How does our vision translate into real-world change?

Our vision: A world where every school transforms into a data-informed learning ecosystem that cultivates a culture of curious, cohesive, and compassionate parent-teacher-child partnerships.

The world is on a mission to embed lifelong learning at the heart of education by 2030, and so is India, as articulated in the National Education Policy 2020. The International Commission on Education (1996) for the 21st Century broke it down for us when they submitted "Learning: the Treasure Within" to UNESCO, answering the question, what does lifelong learning mean? According to the report, all of us working with children in schools, in communities, and at homes must work towards building the four pillars of education: Learning to Know, Learning to Do, Learning to Live Together, and Learning to Be.

When we sat down to articulate our vision about the future of school education at Noldenbirge, we started by looking at the scope of lifelong learning. We decided to take a closer look at the four pillars of education, as discussed in the report to UNESCO by the International Education Commission. We collectively understand the four pillars of education as follows:

The First Pillar

Learning to Know

Help children develop cognitive and meta-cognitive competencies.

We live in a world weighed down by an overwhelming avalanche of information, some of which might be truth, often half-truths, or dangerous lies. In this context, learning to know is a little more than learning to remember. It involves the ability to think and to think about thinking to gain concrete and abstract conceptual clarity. It demands the ability to investigate, observe and engage in conversations to crosscheck, verify information and clarify misconceptions. At Noldenbirge, we believe concept based instruction is the foundation of Learning to Know.

The Second Pillar

Learning to Do

Help children develop psychomotor and meta-psychomotor competencies.

According to the report, "Learning to know and learning to do are closely connected, but learning to do is more directly related to vocational training: How can children be taught to apply what they have learned, and how can education be tailored to future work when it's impossible to predict exactly how that work will evolve?" In this context, adults working with children are responsible for helping them move from skills to competence, so they can navigate the demands of both the formal and informal economies. At Noldenbirge, we believe outcome-based instruction will pave the way for Learning to Do.

The Third Pillar

Learning to Live Together

Help children develop social and meta-social competencies.

Learning to coexist with others, both individually and collectively, is a critical competency our children must develop. They need to learn how to build and maintain relationships and think about these relationships in the context of liberty, equality, and fraternity. This includes being able to communicate and collaborate with people who are different from them, in an equal and fair manner, to achieve common goals. At Noldenbirge, we believe that multidisciplinary, experiential, and collaborative learning can pave the way for Learning to Live Together.

The Fourth Pillar

Learning to Be

Help children develop emotional and meta-emotional competencies.

We are increasingly working in a world dominated by technological advancements, which increases the risk of personal alienation and the dehumanisation of individuals. According to the report, "In an ever-changing world in which social and economic innovation seems to be one of the main driving forces, a special place should doubtless be given to the qualities of imagination and creativity, the clearest manifestations of human freedom, which may be at risk from a certain standardisation of individual behaviour. The twenty-first century needs this variety of talents and personalities; it also needs the exceptional individuals who are also essential in any civilization. It is therefore important to provide children and young people with every possible opportunity for discovery and experiment - aesthetic, artistic, sporting, scientific, cultural and social - as well as appealing introductions to the creation of their contemporaries or earlier generations. Art and poetry, too often taught in a way that has become more utilitarian than cultural, should again be given more importance in schools than is commonly the case in many countries. The desire to develop the imagination and creativity should also result in higher regard being paid to oral culture and knowledge derived from the child's or adult's experience." At Noldenbirge, we view art-integrated learning as the approach that can advance the process of Learning to Be.

What kind of schools should we work together to build?

Once we defined what and how our children must learn to become lifelong learners, as articulated under Sustainable Development Goal Four and the National Education Policy 2020, we envisioned what our schools should look like and how the adults in the system must act to advance this goal. When we collaborate with teachers, parents, and school principals on school improvement, teacher capacity building, and parent education, what kind of schools should we aim to build together? As we reviewed the existing literature on ideal schools, two guiding principles emerged to inform our vision:

Principle One

Schools must evolve into learning organisations.

