Friday, April 24, 2009
Can Swedish school success translate to an English context?
.jpg)
The highly successful Kunskapasskolan schools are confident their style of personalised learning can work in England and are on their way to opening their first Academy.
The first Kunskapsskolan school opened in 1999 and ten years later they have 30 schools catering for 10,000 learners and employing 750 teachers. They are state funded (through the Swedish voucher scheme), free of charge and non-selective. And now they are the preferred sponsors for two Academies in Richmond, Surrey.
The schools which are known for their flexible learning times, styles and environments are anything but ad hoc; every aspect is designed and decided upon according to the educational principles of independent learning and personailsed education.
The model is based on each learner having their own individual learning plan which they design themselves at the beginning of the school year/term in collaboration with a Personal Tutor and their parents. The plan will be devised from choosing areas they wish to study from a wide-ranging set of options. They then decide which level (Step) they will start studying each chosen area at. Each area has 35 steps. Achieving this individual portfolio of Steps is then their set of targets. Each learner starts at a Step related to their previous achievements or knowledge in that area of study not their age. Each week every learner has a one-to-one meeting with their Personal Tutor to agree their targets for that week; these are recorded in their personal log book and then reviewed at the next week's meeting. Learners also select from week to week how they would like to study to best achieve their goals. They can select from lectures, one-to-one sessions, independent study as well as small groups and seminar classes. Each week, for each learner is different from the one before because they will have actively shaped how they will learn that week.
The co-founder of the schools, Anders Hultin explains, " if students are responsible for their own learning they achieve better results". The learning is by no means left to chance under the Kunskapsskolan system: the role of the Personal Tutor is central to the running of the school. The Personal Tutor stays with a student throughout their time at the school and in the weekly review meetings decides how much flexibility over learning styles is appropriate for each student, dependent on how successfully they have achieved their goals set the previous week. This system of "earned autonomy" is also the basis of the discipline system in the schools.
Every teacher is a Personal Tutor (Learning Mentor) and with each student receiving a 15 minutes one to one Review Session each week as well as regular Development Sessions and Parent Sessions this is a significant part of their week. All teachers also teach their specialism. Training for the Personal Tutor role is considerable and ongoing in the schools.
"The Personal Tutor's role is to be an expert at motivating and encouraging students to learn."
Students at Kunskapsskolan schools are given flexibility in their learning at the same time as being given more responsibility for their own learning within a framework of carefully devised individual learning plans which are negotiated with the active involvement of parents.
Students from these schools are doing very well in comparison to their counterparts in other Swedish schools which are closer in structure and approach to English schools. There are no standard grades in Sweden although they are being introduced in August 2009, when a more direct comparison can be made.
Each year all members of the school community in every one of the 30 schools are surveyed for their views and ratings of various aspects of the school system and these report a resounding success rate with 86 % of parents and 70% of students saying they would recommend a Kunskapsskolan school.
If they are successful in Richmond, the first English children will experience the Kunskapsskolan system in 2013.
To read more about the Kunskapsskolan approach.