In this toolset we start the process of building a Future Classroom Scenario by thinking about how education will change in the coming years, and how education systems, schools and teaching might need to evolve.
We do this by involving stakeholders. When mainstreaming innovation in a school it is important to include different perspectives and views. Stakeholders in education include teachers and other members of school staff like school leaders, special needs and ICT coordinators, but also students and parents. The views of stakeholders in the wider school community are also important: employers, politicians, higher or vocational education providers, for example.
Innovation in a school usually begins as an initiative taken by one or more individual teachers. This toolkit aims at upscaling the innovation process by involving a wide set of stakeholders. A key idea is to create an Innovation Team with representatives of different stakeholders. The Innovation Team can coordinate the change process and implement Future Classroom Scenarios.
Schools reflect wider changes in society and employers are looking for young people with skills that were less prized in the past, such as being able to work in teams and solve real-world problems. The way we learn has changed too: it is no longer limited to the hours spent under the supervision of a teacher. The changes in society and learning we call trends. They can be both opportunities and challenges, such as the increase in student-owned personal devices such as smartphones or tablets, social trends such as migration, economic ones such as funding cutbacks and rising unemployment, or policy developments such as increased accountability and school autonomy.
In this toolset we provide guidance on identifying and working with stakeholders, and how we work with stakeholders to identify the most important trends. These trends become the building blocks for a Future Classroom Scenario which can be used to bring innovation to the classroom and ensure the future classroom responds to future needs.
Inspiring user stories
Teaching coding is a growing trend worldwide. In this video, created within the FCL Regio project, teachers from Sweden explain how they have implemented coding in their teaching practice.
Collaboration among teachers is an important trend. In this video, created within the CO-LAB project, teachers from Ireland discuss their experience of collaborating with teachers from different schools. They talk about the benefits of having a dedicated time and space to devote to collaborating together, the advantages of working with teachers from different disciplines, and how technology can facilitate the process.
The tools in this toolset
- Tool 1.1 Interacting with stakeholders: Guidance on involving and working with different types of stakeholders
- Tool 1.2 Identifying, selecting and ranking relevant trends: Guidance on working with a diversity of stakeholders to identify, select and prioritise important trends likely to impact on education over the coming years.