Learning is both personal and social. To learn successfully, we must connect with others just as much as we connect with knowledge. We need to build schools that facilitate and leverage this nature of learning while supporting our children to become lifelong learners. Peter Senge writes in Schools that Learn, "No matter how technologically advanced our world becomes—no matter how many tablet computers they own or how many functions their smartphones perform—children will always need safe places for learning. They will always need launching pads from which to follow their curiosity into the larger world. And they will always need places to make the transition from their childhood homes to the larger society of peers and adults. That is why a culture dedicated to learning would devote its resources to those institutions that most shape our development as learners. They might or might not resemble the schools we have today. But they would be places where everyone, young and old, would continuously develop and grow in each other’s company; they would be incubation sites for continuous change and growth. If we want the world to improve, in other words, then we need schools that learn.”

We aim to collaborate with parents, teachers, and school principals to rebuild our schools as learning organisations that create opportunities for individuals and groups to articulate their aspirations and use them to set directions. We seek to support the community of students, parents, teachers, and school principals in fostering reflective thinking and generative conversations. We want the adults in the school system to learn how to gather and use data on student learning. In short, we aim for every school we work with to transform into a data-informed learning ecosystem that cultivates a culture of learning.

Principle Two

Schools must cultivate parent-teacher-child partnerships.

At Noldenbirge, we believe the success of authentic school reform depends heavily on collaboration between parents and teachers, as well as their involvement in the learning process. According to the report, "Disadvantaged families often see the school as an alien world whose codes and practices they do not understand. A real dialogue between parents and teachers is thus essential, for the harmonious development of children depends on whether the education given by the school is backed up by the education given at home. Every pupil, each parent, every teacher must be convinced that failure is not inevitable. Those involved are called on to work together, in cooperation with teaching staff, as a responsible community which has taken full possession of all rights and powers."

Peter Senge emphasises in Schools that Learn the critical importance of parent-teacher-child partnerships in rebuilding our schools as learning organisations when he writes: "At its (schools that learn) core is the classroom—an ongoing gathering of students and teachers whose purpose is learning. Parents are not included within the boundary of the classroom because they are not residents there—they do not appear in class every day. Yet their presence is always felt. Their involvement is crucial to the functioning of the classroom (and the larger school as well). Too often, classrooms, professional development in schools and other organisations, parenting classes, and teacher or school leadership preparation programs focus only on two factors in learning—what is covered and how it is delivered. Sadly, educators are making their jobs not only more difficult but probably less effective as well." At Noldenbirge, we want to support every community in rebuilding their schools as learning organisations that cultivate a culture of curious, cohesive, and compassionate parent-teacher-child partnerships.

Our Vision

A world where every school transforms into a data-informed learning ecosystem that cultivates a culture of curious, cohesive, and compassionate parent-teacher-child partnerships.

Why do we believe that applied education research will help us advance this vision?

In India, we have an active and vibrant governmental and non-governmental support ecosystem for schools, working relentlessly to improve how we teach and parent our children. However, it is hard for anyone working in this space not to notice that we often import educational approaches, adult learning strategies, and school reform interventions from other countries and try to force-fit them into our school education system. The Indian school education landscape is very complex and different from that of other countries, given our diverse socio-cultural and economic makeup. We consider applied education research the first step we must take if we are serious about making lifelong learning possible in our schools. Therefore, our theory of change is straightforward: If we collaborate with parents, teachers, and school principals to field-test parenting, teaching, and school management strategies before implementing them at scale, then we can transform our schools into data-informed learning ecosystems that cultivate a culture of curious, cohesive, and compassionate parent-teacher-child partnerships.

If you believe in the power of applied education research as the obvious first step in bridging the gap between education policy and its everyday practice, we invite you to support our work. You can donate to transform school education through applied education research space here.