MISSION BASED LEARNINGDEVELOPING A REALISTIC OPEN SCHOOLING MODEL EQUIPPING YOUNG STUDENTS WITH THER 21ST CENTURY SKILLS AND COMPETENCES THEY NEED

Students who are best prepared for the future are CHANGE AGENTS. OECD, “Education 2030”, 2018Encourage “open schooling” where schools become an AGENT OF COMMUNITY WELL-BEING. EU Commission, Science Education for Responsible Citizenship, 2015WHAT THE PROJECT WILL DELIVERMission Based Learning is an open schooling model, based on, but going further than, the key principles of open schooling. The new learning approach is named Mission Based Learning, and it is based on 10 years of educational innovation experimentation.The project sets out to test the qualities of Mission Based Learning through thorough experiments in secondary schools from different countries. From this experimentation it will deliver useful and practice-based guidance to teachers and schools in the process of taking action to change traditional classroom teaching, or to integrate alternative learning activities in the normal school life. In the process the project will test the educator competences developed under the Rounder Sense of Purpose (RSP) Erasmus+ project.WHY IS THE “MISSION BASED LEARNING” MODEL ABLE TO RESPOND TO WHAT 21ST CENTURY YOUNG STUDENTS NEED?Learning through strong and immersive community missions includes all the challenges the student needs to develop such skills, competences and capacity. Helping students to develop these capacities requires teachers to adopt a new role; this is reflected in the RSP competence framework, hence this will underpin the project approach.THE BACKGROUND AND NEEDAs documented by leading educational research and clearly stated by the EU Commission, EU’s education systems need to change dramatically and fundamentally.The education we offer the new generations is not fit to give them the competences, skills and capacity to live, learn and work in the globalised 21st century. The world that the new generations grow up in is above all characterised by constant change, unpredictable direction and serious local and global threats. At the same time, and even more importantly, the new generations of students are dramatically different from former generations: the young people think, live and learn in fundamentally different ways that the older generations.THE CORE INNOVATIONThe students will learn through:- addressing real-life and real-time challenges instead of working with artificial material in the classroom- paying attention to what needs to be changed, improved or even invented in the community- engaging in long term missions to create change in the community- through being entrepreneurial and through growing an innovation mind-set- through working in teams, in complicated projects, with a wide range of societal players and resources- developing increasing agency: avoiding contemplation and taking action, avoiding hesitation and demonstrating intention, purpose and direction – and avoiding “knowing about” and seeking “accomplishment”All this is underpinned by teachers who can facilitate these processes, hence the need to adopt a coherent framework of educator competences.Thus Mission Based Learning builds on two decades of educational innovation experimentation but takes innovation much further. This project allows the young students to learn from real-life engagement, from taking change action and from accomplishing important missions or projects with relevance to the students as well as the community. PROJECT METHODOLOGYThe methodology combines an INNOVATION METHODOLOGY (“how the innovation will be produced”) and an IMPLEMENTATION METHODOLOGY (“how the project will progress towards its results”). This powerful double methodology has been applied in several demanding E+ projects with considerable success. At the same time the project applies an authentic and un-compromised students’ co-creation approach: co-creating the project progression as well as the project outcomesWHO ARE THE PROJECT PLAYERS?The powerful partnership consists of 9 partners from 8 countries:2 knowledge partners, one is the coordinator1 knowledge/practice partner5 secondary schools from different countries1 quality assurance partner with European experienceThe consortium includes high-level knowledge partners from the UK, Finland and Poland – plus a large group of dedicated secondary schools from all across Europe. The consortium pan-EU with partners from Finland to Spain to the UK to Turkey!THE RESULTS OF THE PROJECTThe project will produce a long line of process outcomes building up to the final outcomes, and for dissemination.The final outcomes are:THE SCHOOL GUIDE TO MISSION BASED LEARNING - Engaging 21st century young studentsWHAT WE NEED AND HOW WE LEARN - Students’ video messages to educationalistsWHAT (LOCAL) POLICY-MAKERS CAN DO FOR 21ST CENTURY YOUNG STUDENTS - Policy paperHOW TO HELP TRANSFORM YOUNG 21ST CENTURY STUDENTS FROM “UNTEACHABLES” TO “LEARNABLES” (Working Title) - Mission Based Learning theoreticalcontribution to the EU open schooling agenda