THE 21ST CENTURY

I realize that society has changed in last years but school is in the same way. It’s true that have been included new technology and so on but it’s not the most important thing. I think that we should change a lot and first of all is the methodology.

In this reading you could found some changes or solutions to improve the education because children are the future and it’s important to educate in the best way.

The main global idea is adapt the school to the new age and to get it is important take in account some general ideas that will be develop after:

• Create a real relationship between students, teacher and parents through activities, games… and get a real trust between each other.

• The knowledge is not only the content so it’s so important teach in values and get a comfortable area to work and avoid problems like bullying.

• Give dependence to children in the way that they should learn content but they should learn how to get it too. So the main methodology will be focus in investigation and cooperative.

Its important know that we have some difficulties to put in practice all the items that we will develop but this is the main point; education law should be create and develop for teachers and students and all the people that work in this sphere.

All the ideas cited after are related because there are some points or ideas that are involved in more than one so I can’t talk one by one.

I think that all children feel their school like a second home because they stay there around 950 hours so I think that the best option is to ask them about changes, proposals… because they could have a good idea, not too developed but a good idea at all. In this way we will improve their imagination and creative thinking.

It’s true that one day children will be adults and they should be prepared to this but I think that all of us should live in the present, I mean, children first should have fun and then learn responsibilities and values but thinking in a funny way. With this I propose to change the methodology in a cooperative one. With this we could reduce the weight of backpacks -as Teacher’s Dumbledore army represent with a funny scene- because they don’t have all the information since the first day, they will increase the content and information.

This will promote the independence of children because they look for information, prepare a class, do a project, get an agreement with other classmates… I think that this is the best way to teach because of the fact that we live in a globalization world and nobody will tell them the information that they’ll need. With this they work and improve some skills like the capacity of summary or critical thinking that is so useful for their future.

I like so much a sentence that ‘Modern students’ say that is: ‘Teachers teach but they don’t know everything’ this is the reason of the need to change the methodology.

To get a better effect is necessary the implication of parents because children learn always, not only in the school. Nowadays the relationship between parents and teachers is almost non-existent; parents go to talk with the teacher if they have a problem or if the teacher asks for a meeting so, as Perk Team said, is a good idea to prepare some activities and plays to improve this relation, like a family day.

While we are doing activities to improve this relation, we create a relation of trust. This is the main point of Finland system, as Wanderlust said. In this way parents could trust in teachers’ opinion because of the trust and they could realize if they children need support classes too and help children with projects.

You could realize that I talk about projects instead of homeworks because, from my own experience, I learn more if I look for information, reflecting about it, doing a poster or a support like this… So children should build their own project guided by teachers.

Related with the physical structure of the school it’s quite interesting think about the different classes or areas that a school has; the normal and music class, a space to play and to sports, a laboratory… but children don’t have neither space nor time to relax. My team, like others as Amigos del football, propose create two spaces –based in company google- and change the timetable to bring children a little break after each class.

• Study zone: where children could read, study, meet to do projects…

• Leisure or play zone: where children could disconnect, play, create or develop their ideas to different machines…

Our group talk about flexible furnitures. There are different modules with which you can build new furnitures without the need to buy new ones. I think that this is a good idea because changing the class we avoid the monotony and through this the boredom.

Is scientific evidence that the environment where children learn is more important that we think. If the space is big, bright, comfortable… children will improve themselves better and faster. To get this objective we could decor the class with posters of projects, things that they elaborate in art’s class or things that they do at home and bring it. It’s a way to transmit that the class is for them, is their space.

Through this favourable environment we could avoid problems like bullying that nowadays are more common and we can’t tolerate this.

There are many projects, activities, plays… ways to avoid this type of problems. The best option for me is to talk with children and through tales or plays –in theatres– try to explain some social terms like diversity, culture, interculturality… to awareness children that we live in a society where everybody is different but this is something fantastic because we could learn a lot of all of them.

We develop these ideas when we work in groups as cooperative learning do. To improve it more is a good option to choose work with inclusive classrooms because it is specific on the integration of different cultures and people.

There were some ideas which I agree with but I didn’t think about it when I did this project.

• Speak with a native person:

I think that it is the most important and the only way to really learn a new language. The teaching of a language in this country -in schools- is so bad because they are focus on grammatical concepts and forget to teach the practical one. I have been learn the verb to be 3 years, not with the same importance but it was a grammatical point during 3 years and I have never have a native person and this is more useful.

• Road education:

It is something that everybody should know but sometimes we forgot to teach. In my case, my school prepare a lot of activities about it and I remember these days like a funny one because we do something different.

