Avui vull parlar sobre una idea. És una idea sobre un nou tipus d'escola, que fa canviar radicalment el pensament convencional sobre perquè serveixen les escoles i com funcionen. I podria arribar ben aviat a un barri a prop teu. Prové d'una organització anomenada la Young Foundation que, durant diverses dècades, ha generat diverses innovacions en educació, com la Open University i coses com les Extended Schools, escoles per a innovadors socials, universitats d'estiu i la School of Everything.
What I want to talk about today is one idea. It's an idea for a new kind of school, which turns on its head much of our conventional thinking about what schools are for and how they work. And it might just be coming to a neighborhood near you soon. Where it comes from is an organization called the Young Foundation, which, over many decades, has come up with many innovations in education, like the Open University and things like Extended Schools, Schools for Social Entrepreneurs, Summer Universities and the School of Everything.
I fa uns cinc anys ens vam preguntar quina era la innovació que feia més falta en el sistema educatiu aquí al Regne Unit. I vam pensar que la prioritat més important era ajuntar dos problemes. Un era el gran nombre de joves avorrits als que no els agradava l'escola, i no podien veure cap relació entre el que aprenien a l'escola i les seves feines futures. I les empreses que se seguien queixant que els nens que sortien de l'escola no estaven prou preparats per a treballar: no tenien l'actitud o l'experiència.
And about five years ago, we asked what was the most important need for innovation in schooling here in the U.K. And we felt the most important priority was to bring together two sets of problems. One was large numbers of bored teenagers who just didn't like school, couldn't see any relationship between what they learned in school and future jobs. And employers who kept complaining that the kids coming out of school weren't actually ready for real work, didn't have the right attitudes and experience. And so we try to ask:
Així que provem de preguntar-nos: Com seria una escola on els joves es barallarien per entrar i no per a marxar-ne? I després de centenars de converses amb joves i professors i pares i empreses i escoles des de Paraguai fins a Australia, i mirant algunes recerques acadèmiques, que mostraven la importància del que ara s'anomenen habilitats no-cognitives (les habilitats de motivació, resistència...) i que aquestes són tan importants com les habilitats cognitives (habilitats acadèmiques formals) vam arribar a una resposta, una de molt simple, que vam anomenar "Studio School". I n'hi vam dir Studio School per a tornar a la idea original d'un estudi del Renaixement on la feina i l'aprenentatge estaven integrats. Treballes aprenent, i aprens treballant. I el disseny al que vam arribar tenia les següents característiques.
What kind of school would have the teenagers fighting to get in, not fighting to stay out? And after hundreds of conversations with teenagers and teachers and parents and employers and schools from Paraguay to Australia, and looking at some of the academic research, which showed the importance of what's now called non-cognitive skills -- the skills of motivation, resilience -- and that these are as important as the cognitive skills -- formal academic skills -- we came up with an answer, a very simple answer in a way, which we called the Studio School. And we called it a studio school to go back to the original idea of a studio in the Renaissance where work and learning are integrated. You work by learning, and you learn by working. And the design we came up with had the following characteristics.
Primer, volíem escoles petites (d'uns 300-400 alumnes), dels 14 als 19 anys, i molt important, amb el 80 per cent del pla d'estudis desenvolupat no en la cadira de classe, sinó mitjançant projectes pràctics basats en la vida real, treballant a comissió en empreses, ONGs i altres. Cada alumne tindria un tutor particular, a més de professors, que tindrien horaris molt més semblant a l'ambient en una empresa. I tot això dins del sistema públic, amb fons públics, però gestionat independentment. I tot sense cost, sense selecció, i oferint als alumnes un camí cap a la universitat, encara que molts d'ells vulguin ser emprenedors o tenir oficis. Per sota hi havia idees molt simples: que un gran nombre d'adolescents aprenen millor fent coses, aprenen millor en equips, i que aprenen millor fent les coses de debò, al contrari del que la majoria d'escoles estan fent en realitat.
First of all, we wanted small schools -- about 300, 400 pupils -- 14 to 19 year-olds, and critically, about 80 percent of the curriculum done not through sitting in classrooms, but through real-life, practical projects, working on commission to businesses, NGO's and others. That every pupil would have a coach, as well as teachers, who would have timetables much more like a work environment in a business. And all of this will be done within the public system, funded by public money, but independently run. And all at no extra cost, no selection, and allowing the pupils the route into university, even if many of them would want to become entrepreneurs and have manual jobs as well. Underlying it was some very simple ideas that large numbers of teenagers learn best by doing things, they learn best in teams and they learn best by doing things for real -- all the opposite of what mainstream schooling actually does.
Això era una bona idea, i vam entrar ràpidament en la fase de prototipatge. Ho vam provar, primer a Luton... famós pel seu aeroport i no gaire cosa més, em temo... i a Blackpool... famós per les seves platges i oci. I vam trobar-nos que - i vam equivocar-nos en bastantes coses i després les vam millorar - però vam adonar-nos que als joves els encantava. Ho van trobar molt més motivador, molt més emocionant que l'educació tradicional. I potser el més important de tot, dos anys després quan van sortir els resultats dels examens, els alumnes que havien estat en aquestes proves que estaven en els grups amb els pitjors resultats havien saltat a les primeres posicions -- de fet, a la part alta del decil més alt de rendiment dins dels patrons del GCSE que és el sistema de barem britànic.
