Visitors from abroad

It is the Municipality of Høje-Taastrup, located in the Capital Region of Denmark, who has build Læringhuset - in english the Learninghouse - which includes day care, school, after-school program and junior club, in the new urban district Nærheden - in english Nearby - in Hedehusene.

When the district Nearby is fully developed, there will be 8,000 residents spread over 3,000 homes with a short distances to everything that is needed in everyday life, including shopping, public transport, leisure facilities, school and children's institutions.

The Learninghouse, located in the heart of Nearby, is a facility where children and young people can play, build, problem-solve and develop ideas in well-designed learning courses. A facility where the children's curiosity and creative urge are taken seriously and nurtured all the way through their schooling.

It is a house where the children and students explore topics focusing on science and technology and where the subjects work together in the process of authentic and innovative projects. It is a learning facility that oozes with experimenting projects - more like a design laboratory than a traditional school - where entrepreneurship and creativity are some of the cornerstones.

Our makerspaces are an important part of the project-based learning. The makerspace are therefore not coded for a class in the traditional sense, but for the subjects. They are a kind of technological workshop where you work with digital technologies such as laser cutters and 3D printing. In addition, there are soldering irons, glue guns and pillar drills.

We meet the future trends in society through project-based learning in the Learninghouse. The realistic and innovative projects and tools where our children and young people work exploratory and find solutions, create increased commitment, curiosity and motivation.

In addition, it strengthens their ability to collaborate, communicate, think critically and be creative. Important competencies in the changing and high-tech life and jobs that await them.

It all starts in our day care, where they also make use of the children's curiosity in relation to the outside world and their urge to unfold and try ideas. Here, our children and adults explore themes for a long time both in play, by working with all kinds of materials and by going on trips and more.

By going in depth with an idea over a longer period of time, we help the children to bring their knowledge from yesterday into play in tomorrow's activities. The children thus have the opportunity to build on top of themselves, share and feel competent while trying out new ideas.

Technology is a natural part of our children's and young people's everyday lives, and therefore they must naturally also experience the same at school. As part of this ambition, the Learninghouse makes an iPad or laptop available to each individual student from 1st to 9th grade.

The equipment is distributed as follows:

• 1st-6th grade - iPad
• 7th-9th grade - laptop

The increased use of technology also places increased demands on the understanding of technology. The pupils must therefore learn to relate both actively and critically to being consumers and co-creators of new technology.

Digital and technological development is increasingly helping to change and solve climate, social and economic issues. This means that students must meet, test and investigate different forms of technology to a greater extent, so that they gain knowledge about how technology works and how it has an impact on their own and other target groups' lives and careers.

Broadly speaking, students must learn:

• To know different types of technology
• To be able to use, examine and be critical of technology
• Being able to work creatively and innovatively with how technology is used to create value and solve problems

In the Learninghouse students collaborate on innovative problem solving using IT in several ways. This can include the use of:

• Peers - a learning course based on the student-to-student learning principle also called peer-to-peer
• C.R.A.F.T. (Creating Really Advanced Future Thinkers) - a learning course where students compete to see who has come up with the most innovative solution and project in collaboration with one or more companies. For example, they might be building 3-D models in Minecraft
• Micro:Bit - a small computer that introduces students to how software and hardware work together with an LED display, buttons, sensors and many input and output functions that can be programmed and interacted with
• Coding Pirates - a learning course where students are introduced to both algebraic and abstract thinking, logical structure and problem solving as well as definite coding

The Learninghouse is a so-called Open School, where companies, organizations, cultural and leisure institutions are invited to collaborate in realistic and innovative learning processes.

It's an important part of the project-based learning (PBL) to be actively involved in our surroundings and is in close dialogue with the local community. 

The professional understanding and motivation of our children and young people is strengthened in the Open School because they meet the professionals of reality, including their knowledge, experiences and real issues.

In three short sentences Open School is about:

• Motivation - To use real issues and role models to arouse students' curiosity, drive and desire to learn
• Knowledge - To connect theory and practice through authentic learning processes
• Innovation - To work idea-developing with a target group or a customer.

Among other things the students become better at asking questions, grasping issues and coming up with solutions when they meet role models and strong professionals from the surrounding community.

Future competences, also called 21st century competences or 21st century skills, include skills, abilities and learning that are necessary to achieve success in 21st century society.