This is the idea that I was trying to explain during all this document, children learn more and have more interest in thing that are funny. So the clue of all is to transform all the contents to get a funny methodology and change the place where they learn.

• Be healthy:

Mens sana, in corpore sano.

It is a Latin expression that I related so much with education because we can’t pretend that children stay quiet and sitting in the same place six hours because they are children and because we need run, shout and remove all the tension that we have. This is not only for children; adults need this too. It could be a good option prepare some activities where children, parents and teachers do sports and in this way the relationship between them will be improved.

Finally we could realize that the main objective of my ideal school to motivate children in different ways.

Motivated to…

         … look for information by himself

         … explore the world

         … be dependent

         … live their own live and know how to do it

         … be critical and not to give everything for granted

Motivate to be different; to be whatever they want because the personality is the best part of humans and school should improve it and teach that they are perfect like they are and teach to respect not only people, plants and things too.

Beatriz Martinez Isidro

1ºB - GEP

CREATIVE SCHOOLS: GIVING AN ANSWER TO STUDENT NEEDS IN THE 21ST CENTURY (María Jiménez)

I DREAM OF A SCHOOL... 

I dream of a school ... FLEXIBLE.

Where classrooms have furniture that allows movement between teacher and students and they can be placed in different ways depending on the time.

I dream of a school ... IN CONTACT WITH NATURE.

It is shown that humans need to be in touch with nature for their good development. The school will have green areas that serve to teach in some subjects, to do exercise or rest during time breaks. Children will be educated to take care the environment and will be activities for this purpose, vegetable gardens, recycling workshops, botanical garden, etc. The school will have a part where children graduated will plant a tree, one for class.

I dream of a school ... WITH SENSE.

Where the assessments are formative not summative, which takes into account the work and attitude of every day not only one day in an exam. Where the result is not a number, there are a few comments about the learning progress. The process of each child is valued according to their potential and abilities because they have different conditions. Children have the same teacher throughout his primary stage, in this way they know each other and can better assess their attitudes.

Teachers should make formative and recycling courses to keep up of new technologies and teaching programs.

I dream of a school ... THAT GIVES CONFIDENCE.

The teacher is a guide in the learning process of their students, he should guide them, accompany them and advise them. The teacher is a friend, a trusted person for them without ever losing the respect he deserves. In this way students will be important to form part of their own learning process, they have confidence and are responsible for their progress.

I dream of a school ... FUNNY.

It is possible to learn in a fun way, it makes better internalize the subject and feel curious to learn more. The lessons will be taught with activities that are interesting to children.

New technologies will be important tools in the learning process. Children, out of school, are accustomed to them and should be used in classes.

I dream of a school ... THAT WORKS COOPERATIVE LEARNING

We know the many advantages of cooperative learning, it promotes helps each other, the fellowship and a healthy competition between students. The groups will be made in different ways depending on the aims they want to achieve and the subject is being studied.

I dream of a school ... WHICH PROMOTES HUMAN VALUES.

Students as adults will be architects, teachers, police or economists. But they must first have a good base as persons. To guest this objective the teacher needs the collaboration of their families to educate children on respect, friendship, tolerance, love, coexistence, etc. There will be two days a year, one at the beginning of the course and other at the end, where parents should go to school to get in touch with their children and teachers and establish a good relationship between all and know the daily lives of their children in class. There will be solidarity activities where families could participate.

I dream of a school ... OPEN SPACES.

Where classrooms are not just four walls with floor and ceiling, they are designed to help the development of children and make you feel comfortable. There are different colors depending on their content and the frame of mind you want to achieve in children depending on the activity or subject they are learning. Today many schools seem a prison, we have to change it.

I dream of a school... THAT MOTIVATES THEIR STUDENTS

Teachers should make students with an interest in their subjects, in this way they will go to class motivated and they will want to learn new things and further research on concepts already studied. To create a good base motivation is essential for their future, we do best what motivates us.

There will be a “cultural week”, activities for classes and groups. All these tests have had a didactic purpose and there are activities of all subjects. Gymkhanas, games, puzzles, a test of 10 questions and answers, movies, music, radio program, sports championships, etc. Endless tests that make us to go out of the routine, to learn otherwise, to share with friends of other classes and ages.

I dream of a school... EQUAL

Where all children are equal, no matter their skin color, gender, religious beliefs, national origin, economic status, their skills. All have the same rights and duties.

I dream of a school... WILL BE REAL with the effort of all, parents, teachers, politicians, etc. In order to our children have a better future because education is the basis of growth of any society.


María Jiménez