Vicky Colbert, sociologist: “If children are different, the school has to adapt to them, and not the other way around” | Training | Economy | EUROtoday

Today we speak naturally about energetic methodologies, cooperative studying, student-centered lecture rooms and academics who accompany slightly than dictate. It sounds up to date, virtually inevitable. But half a century in the past, in essentially the most remoted rural colleges of Colombia, all that was a rarity. There, in multigrade lecture rooms with a single instructor and kids of various ages sharing a desk, Escuela Nueva was born, a pedagogical mannequin that didn’t search to reinvent training, however to make it attainable. Universalizing main faculty, decreasing faculty dropouts and demonstrating {that a} high quality public faculty might flourish even in contexts of poverty and violence had been the start line of a silent revolution that started removed from the facilities of instructional energy.

At the forefront of this transformation was Vicky Colbert, a Colombian sociologist and educator who quickly understood that innovating in training doesn’t include importing theories, however slightly translating them into actuality. Inspired by Dewey, Montessori and Piaget—whose concepts had been already circulating in elite colleges—Colbert proposed one thing way more uncomfortable: bringing an energetic, personalised and cooperative pedagogy to essentially the most weak colleges within the nation, making it viable for academics and sustaining it as public coverage. Fifty years later, when many of those concepts are as soon as once more making headlines, their trajectory invitations an uncomfortable and pertinent query: why will we proceed to name what already labored up to now “education of the future”?

We spoke along with her throughout WISE 12, the academic innovation convention held in Doha (Qatar) on the finish of final month.

Ask. Cooperative studying, student-centered training or the function of academics as facilitators are at the moment central points of just about any instructional renewal undertaking. And but you set all that into follow virtually half a century in the past. How do you’re feeling once you see that many of those concepts are introduced as innovation at the moment?

Answer. I at all times say the identical factor, and I repeat it as a result of it will be significant: in relation to the philosophy of training, we don’t invent something new; What we did was merely put it into follow, show that it labored and maintain it over time. And not solely in Language or Mathematics, which is what everybody seems to be at, but additionally in one thing that’s virtually by no means measured: coexistence and vanity, the human dimension of training.

This requires working with actual colleges, in tough contexts, with actual kids and academics, and turning it into public coverage. Because, with out that step, the concepts stay within the discourse. Therefore, for me, the vital factor is that training as soon as once more places its human dimension on the middle: accompanying, cooperating and studying collectively. That’s the place the whole lot is performed.

P. When Escuela Nueva started to advertise, within the seventies, Colombia didn’t even assure full main training. What particular downside did you need to clear up once you first entered these rural lecture rooms?

R. It was very fundamental, truly. At that point the good problem was to universalize main training. Colombia, like many Latin American nations, didn’t assure that kids completed main faculty, and that conditioned the whole lot else.

In training, moreover, one has to begin from what exists. You can not arrive and attempt to reinvent the wheel. So the very first thing was to have a look at what was in these rural areas, how these colleges labored, what the academics did.

What we discovered was the unitary faculty, the single-teacher faculty [centros rurales en los que un solo maestro atiende en la misma aula a alumnos de distintas edades y niveles]which exists in lots of components of the world the place there’s low inhabitants density. This expertise had been supported by UNESCO, nevertheless it had a number of rejection from the academics. And there I discovered one thing that has at all times accompanied me: that any instructional innovation, if it desires to really impression, needs to be technically, politically and financially viable. If it isn’t politically viable, it’s ineffective. It could also be very fairly, nevertheless it would not change something.

P. Escuela Nueva was born in multigrade colleges, with a single instructor and college students of various ages. What did you see in that mannequin—which many thought of an issue—that made you suppose that there was a pedagogical alternative there?

R. Precisely that: that heterogeneity was not an impediment, however a possibility. In a multigrade faculty you might have kids of various ages, totally different rhythms and experiences. This forces you to rethink the way in which you educate and be taught, as a result of not everybody will be doing the identical factor on the identical time.

There the subject of a extra personalised training started to be mentioned. If kids are totally different, the college has to adapt to them, and never the opposite method round. This concerned altering each the group of the classroom and using time and the function of the instructor. And, above all, perceive that kids might be taught from one another. Peer or cooperative studying grew to become central from the start.

P. Many of the concepts that assist Escuela Nueva already existed in pedagogical concept. So what was really revolutionary in regards to the mannequin?

R. The revolutionary factor was to make it a actuality within the poorest colleges and show that it labored. Escuela Nueva is, at its core, a profound pedagogical reform. It isn’t new in philosophy, however it’s new in the way in which of placing it into follow in a systemic and replicable method.