There are different interpretations and representations of the necessary competences, as the focus on the competences of the future is part of a growing international movement. However, they all use many of the same words, but different ways of categorizing it.

In the Learninghouse we primarily work with four competencies - also called the four C's. It concerns the following:

• Communication
• Critical thinking
• Creativity
• Collaboration

The skills come into play in the project-based learning courses, where they give our children and young people the power to put their professional knowledge into play when they have to develop ideas, work in groups or in dialogue with the Open School collaboration partners or target groups that they have to come to with proposed solutions for the project.

In addition, we are continuously working on a taxonomy for the four C's. It is about getting a common language for the four C's and using them as a didactic tool in the preparation and evaluation of project progress. For example as a dialogue tool in the team around a project progress and together with the class.

The Learninghouse is partnerhouse with LEGO Education, which has also participated in the development of The Primary School of the Future in Høje-Taastrup Municipality since 2016.

LEGO Education has made important contributions to how the playful element is thought into the design of the house, and how students and educational staff can work practically and exploratively with their ideas in the learning processes.

As partnerhouse with LEGO Education the day care, school and after-school carry out joint projects, where children and young people and educational staff test and give feedback on current and new materials that LEGO Education has developed and is continuously developing.

The Learninghouse also makes itself available as a demonstration house for visitors who would like to experience how LEGO Education's learning-oriented products can be used in project-based learning at different age levels and in different subjects.

With LEGO Educations children from the age of 4 can learn and develop their skills in areas such as art and science - Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM).

Educational sets such as LEGO Mindstorms and LEGO Technic contain lesson plans that can help children learn the alphabet, learn to count and learn other school-related subjects. Children and young people can also learn the first steps in programming with the help of their electronic learning toys.

Children and young people who program can really stimulate the desire and ability to connect logical thinking with intuition. And when they learn to code with their computer, robot, tablet or other screen, it's not just aimless screen time. It is an active and engaging development activity, which at the same time gives them important life experience.

Competence development of the teaching staff is an important part of the development of the Learninghouse. Therefore Høje-Taastrup Municipality, with support from the A. P. Møller Foundation, is undertaking a major competence development effort in the school area.

Høje-Taastrup Municipality has received the following support from A.P. Møller & Wife Chastine McKinney Møller's Foundation for General Purposes:

• DKK 11 million (August 2018)
• DKK 4.5 million (June 2022)

The effort helps to strengthen the professional learning communities and the facilitation of project-based learning courses.

The competence development of the educational staff in the Learninghouse takes place, among other things, in the form of:

• Practical team support - development of the year's team collaboration, in relation to creating a professional learning community with openness, a common language and a clear framework for team meetings, the role of facilitator and supervisor
• Partnership schools - development of an open collaborative culture that sees knowledge sharing and the teaching of a class or the individual student as a common concern, gives the individual teams the opportunity to share knowledge and inspire each other across schools
• EdCamps, study groups and other knowledge forums - the development of different knowledge forums paves the way for a common language, while at the same time bringing together the experiences from the project-based learning courses that the teachers continuously develop. It is especially tutors, facilitators and managers who will work in these forums to clarify concepts, didactic methods and how teamwork can further develop the learning practice.
• Feedback and inspiration from home and abroad - development of a culture of feedback and inspiration with consultants from both home and abroad ensures that the students strengthen their professionalism, motivation and interdisciplinary skills. Inspiration comes from Autens, Imagine If, Mannaz and KlimaZirkus, among others. Inspiration from abroad comes from, among other things, the Buck Institute for Education and High Tech High schools in California, which have visited the schools several times to provide practical feedback and inspiration on how "children always learn through relevant, meaningful and 'hands on' occupation".

Matteo arrives motivated for the school day, together with the other students, and hangs his clothes and bag in the wardrobe for 5th grade. He knows the others from his grade well. There are 5 min. for the school day to start so he finds his good friends with whom he talks in the common area.

When the school day starts, he and the rest of his class meet with the teachers in the class base. The teachers create a safe learning environment with clear expectations for the school day's program, which he has heard a bit about before and read about on the intranet Aula.

