With the start of the course just around the corner, many children are already starting to prepare their backpack, their school supplies and the books they will need throughout the year. But this is not the reality for students studying in schools where textbooks are not the protagonists of their learning.
Very little by little, centers are emerging in Spain where textbooks are not used, where learning is free, is based on the team work and the students get the best of themselves no need to learn the printed lessons in traditional books. But how do you teach and learn in a school without textbooks?
Working and learning for projects
Traditional Teaching: The textbook is the main protagonist. The teacher relies on him to teach the lessons and although the children also do cooperative work or other types of exercises apart from them, there is a schedule marked by the subjects and a daily agenda to meet.
Teaching without books: diaphanous and bright classroom, with tables ready to work in teams. The teacher accompanies the students in their daily work, observes and guides them. There are no books (at least not exclusively) but other types of teaching material, sometimes elaborated by the teachers themselves or by the students.
Two schools and two very different ways of working, although experts say that the teaching model without books and based on the competences of each student is the future
In a school without books, time is not organized in subjects but the student He works for projects and is the protagonist of his own learning. When working on a topic, the first thing to do is apply the scientific method. The child shares what he knows and knows, as well as what he needs to discover, and from there he will begin to investigate.
To acquire knowledge you will have to get involved, research, put into practice what you have learned and sometimes cooperate with other colleagues.The multiple skills that the student acquires are mixed with other skills such as teamwork, the resolution of problems or oral expression, how important they are to develop in our society every day.
By the end of the work, the children will have acquired a series of values, skills, content and multiple competencies that will not only serve you in your academic stage but will prepare you for your future job.
In 2015, the Jesuits revolutionized teaching in Catalonia with the launch of three concerted centers (two in Barcelona and one in Lleida) where Textbooks are not the protagonists.
In this article in El Mundo, they explain how they work in these schools without books and the importance of the transversal skills that students acquire with their projects work.
"For example, in 1st of ESO B (12 and 13 years old) they are with a 30-hour project on the first civilizations. The Language is learned from the hieroglyphs and the scribes; the Natural, studying the Nile; the Social , with schedules ... Everything is finished off with a specific final work; in this case, they make a magazine "- explains the article.
The importance of teamwork
Knowing how to work in a team is one of the competences that companies value most, so promoting this skill as children is essential. Students studying in these types of schools emphasize the importance of cooperation and individual work well done so as not to harm the group.
How is the teaching material?
In schools "without textbooks", books are a mere learning material (which is also common to all and not individual), but not the only or main one, as in traditional schools. The teachers and students will rely on books when they need it, but the teaching material goes much further.
There are also games, digital material and other own that teachers make attending to the equivalences of curricular contents established by the LOMCE. Without a doubt, this can be a handicap for many since the effort and involvement of the teacher is crucial.
And what about the exams and homework?
In this type of schools there are no homework or exams as we all understand. Students do not have to spend the afternoon studying at home or making records, but will continue to research and work on what they have learned in class; at your own pace and based on your interests.
As for the exams they will not have to face several days followed by academic tests where all their knowledge will be played at a single card. The evaluation is carried out continuously by the teacher throughout the entire course, observing the student's involvement, their degree of interest, valuing their individual work and the way of communicating and relating when there is cooperative work.
The professors affirm that this type of evaluation is more rigorous than the traditional ones, since they must continuously monitor, attend and supervise the students' performance, and enhance what the student stands out.
The figure of the teacher
As we saw a few days ago when we talked about Montessori pedagogy, the teacher becomes a guide, leaving behind the figure of the person who "knows everything" that comes to mind when we talk about traditional teaching.
Throughout the course, the teacher accompanies the student, guides and motivates them in their learning and research and fosters their qualities for teamwork.More motivated students
Teachers who follow this educational method without books ensure that students are much more motivated when acquiring knowledge since they are the only protagonists of their learning.
In a high percentage of schools that follow the traditional methodology, the student is a passive receiver focused solely on assimilating the knowledge that is coming from the teacher. And although this trend is gradually changing, encouraging more hours of cooperative work, oral expression and research, experts say there is still a long way to go (and this sadly indicates the results of the PISA report).
With this other teaching model, we find children who should investigate to know, get the best of themselves, cooperate with other colleagues and put into practice what they have learned. The knowledge they acquire throughout their academic stage will depend on their concerns and interests.
This type of free and human-centered work results in happier, motivated and less scholastic students, as observed by the schools where this teaching method is applied.
Where to find schools without books?
This type of pedagogy, so common in some countries, is still a mirage in Spain. According to El Confidencial, in our country there are just over one hundred schools who bet on an experimental teaching and focused on the student himself.
Montessori schools, based on learning from observation and manipulation or Waldorf centers are just some examples that come to join the El Clot de los Jesuitas school that we have mentioned before, or to other public, concerted or private schools distributed throughout the national territory.
Maybe, find schools where they run a Teaching by projects and without books is much easier in the children's stage. But as children grow older, it becomes more difficult to find free schools or centers where children learn without textbooks as unique and irreplaceable material.
In Xataka This is how the schools and institutes that are ending the textbook are doing
In Babies and More Back to school: this is a Montessori classroom, What is Waldorf pedagogy: interview with Christopher Clouder, Fed up with the extra work of children, parents' associations call a school's homework strike, Goodbye to the subjects in the Jesuit schools ... is a new teaching model approaching Spain?
