IT is not the most usual lesson for pupils to be set in a classroom – to design and build a robot – but then those setting the lesson are not exactly usual either. In a new initiative by Kelvinside Academy in Glasgow, for two weeks this summer the school’s curriculum will be set not by the teachers but by graduates from MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Out will go the traditional lessons and in will come robot design and a host of other real-world challenges.
The theory behind the idea is fascinating. According to Saba Ghole of the US company NuVu, which is involved in the project, there is too much emphasis on taking exams, and Ian Munro, the headmaster of Kelvinside Academy, agrees with her. “Is it possible that schools as we know them are no longer best suited to equipping youngsters for life beyond the classroom?” he asks.
It is a fair question, and one which is at the centre of the Curriculum for Excellence. Like the project at Kelvinside, the idea behind CfE was that there has been far too much emphasis on academic exams and their results at the expense of other aspects of the curriculum. Keir Bloomer, the former education director at Clarkmannanshire Council and one of those who drafted CfE, has even gone so far as to suggest that we should scrap exams all together.
No-one is taking that idea seriously, but there is merit in questioning whether the current structure focused on exams is the best approach. Not only has the current system failed to close the attainment gap, it has led to the problem of teachers “teaching to the test” rather than properly exploring the subject in question.
The point of the project at Kelvinside Academy is to ask if there is another way and it is a question worth pursuing. There will be some parents who would prefer their children to be getting on with studying for their exams rather than designing a robot. But the headmaster of Kelvinside has asked an important question: is a high-stakes exams system based largely on factual recall really the best system for our children?
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