No Rules Learning

No Rules Learning has evolved from a wide range of experiences I have had in my teaching career and has really started to come together in the past few months, with contributions from a number of colleagues, notably Mark Stone, Rebecca Dickinson and Ed Bell at GEMS Royal Dubai School, Louisa Larsen and Alasdair Lightbody at Jumeirah College and Andrew Nolan, Education Technology Advisor at GEMS Education.

The idea first came about when we were asked by UNESCO to provide material for their upcoming publication on global ICT use in primary schools and also to run a workshop at a related conference which took place at Atlantis, Dubai in March 2014.  The UNESCO team had visited the school in the previous academic year but I, along with Mark and Rebecca, felt that we had all learned so much since then, that it just wouldn't be good enough to showcase what the school had been doing almost a year ago.  A year, as we all know, is a very, very long time when we are learning every day!  So, we started to think about how good learning really could be if we brought together everything we knew, believed and had learned, from global research and our own experiences, from students, parents, colleagues and our PLNs... altogether in a workable model of effective learning.  

One thing became clear very quickly: this was about great learning, not technology.  We knew the digital element would be important, but also that it would not dominate the model.  We started with the English Language Learning department at GRDS, asking a BIG question of ourselves and our students, 

"What would you do if you weren't in school?"

This was a BIG question because we were looking to redefine the model of learning, taking all that was effective in our current practice and from global research whilst at the same time, crucially, discarding and destroying anything we were doing just because we'd always done it or because it was 'policy' at school, local, national or any other level.  This was indeed to be "No Rules" Learning.  If we thought it would work (and did not put the children at risk) then we did it.  If we thought there were things we were currently doing just because they were expected, but were actually ineffective or even damaging, we binned them. 

The result is the model shown below.  It is certainly not complete.  It is ever-evolving as we keep on learning. There is a story and a whole raft of research, theory and practice behind each element - and this will be the subject matter of future posts.  For now, I would just say we believe we are heading in the right direction.  How do we know?  Because student achievement has gone through the roof.  The children are buzzing.  The parents are loving it and raving about how engaged their kids are at home, as they carry on learning however they need to.  

There's a lot more of this story to tell and it will surely never end.  We are certain of one thing, though:  we need to constantly challenge old paradigms, archaic systems and ineffective practices if we are to do the best we can for the children we are teaching right now and in the future.

This is No Rules Learning and we are loving it!