Research on the Future School - Conceptual Framework of InnoSchool

The four co-projects InnoArch , InnoEdu , InnoPlay , and InnoServe research the schools from their own scientific areas: architecture and urban planning; education and the teaching–studying–learning process; playful learning environments; and process and innovation management. The synergy between the different co-projects is achieved through theoretical dialogue, and especially through empirical case and action research on the same pilot schools. The practical results of the research will be published as a Future School handbook.  

Results from the Phase 1 of the project indicate that the Future School has permeable boundaries: it combines formal and informal learning into novel ways of non-formal learning, where learning opportunities outside the school, life-wide and life-long, are embraced and supported by the Future School. It also combines the virtual, physical, social and mental dimensions for learning, locally and in the global world. InnoSchool sees the Future School as a systemic innovation of our information society. The aim of the consortium is to further the Future School innovation through its empirical research design that builds on public-private collaboration, a customer-centric approach, and trans-disciplinary research in the pilot schools. The international comparative research answers to the growing multicultural challenges of the Future School.

The two overarching research questions of the consortium project are:
1) What are the innovative concepts, i.e. the practices, processes, models and principles that should be followed in planning, designing and implementing the Future School so that it becomes a boundary-permeating systemic innovation?
2) Specifi cally, we want to defi ne the concepts that concern architecture, pedagogy, playful learning,
and service processes, and especially their trans-disciplinary combinations that support educational innovations in the Future School.