Now that was a nice idea, so we moved into the rapid prototyping phase. We tried it out, first in Luton -- famous for its airport and not much else, I fear -- and in Blackpool -- famous for its beaches and leisure. And what we found -- and we got quite a lot of things wrong and then improved them -- but we found that the young people loved it. They found it much more motivational, much more exciting than traditional education. And perhaps most important of all, two years later when the exam results came through, the pupils who had been put on these field trials who were in the lowest performing groups had jumped right to the top -- in fact, pretty much at the top decile of performance in terms of GCSE's, which is the British marking system.
Així doncs no va ser una sorpresa que això va fer pensar a algunes persones que haviem fet alguna cosa interessant. El Ministre d'educació al sud, a Londres es va descriure com un "gran fan". I les empreses van pensar que haviem arribat a alguna cosa interessant en quant a preparar molt millor als nens per al treball real d'avui. I el cap de la Cambra de Comerç és ara el President del Consell de Studio Schools Trust i ho està ajudant, no només amb empreses grans, sinó amb empreses petites per tot el país.
Now not surprisingly, that influenced some people to think we were onto something. The minister of education down south in London described himself as a "big fan." And the business organizations thought we were onto something in terms of a way of preparing children much better for real-life work today. And indeed, the head of the Chambers of Commerce is now the chairman of the Studio Schools Trust and helping it, not just with big businesses, but small businesses all over the country.
Vam començar amb dues escoles. Ha crescut aquest any a unes 10. I l'any que ve, esperem tenir-ne unes 35 obertes al llarg d'Anglaterra, i altres 40 àrees volen obrir les seves pròpies escoles -- una expansió prou ràpida d'aquesta idea. És interessant que, això hagi passat gairebé totalment sense cobertura mediàtica. Ha passat gairebé totalment sense un gran suport financer. S'ha expandit gairebé pel boca orella, viralment, entre professors, pares, persones involucrades en l'educació. I s'ha expandit pel poder d'una idea... una idea molt, molt simple que era posar l'educació cap per avall i posar les coses que eren marginals coses com treballar en equips, fent projectes pràctics, i posant-ho tot al bell mig de l'educació, més que a l'exterior.
We started with two schools. That's grown this year to about 10. And next year, we're expecting about 35 schools open across England, and another 40 areas want to have their own schools opening -- a pretty rapid spread of this idea. Interestingly, it's happened almost entirely without media coverage. It's happened almost entirely without big money behind it. It spread almost entirely through word of mouth, virally, across teachers, parents, people involved in education. And it spread because of the power of an idea -- so the very, very simple idea about turning education on its head and putting the things which were marginal, things like working in teams, doing practical projects, and putting them right at the heart of learning, rather than on the edges.
Ara hi ha un nou grup d'escoles que obren aquesta tardor. Això és una de Yorkshire on, de fet, el meu nebot, espero, pugui anar-hi. I aquesta està focalitzada en indústries creatives i de mitjans. Altres s'han centrat en temes de salut, turisme, enginyeria i altres camps.
Now there's a whole set of new schools opening up this autumn. This is one from Yorkshire where, in fact, my nephew, I hope, will be able to attend it. And this one is focused on creative and media industries. Other ones have a focus on health care, tourism, engineering and other fields.
Creiem que estem sobre alguna cosa. Encara no és perfecta, però creiem que és una idea que pot transformar les vides de mil.lers, possiblement milions, de joves que estan ben avorrits pel sistema d'escolarització. No els anima. Ells no són com aquells de vosaltres que podeu asseure-us en files i escoltar com us expliquen coses una hora rere una altra. Volen fer coses, volen embrutar-se les mans, volen que l'educació sigui real. I la meva esperança es que alguns de vosaltres aquí pugueu ajudar-nos.
We think we're onto something. It's not perfect yet, but we think this is one idea which can transform the lives of thousands, possibly millions, of teenagers who are really bored by schooling. It doesn't animate them. They're not like all of you who can sit in rows and hear things said to you for hour after hour. They want to do things, they want to get their hands dirty, they want education to be for real. And my hope is that some of you out there may be able to help us.
Sentim que som al principi d'un viatge d'experimentació i millora per a transformar la idea de Studio School en quelcom que sigui present, no com una resposta universal per a tots els nens, sinó almenys una resposta per a alguns nens de tot el món. I espero que alguns de vosaltres pugueu ajudar-nos a fer-ho realitat.
We feel we're on the beginning of a journey of experiment and improvement to turn the Studio School idea into something which is present, not as a universal answer for every child, but at least as an answer for some children in every part of the world. And I hope that a few of you at least can help us make that happen.
Moltes gràcies.
Thank you very much.
(Aplaudiments)
(Applause)