We compelled ourselves to design very particular methods: studying guides in order that the youngsters progressed at their very own tempo, a classroom group that facilitated cooperative work, and versatile promotion that averted course repetitions. We reworked huge complexity into easy actions that academics might do, and we evaluated on a regular basis, as a result of with out proof there isn’t a public coverage or sustained adjustments.

P. One of the massive adjustments that Escuela Nueva introduces is the function of the instructor, who stops being a transmitter of content material and turns into a counselor and mentor. How is that this shift achieved in such precarious contexts?

R. That has at all times been one of many largest challenges: colleges of training proceed to coach many academics with conventional fashions, after which we ask them to work in one other method. That is why from the start we had been clear that we couldn’t depart the instructor alone. Never.

The very first thing was for the academics to reside the methodology and expertise it themselves. Then, present them colleges the place the mannequin was already working, as a result of when a instructor sees one thing and thinks “I can do that,” that is the place the change begins. And then got here an important factor: not letting go. Create networks between them, areas so they may share doubts, errors and learnings. A change that was not made with a decree from above, however from under, within the faculty, caring for the academics and accompanying them. That largely explains why Escuela Nueva has survived so a few years.

P. Educational success is usually measured in Language and Mathematics, however you insist lots on one other, much less seen impression. What occurred with coexistence and the socio-emotional dimension within the colleges the place Escuela Nueva was utilized?

R. For me that’s key. Everyone measures disciplines reminiscent of Language and Mathematics, however coexistence is sort of by no means checked out. And we noticed an unlimited impression there, as a result of by enhancing the youngsters’s vanity, violence additionally decreased. The kids discovered to dialogue, to look one another within the eyes, to agree and work as a workforce.

We have been measuring socio-emotional expertise, vanity and peaceable coexistence for greater than 40 years. But regardless of the proof, we needed to publish it exterior of Colombia, on the University of London, in order that they’d consider us. Sometimes in Latin America we produce a number of poetry and little science, and we wanted empirical proof. Escuela Nueva demonstrated that tutorial studying may very well be improved and, on the identical time, coexistence constructed. That wasn’t frequent then, and it nonetheless is not frequent in lots of locations.

P. They demonstrated that college students from rural facilities obtained tutorial outcomes equal to and even greater than these from city facilities. What function did analysis play in turning the mannequin into public coverage?

R. A central function, as a result of with out proof there isn’t a public coverage. When we confirmed that kids from very poor rural contexts might have higher outcomes than others from greater socioeconomic contexts, many prejudices had been damaged.

Thanks to those evaluations, Escuela Nueva grew to become a nationwide technique. By the top of the eighties it was already in additional than 20,000 rural colleges and had reached greater than 1,000,000 kids. The World Bank acknowledged it as one of the crucial profitable instructional improvements in growing nations. This confirmed that colleges can compensate for inequalities if they’re really reworked.

P. Over time, the mannequin was tailored to city contexts, to populations displaced by violence and to extra huge instructional programs. What did you be taught from that course of?

R. We discovered that pedagogy is nice pedagogy, whatever the context, however that it’s essential to adapt it in line with every circumstance. That is why we created the Escuela Nueva Foundation, to proceed innovating and never keep solely in rural areas. We adapt the mannequin to city colleges, to displaced populations, to migrants… In Colombia there are tens of millions of individuals displaced by violence and greater than two million Venezuelans. You can not take a toddler who has skilled that and put him in a depersonalized faculty anticipating the whole lot to work the identical. Escuela Nueva allowed higher retention and fewer dropout, as a result of it respects rhythms and takes care of individuals.

P. Today training is crossed by know-how and synthetic intelligence. What can Escuela Nueva contribute on this new state of affairs?

R. Technology can enhance inequities if not managed properly, particularly in contexts the place there’s nonetheless little or no connectivity. But on the identical time, synthetic intelligence forces us to rescue the true human function of the instructor.

A pc won’t be able to show teamwork; to cooperate; to guide processes or to dialogue. Learning to work collaboratively is essentially the most tough of all, and that’s exactly the guts of Escuela Nueva: a stability between personalised and cooperative studying, between autonomy and democracy. If know-how is used properly, it might reinforce that human dimension, slightly than exchange it.

P. After 5 many years of labor, what do you contemplate important in any instructional reform that aspires to cut back inequalities?

R. It wants to think about 5 points: deal with folks; that it isn’t only a content material reform, however a profound pedagogical change; that entails academics from the start; that’s based mostly on proof and that has a systemic view.

Education can’t be restricted to tutorial outcomes; It has to type human beings able to residing collectively, respecting and dealing collectively. That is essentially the most tough and, on the identical time, an important. And that’s what Escuela Nueva has tried to show from the start.