DUBAI: Unconventional schooling models including classrooms with no teachers or walls are defying the conventions of education, the World Government Summit was told on Sunday.
A Bali school founded by Canadian entrepreneurs John and Cynthia Hardy are conducting lessons in classrooms made entirely of bamboo, utilizing the impact of nature and environment in the students’ education.
“Green School is like no other. It has no walls, and the children are happy. This provides an incredible environment for growth,” John Hardy said, adding how “giving children freedom from boundaries teaches them to solve problems and think critically in ways we had never imagined possible.”
Another school with an unconventional model is Ecole 42 in Paris, where students work in “a building with no supervision.”
“Learning by rote is dangerous and makes you stupid. Information is freely available on the internet. What we need in today’s world is the ability to create new stuff out of this knowledge by working together,” said founder Nicolas Sadirac who initially designed the program for poor children and school dropouts.
“It’s all about creating a safe place, and then providing an environment of trust. It helps to gamify the experience to make it fun. Then you step aside and watch the kids flourish,” Sadirac added.
Both models were presented to a group of educators attending the World Government Summit in Dubai, where a session about the future of education was organized.
“You are going to have to change your old thinking,” a clinical psychologist said at the end of the session.
