Schools as Learning Communities

08 October 2008 to 10 October 2008
Bilbao, Spain

Peer Learning Cluster or other group

Access and Social Inclusion

Background

The fifth Peer Learning Activity of the Cluster on Access and Social Inclusion was jointly hosted by the Spanish Ministry of Education and the Basque Government.

 

Its main purpose was to focus on measures to address diversity in the Basque Country, mainly implemented by its department for educational innovation.

 

The flagship measure is the so-called 'Learning Communities', but other measures were also presented and discussed: linguistic support for immigrant pupils; specific educational intervention projects; curricular diversification programs and complementary schooling.

Description

Some key lessons learnt:

 

The major lesson learnt by Cluster members in the Basque Country was that change is possible. In the Basque Country, Cluster members were e.g. able to discuss with teachers, school staff, other adults and with pupils themselves, how the setting up of a Learning Communities project represented a major turning point in the life of single schools, and how it managed to improve crucial aspects such as school climate, teacher satisfaction or academic results.


Other lessons learnt concerned the following areas: 
  • Raising the quality of single schools can avoid their ghettoisation; 
  • Educational administrations can act as a catalyser, but to achieve real change the sharing of a project within a school is required; 
  • Innovative approaches do not necessarily have to be more expensive than traditional measures; 
  • Given the right conditions, the opening of schools, including classrooms, to external actors, can give substantial benefits; 
  • The guiding principle must be the development of an ethos of respect; 
  • Teachers' empowerment an motivation is a key factor; 
  • Inclusive education, as opposed to differentiated one, can bring good results for all; 
  • Frameworks need to be flexible – there are no 'one size fits all' solutions;
  • Schools and education researchers should work more closely together.
For further reading, see:
Knowledge System for Lifelong Learning