Education
The school of Campana where children already learn in "the classrooms of the future" following an innovative Dutch method
The newspaper La Nación published on the cover of its weekly magazine an extensive article about the Roberto Rocca Technical School (ETRR), as a case of educational spaces that generate transformation in education. With testimonies from the international designer Rosan Bosch, and the directors of the ETRR Ludovico Grillo and Mariana Albarracín, the model of Project-Based Learning and the integral redesign of educational spaces, among other topics, are addressed.
Safety pin. An article that is worth reading and rereading to understand where the educational model proposed by the Roberto Rocca Technical School is going, where students are at the center of the learning process, teachers are trained and evaluated to accompany them, and the different spaces encourage their autonomy and the development of their abilities.
LA NACIÓN newspaper published, in its second edition of August, a cover article about the Roberto Rocca Technical School and the revamping of its spaces to promote the development of the skills of the XXI century, with photographic display of the renovated spaces and the students of the school. To do this, in a visit to the ETRR they spoke with Rosan Bosch, director of the Danish studio that was in charge of the redesign of the architecture of the School, and with the directors Ludovico Grillo and Mariana Albarracín.
"Most schools are buildings designed for control, but today we know that you learn through experimentation, when you are motivated and in collaboration with others. When the student is at the center of the design and architecture of educational spaces, he feels empowered to design together with his peers and teachers his own learning journey within the school", begins explaining Rosan Bosch.
The common spaces, with tables, armchairs and collaborative puffs, are also for concentration or rest, depending on the need.
For his part, Ludovico Grillo, points out that the design and architecture of the spaces enhances Project-Based Learning, an educational model that the school began working on since 2017. "It is an active methodology that allows students to acquire knowledge and skills by developing projects that respond to real-life problems. However, the digitalization of the education system motivated by the pandemic marked a before and after. When we returned to a face-to-face course scheme, we reorganized the curriculum to channel new curiosities and skills that students brought from home. We understood that we were going to need to reform classrooms and common spaces, migrating to a design that favors innovation, autonomy and collaborative work," says Grillo.
As expressed in the article, the educational model of the ETRR puts students at the center of learning and enhances their autonomy. For this it is necessary to offer them spaces through design that help motivate them.
"It's about maximizing learning capacity, offering them different scenarios to be inspired, since each person is motivated in a different way. If we are able to discover what is the way that works best for us to learn, it will also serve us for the future and for all those learnings that we must do in life, "says Bosch. "
The design and architecture of the spaces enhances Project-Based Learning, an educational model that the school began working on since 2017.
Then, the redesign of the ETRR is addressed, organized through learning areas (nodes) to promote multidisciplinary work and by projects: Technological innovation; Health and movement; Nature and sustainability; Think global-Act local.
Mariana Albarracín, the vice-principal, points out that it is the boys and girls of the school took ownership of the new spaces quickly and explored the opportunities that these environments offer them to learn. "For example, machine learning spaces allow two students from the third and fourth year third- and fourth-year students to create and test an experimental rocket engine. In the projects, the students put into play knowledge in mechanical design, physics and chemistry, plus concepts of thermodynamics that they acquired by adding to the course of the subject that students of higher years have. The support of teachers outside the usual curriculum was also key."
Educational referents of the debate "education for work" also contribute their view on the relevance of educational spaces in the transformation of pedagogy. None other than Melina Furman, PhD in Education and Researcher at Conicet; Mariana Maggio, director of the Master's Degree in Educational Technology at the University of Buenos Aires and writer, or the former NBA player himself, Pepe Sánchez, who worked with the designer Rosan Bosch on ideas that unite sport and design, give color and opinion to the note "The Classrooms of the Future".