Scholitekt

School is the place where our children spend the most of their time. We are talking here about the ten most important years in the formation and upbringing of their lifetime. The way we raise them during this period determines many of the behaviours they will adopt in their future problems. The modern education system is facing a major challenge. Schools in Germany become less and less atractive for many reasons. Teachers are exhausted, the number of the students are raising up and more and more students are at risk of being left behind.

But the main challenge that pupils are facing is the system itself. It is highly centralized, performance oriented and bureaucratic. Furthermore, this educational system divides pupils into those who are regarded as qualified for higher education and others who are funnelled to vocational schools after finishing ten years of school, which is leading to inequalities. As a result, many German students drop out of school and are instead placed in job preparation programs rather than vocational training programs. Students are the most affected group of this problem. Losing faith in schools and struggling with the education system is become a phenomena among students. Many questioning the connection between the theoretical information and the practice of real life. Some are just suffering trying to fit in the system instead of discovering their own potential. This might not only cause less trust in the schools but also in themselves.

The proposed solution is to provide children with an alternative learning environment. It is a creative space that engages students through giving them the chance to be themselves and try to work on projects which they are passionate about. The aim is to find an effective way to sustainable learning through establishing a safe and reliable environment which is free from the school strict regulations. 

Our concept is based on the architectural pedagogic model of design. It is teaching critical thinking, empowering pupils’ own ideas and going through an iterative creative process. This method is inspired by architectural design studios where a coach guides students in hands-on developing ideas to solve complex, comprehensive problems.

In the few projects that I have realzed in a cooperation with some schools, we recognized how proud the teenagers were with the final archetypes they had developed. At the end of every task they wanted to photograph and signature it. Students showed a huge connection to their own prototypes, even when they ran out of time, they wanted to keep working on it the next day.

The model uses exercises to build life skills and integrates students knowledge in real life contexts. The tracking of the students creative skills revolves around, how the students are taking that critique, how they are communicating their ideas, and how they are collaborating with others. The fact that the students are working on their own ideas encourages self-confidence.

There are many ideas operating in the problem space. Alternative model schools like the Waldorfschule, Aktive Schule and several others are proposing learning concepts that consider more the childrens individuality and intuitive knowledge than regular schools do. On a local level, initiatives like the StadtbauAkademie from the Stadtpalais Museum in Stuttgart are trying to provide additive value to schools.

Our concept is not aiming to be an alternative for the public Schools nor an Initiative which is just organising workshops additionally to the school pedagogy system. Our concept supports students who lost trust in themselves and in the education system through help them engage again. So, we are acting parallel to schools through having our own model and trying to bring the change gradually into the school environment.

In order to be able to compete and enter the market with high confidence, we work to connect with a diverse community of institutions worldwide that share similar educational goals. This network might offers us a range of benefits, including studio curriculum, access to expert knowledge, and pedagogical resources. We rely on filling the expecting gaps later through self-evolving and exchanging expertise over time.

One of the critical potential challenges might be is that schools and organizations in germany do not collaborate with us, because we are not officially accredited or recognized by the competent authorities. So from the early stages we are looking for building a network with different partners and seek an adaptation from the university or any other educational body to give a credibility and encourage schools to trust our service.