Claudio Dondi, Senior Fellow of EDENSCIENTER, EFQUEL, MENON

Athens, 28th of October, 2011

Many radically negative views Policy makers, teachers, school heads,

too much discontinuous innovation,too little money, parents’ requirement, curricula… ALL GUILTY?

BUT - EU is not so bad in Pisa Results- A lot of good examples of schools- Network such as eTwinning

Gap of conformance?

Gap of innovation?

Gap of resources?

- +Less resourcesAngry teachers

Governments in emergency

Openness to consider changeAppeal of bottom-up initiative

Appeal of entrepreneurship

=• Favourable conditions for bottom up innovation• Negative context for follow up at system level

Existing school systems are often underperforming. Every bad education service produces long term damages. More investment is needed, but a better use of resources should also be searched.

Common critical change areas identified(policy makers, networks, foundations, teachers and parents associations, NGOs)

BUT

fragmentation of innovative initiatives is still the rule and impact of innovation at system level is insufficient.

From fragmentation to system interaction

From personal collaboration to institutional partnership

From self-referentiality to multi-stakeholders governance

Learning teachers

Motivated learners

Governance &

Leadership

MethodsContents

Autonomyof

Learners

Curricula Reform New lear

ning

spac

es

Valuing informal

learning

Personali

sation of

learning p

aths

Democratic School System

Governance

Substantial stakeholders’ involvement

School leadership

Partnership for Lifelong Learning

More flexible regulations

Valuing bottom-up innovation

Quality approaches supportive to

innovation

Teaching as orchestration

Active and context based learning

Assessment supportive to

learning

Develop collaboration and

inter-cultural communication

skillsDevelop talents and creativity

Use of full potential of ICT for learning

Learning to learn

competence

Learning quality

awareness

Open educational

practices

Motivation / pleasure of

learning

Learning for life and

citizenship

Employability

Value orientation and societal

role

Digital competences

Key competences

for LLL

• Need for a substantial and participative involvement in the initiative of as many as possible stakeholders feeling the need to change and to share their transformation experience in a collaborative and value-oriented framework of action.

• Common values = peace, democracy, sustainable development, respect for and valorisation of diversity, social cohesiveness, solidarity, participation, creativity and innovation.

The Learning School Initiative (LSI) wants to complement and facilitate existing funding sources (e.g. the EU Lifelong Learning Programme, World Bank subsidies and loans, National Governments Programmes, major Foundations worldwide) to build on existing results and to convey strategic investments on a synergetic programme recognised worldwide

We call for a massive mobilisation to map existing projects, innovative schools, available support funds Map of School Transformation. The map would help:•Schools to self-assess their orientation towards the necessary innovation and to find relevant partners worldwide and support agencies.•Funding Agencies to coordinate their action, to focus on change areas where funding support is insufficient, to identify relevant actors and avoid duplication of funding.•Educators and Researchers to collaborate in knowledge building on what works where at what conditions.•Existing networks to better cooperate and share resources and results to maximise their impact.

An early promoter

A contributor to the observatory

A HUB of stakeholders and networks

A facilitator for integration

A partner for policy makers(e.g. creative learning environments)

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”

The Way of Lao-tzuChinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)