Future School: University Supported School Development Program

This lecture focuses on the TLU program Future School which is a university supported school and leadership development program. We will share with the audience the key components of the program along with its aims, main components, and impacts it has in the Estonian school system. Overall, this professional development program was designed to help schools to create a learning and teaching environment that supports all student (for more information, see: https://www.tlu.ee/en/hti/futureschool). Future School is based on three principles:

• Implementation of a collaborative change management – throughout the program, school teams learn how to implement and manage various types of changes and to create an environment that is conducive for changes.
• Co-creation of new practices and methodologies – schools analyze students´ learning processes and based on the areas that need improvement, they plan and try different improvement activities and new approaches that are developed with university specialists. The impact of these activities is analyzed. Collaboration happens on three levels – inside the school, between university and school, and between different schools.
• Evidence-base – schools monitor and analyze the change process (teachers as researchers).

In this lecture, we will provide some information about the rationality of the program (why was it created), methodology and the results of research about the program (what has been its impact so far) and what will be future directions.

For inquiries, please contact: gerald.fallon@ubc.ca