A PIONEERING schools initiative which has been shaking up the way pupils in Scotland learn is now ready to be rolled out across the UK.
NuVuX, created by Boston-based education experts NuVu, aims to create the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators by shifting classroom focus from passive learning to real-life situations, and has already led to the creation of a £2.5m innovation school at Kelvinside Academy, in Glasgow.
The most recent adopter of the approach is Dollar Academy through its Dollar Discovers programme, available free online to anybody in Scotland of school age.
The project brings in leading figures from industry, NGOs and academia to work with pupils on tackling real-world problems. Participants work towards SQA qualifications as well as shorter ‘Discovery’ courses.
The project was developed in partnership with NuVu, founded in 2010 by a trio of Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates, whose progressive learning model combines studio-based learning with traditional coursework where pupils design everything from social robots, to interactive murals focused on community issues, to urban design projects tackling environmental issues.
NuVu believes this has the potential to transform education throughout the UK and is ready to make it available to schools nationwide.
Dollar Academy’s Rector, Ian Munro, said: “A central part of my role as an educator is to prepare pupils for a complex and everchanging world. NuVu have supported this superbly, and it has been a joy to collaborate with them over a number of years to look at new ways to inject curiosity and creativity into the Scottish curriculum.”
Saba Ghole, NuVu co-founder and chief creative officer, said: “Education has changed very little in a century, while the world and jobs market have transformed radically.
“The changemakers, entrepreneurs, and innovators of the future need something different.
“Work and life are very rarely are about sitting and nodding. It’s about open-ended questions, diverse perspectives, multi-disciplinary approaches, and constant collaboration.
“If we’re preparing pupils for the real world, why is learning in the classroom so drastically different?
“Our model has been adopted by schools around the world, and now we’re excited to work with schools throughout the UK to provide a different model approach – one that helps pupils unleash their creativity and connects their learning to the challenges they face in the world around them.”
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