Afterwards, they start with the school day's program. Matteo works with his inherent curiosity and creative urge in a project-based course around health, which 5th grade are working on. First, Matteo and his group discuss in a small niche how they move forward with their project. They eagerly draw and write on the glass walls to capture their ideas. Everywhere you work in The Learning House, architecture talks to you. The walls are used for exhibiting finished projects, creative brainstorming or inviting with small niches for quiet contemplation.

Later, they move on to one of the makerspaces along with the rest of the class. Matteo and his group are in the process of cutting out some wooden boards to be used to build a model of an electric scooter. They are in a hurry, because the finished model must be presented to a local company tomorrow.

The makerspace is a room that makes it possible to make models and prototypes using various tools. A laboratory for invention and discovery. In the room here are different computers, each with special software, a laser cutter that can make 2D and 3D constructions, a 3D printer, a vinyl cutter and a lot of different materials. 

The teachers do a lot to ensure that Matteo and his peers achieve greater self-confidence and independence in the school day through knowledge and professionalism in the project-based course.

Halfway through, they take a longer lunch break, where Matteo and his class eat their food with the teachers in the canteen. In addition, Matteo and his group have had several short breaks when it fit in, during the day.

After the lunch break, where everyone has been out and getting some air, they return to the common area at their base. In the adjoining workshop sits a small group from the 6th grade. They are putting the finishing touches on their sketches of bridges. Their math teacher helps them make the drawings goal-oriented. Some students are working on a drawing program, and in the corner, two students are building a prototype of a suspension bridge. Matteo hopes that they will do the same at some point.

Now they get guests visiting as part of their open school collaboration. Two health workers from the municipality must teach them about exercise and a healthy diet. Through their professionalism and experience, they help Matteo and his group complete their presentation. Many different solutions, materials and constructions have been tried out, and now the last things need to be in place so that the groups are ready for their presentations.

A german speaking person is coming to the presentation tomorrow, so at the end of the day, they translate their speech into german in one of the immersion areas, where there is silence and the opportunity to relax before going to the junior club or home.

Andreas Schleicher, director of Education and Skills at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), visited the Learninghouse in 2022.

Andreas came to talk about the OECD's studies and take a closer look at how we work with project-based learning in the house.

"The industrial school, where the teachers stand at the blackboard and stuff knowledge into the students' heads, destroys their creativity. We see in measurements from all over the world that 15-year-olds are less creative in their problem-solving than 10-year-olds", stated Andreas Schleicher and went on.

"Even in Finland, which otherwise performs well in our PISA tests, it happens. It happens to a lesser extent there than in other countries, but it also happens there. There is something fundamentally wrong with the way our education system works when it makes students less creative”.

"I want to see how practical expertise takes place in the house where you run at the front."

"When you look at the PISA tests, it appears that Danish children can have difficulty seeing what they should use their learning for."

"Many young people find it difficult to look at a problem and understand how to solve it." Because as Andreas says; "You have to learn by discovering things yourself."

"When you ask people today which subject they liked best at school, they will typically answer the subject in which they liked the teacher the most. That relationship and the social aspect are important parameters, but the most important thing is that you learn something and can put it in relation to society.”

"You have to remember that it has become more difficult, especially for young people, to get realistic pictures of reality, as algorithms on social media such as Facebook constantly make sure to remind you of things that are almost exclusively within your own sphere of interest and recommending friends who are like you, and that is not the real reality.”

Andreas particularly emphasized that the relationship between teacher and student must be good so that the students can thrive with the project-oriented way of working.

"The teacher must know her students so well that she knows what they are interested in and which projects they want to be able to get involved in. When this is successful, the students learn entirely by themselves and cannot be driven away from the project, not even if they have time off.”

The Learninghouse t is part of the Erasmus+ collaboration, which is an EU program for education, youth and sports in Europe.

The program for 2021-2027 has a strong focus on social inclusion, the green and digital transition and the promotion of young people's participation in democracy.

It supports priorities and activities included in the European Education Area, the Digital Education Action Plan and the European Agenda for Skills.

Smaller partnerships are a form of collaboration that should make it easier to reach out to small players and individuals who are otherwise difficult to get in touch with. This can be, among other things, within school education, vocational education, the youth area and sports.

This means that there is an opportunity for students and employees from the EU to receive education, training or teaching in the Learninghouse, if these transnational activities contribute to achieving the project goals in Erasmus+.

Contact us and hear more about the possibilities to visit us - laeringshuset@htk.dk