From QUARTZ, Tuesday, April 28, 2015.
From QUARTZ, Tuesday, April 28, 2015. See
http://qz.com/377742/this- school-in-norway-abandoned- teaching-subjects-40-years- ago/
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This school in Norway abandoned teaching subjects 40 years
ago
By Bjørn Bolstad [Headmaster, Ringstabekk school]
Finland has announced that in their new national curriculum, they
will emphasize phenomena-based project studies instead of traditional
subjects. The Ringstabekk school-with 425 students aged 13 to 16
years just outside Norway's capital, Oslo-has been doing this for
40 years with great success. It all started in the 1970s when the
teachers realized that their students were not truly engaged
in what they learned at school. These educators
were inspired by the Danish pedagogue Knud Illeris and his ideas
of cross-curricular project work, and in the 1980s, the
fundamental concept and organization of the school was
revamped. Although the pedagogy of the school has been developing
ever since, the basic idea of learning through multidisciplinary
studies has endured.
The lower secondary school is organized in a way that supports
this multidisciplinary learning. When teachers are hired at this
school, they know very well that they will have to cooperate with
other teachers-and not just the ones who teach the same
subjects as themselves. They will have to work in multidisciplinary
teacher-teams.
Each teacher-team, consisting of 4-6 teachers,
is responsible for the education and growth of 60-75 students.
The teachers together craft the students' schedules from week
to week, and make their own plans based on the national curriculum and
the expectations of the school leaders. The school uses
different cross-curricular methods, and is constantly refining
methods like storyline, project-based learning, inquiry-based
learning, simulations, etc. The teachers pick up ideas from each other
and share their experiences ensuring that although the school does not
have a local specified curriculum, all students experience the same
learning methods and multidisciplinary themes.
Students in the 8th grade, at age 13, will often study earthquakes, volcanos, and other forces of the earth-topics usually taught in natural science and geography courses. Instead of working with this subject in fixed lessons, teachers have to come up with different storylines that incorporate several different subjects. In one of the storylines, the students pretend that they are going to climb Mount Everest. In preparation, they have to study maps, weather, and climate. As the story moves forward, they are assigned different tasks from the teachers-such as suggesting the best route to the top of Mount Everest, making a list of the equipment they need, calculating the time they will use, making a budget, and applying for funding in English, which is a foreign language to these students. As they solve these tasks, the students have to find a lot of information and discuss their findings within the group.
Students in the 8th grade, at age 13, will often study earthquakes, volcanos, and other forces of the earth-topics usually taught in natural science and geography courses. Instead of working with this subject in fixed lessons, teachers have to come up with different storylines that incorporate several different subjects. In one of the storylines, the students pretend that they are going to climb Mount Everest. In preparation, they have to study maps, weather, and climate. As the story moves forward, they are assigned different tasks from the teachers-such as suggesting the best route to the top of Mount Everest, making a list of the equipment they need, calculating the time they will use, making a budget, and applying for funding in English, which is a foreign language to these students. As they solve these tasks, the students have to find a lot of information and discuss their findings within the group.
The students at the Ringstabekk school work in small groups
most of the time. This is based on the theory that most of our
learning happens when we think, talk, and solve tasks together instead
of on our own-and the idea of "learning by doing," theories
developed by the late Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky and the late
American philosopher and psychologist John Dewey.
Another cross-curricular theme, often executed in the 10th
grade, focuses on the environment and sustainability. This is
done in different ways by different teacher-teams. One way is to give
each group of students a unique area of their local municipality and
let them work as consultants. They produce a report and perhaps
some models on how one should develop their specific part of the local
community-with special focus on transportation, energy, waste, etc.
If they are to produce models, they have to work with ratios and other
mathematics, as well as design. They will need to
investigate different kinds of energy and corresponding pollution
outputs-which is part of the natural sciences-and produce and
present their report both written and orally. The first year this
project was run, the teachers cooperated with a local consultant
company that was doing these kind of jobs. The consultants and
engineers were impressed when the students, aged 15, were able to
inform them of a new technology that they were not aware of.
During cross-curricular work, the students don't have a fixed
weekly plan-one that segregates English to one lesson, and
science to another. They stay in school for at least the specified
number of lessons given in the national curriculum, and they work on
their task through the weeks, receiving guidance and instruction from
their teachers.
The Ringstabekk school has to follow the national curriculum
and national assessment-systems, so every student still gets
individual grades for each traditional subject. They also
complete the same national tests and exams as all other students
in Norway. On these tests, they are performing on the top national
level, indicating that multidisciplinary learning gives students
the knowledge and skills they need. Not only that, but it also
motivates students to learn for the sake of learning. Students
become very engaged in what they do at school-sometimes they don't
want breaks, because they are eager to continue the work they have
started.
Most parents are very satisfied with the school-they realize that it actually is preparing their kids for a future working-life, helping them develop necessary competencies both when it comes to skills and knowledge and also when it comes to personal growth. The head teacher at the school puts it this way: "We are not just developing calculators, we are developing human beings."
Most parents are very satisfied with the school-they realize that it actually is preparing their kids for a future working-life, helping them develop necessary competencies both when it comes to skills and knowledge and also when it comes to personal growth. The head teacher at the school puts it this way: "We are not just developing calculators, we are developing human beings."
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SIDEBAR PHOTO: Changing how school is
structured.(Bjørn Bolstad)
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SIDEBAR PHOTO: Students at the Ringstabekk
school.(Bjørn Bolstad)
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SIDEBAR PHOTO: Students work in small
groups.(Bjørn Bolstad)
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SIDEBAR PHOTO: The Ringstabekk school.(Bjørn
Bolstad)
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