[ELTWeekly Volume 7, Issue 10 | April 13, 2015 | ISSN 0975-3036]
Matthew Jenkin says, “On 21 October 2015, we will finally arrive at the point in time that Marty McFly travels to in the 1989 sci-fi sequel, Back to the Future II. But if a teenager today were to drive Doc Brown’s DeLorean back to Hill Valley High, the film hero’s fictional school, would he or she notice any difference?
Just as we are still waiting for someone to market hoverboards and self-tying shoelaces, we have yet to see a radical shift in teaching models, despite the ebb and flow of education reforms. There are schools, however, that are breaking the mould and daring to free teachers from the shackles of curriculum dictates. They are giving students and educators the power to become masters of their own learning.
The Quest to Learn school in New York was founded in 2009 with a mission to make schools fit for the 21st century, an era when advances in technology have created an increasingly global society. Teachers at the school, which is a collaboration between non-profit organisation the Institute of Play and New York’s department of education, believe using games to teach the curriculum increases pupil engagement and better prepares young people to navigate the complexities of the modern world”.