What if you walked into a classroom and saw learners working independently and collaboratively to teach themselves new skills and create their own unique projects while a teacher stood by and watched?
Imagine that classroom filled with lively chatter and the bustle of movement. One learner is measuring and sawing wood for a model house, while another learner is creating complex animations on an iPad.
Now, picture another classroom where a group of learners are working together to make a film on an iPhone, with one learner excitedly engaged in lighting the set while another, having recently discovered a passion for acting, rehearses their lines.
These learning scenarios are exactly what happened during Personal Interest as a Motor for Learning, a project designed to bring passion-based learning to 10 public and semi-private schools in Catalunya.
Growing Passion, One Lab at a Time
Over the past eight months, we've trained over 85 educators to develop thematic labs covering a wide range of interests from architecture, woodworking, fashion, filmmaking, creativity and multimedia.
In these labs, 1,500 learners immersed themselves in hands-on projects connected to their personal interests. They became the authors of their own learning while growing their autonomy and lifelong learning skills and discovering their passions.
Through a combination of online and in-person training modules, teachers developed passion-based labs, similar to makerspaces, within their current school spaces.
We spent time carefully adapting the experience to each school and its unique needs, ensuring that these kinds of learning experiences are possible for schools of all types, regardless of their context.
At the end of the programme, educators and school leaders talked about their initial scepticism, imagining that passion-based learning could only happen in schools specially equipped with high-end resources like multimedia labs, 3D printers and woodworking spaces.
Yet, they discovered that with very few resources, learners can embark on a passion-based learning journey and create high-quality outputs in the process.
Alex Camí, General Director of Col·legi Camí, says,
“We've been using this passion project methodology for about four months, but we're already starting to see some pretty interesting things.
"We see that the students focus on their passions and on their creativity, and they have started doing really cool, super interesting projects. I think that within a year, they will be even better, even more spectacular.”
Moreover, they realised that the value is not in the final output but in what learners take away from the process itself.
As Neus Vallejo, a teacher at Escola Estel, observes,
“The students have learned a lot, and I’ve learned a ton. In the beginning, it was difficult for them to leave their comfort zone because it involved a lot of new things and because they were very focused on the quality of the final product.
“But they improved a lot in how to evaluate, reflect, to learn how to move forward [past blockers], and to be aware of the entire process, not just the final product. This process is important because it will serve them in other classes and in other aspects of their lives.”
The Value of Passion-based Labs
Passion projects are a great launchpad for improving the learning experience for both learners and teachers.
Giving students a choice about what and how they learn has been shown to increase motivation, self-esteem, and a love of lifelong learning.
“It helps you decide a little bit more about what you want to do when you grow up. In architecture, you might learn you want to design or build houses. In audiovisual communication, maybe you learn you want to act or make films,” says one learner.
“The labs offer more dynamic activities, and you can learn things in a more fun way. It’s not sitting still, listening to a teacher, and taking notes. You have to have a sense of autonomy to freely develop your own project,” explains another learner.
Not only do labs grow personal passions and intrinsic motivation, but passion-based learning, with its focus on independent projects, also significantly increases learner autonomy.
Sònia Molina, Head of Studies at Escola Estel, explains,
“The impact that Learnlife’s work has on the school is developing students’ autonomy and responsibility in their learning. And this cuts across all subjects.
“They have two hours a week where they practise this more autonomous methodology that depends on decisions, on knowing how they make mistakes and doing a lot of reflection that later will transfer to the rest of the classes and subjects as well as to their lives.”
Offering a wide variety of experiences allows learners to expand their knowledge and foster new passions. Learners who try more than one lab are exposed to new topics and new possibilities, while mixed-age labs help grow social skills and foster community.
As one learner said,
“I learned so many more things this way, and it is just so much more fun. You spend a lot of time in school, and I think you should enjoy the time that you have in school.”
Perhaps most importantly, learners walk away from the experience with essential real-world skills like persistence, communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity.
Learner-Led Classrooms: An Idealistic Foray or a Vital Transformation?
The world is changing faster than we can keep up with it.
Climate change and AI are two of the most important destabilising factors affecting not only our daily lives but also the future job market.
According to the World Economic Forum, 65% of primary-aged children will have jobs that don’t exist yet.
Learners must be prepared for an increasingly VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) landscape, where they will need to be agile, adaptive, and potentially reskill several times during their careers.
But how are schools preparing them for this new reality?
The short answer is they aren’t. The majority of schools are driven by a system which promotes a standardised model of education and a traditional mindset which holds all learners to the same curriculums, standards, exams and learning methodologies, despite broad differences in children’s interests and learning styles.
Yet, it is possible to develop critical future skills, such as agility, empathy, and resilience, within a traditional curriculum and an exam-driven school culture.
And it is possible to make room for passion-based learning, where learners become the intrinsically motivated drivers of their own learning.
Because they are not content-driven, these future skills can be developed in a variety of ways. They are especially suited to independent learning scenarios such as passion projects, which require learners to develop creative approaches to problem-solving.
Making a Tangible Impact
Through this work, these schools have positively impacted over 1,500 learners and have embedded learning practices that will impact many more in the coming years.
The training provided teachers with valuable skills in guiding learning from the side rather than transmitting knowledge as a sage on the stage. They trained in growing learner autonomy, which is essential to a learner-centred model in which learners are the drivers of their own learning.
The process of releasing control of a classroom can be complex for a teacher who is used to being the sole authority in the room. However, a number of participating educators spoke about how stepping away from centre stage was an incredibly valuable experience.
Neus Vallejo, a teacher from Escola Estel, said,
“In the beginning, I was constantly moving all around the classroom, bouncing between students working on very diverse projects because I wanted to help. But I learned how to step back a little and let the students help each other and collaborate more.”
Passion-based learning inspires intrinsic motivation, but learners still need to grow the skills to move themselves through a project, whether that is project management, learning how to utilise organisational task managers, resource acquisition, or techniques for overcoming blockers.
This is where the teacher, in the role of learning guide, becomes an indispensable aid in the process.
Instead of directly giving answers, they offer recommendations, reorient learners who may be headed down the wrong path, or let a learner work through a problem simply by listening and asking questions.
Little by little, over the course of the project, learners relied less on their teachers for guidance and learned how to help themselves and each other move forward effectively on their projects.
Collaboration is a valuable part of the learning process, and several learners spoke about how important it was for them to have their classmates be part of the learning process. It allowed them to receive valuable feedback, different points of view, and a range of approaches to a single problem.
“You can make mistakes many times, but in the end, with help from your teacher and classmates, you can make a lot of errors but still find a solution,” explains a learner.
As Anna Bayer, Director of Escola Estel, says,
“They developed competencies that I believe they didn’t know they had. Why? Because when you encounter something that you know about or are interested in or with which you have an emotional connection, it moves you, and then you dig deeper, don’t you?
“And so…students start to investigate, to ask questions, and to see themselves as a little more capable than before. And that’s the vital competency, isn't it? That they themselves are the drivers of their own learning.”
How We Can Help You Implement Passion-based Learning
We've helped over 40 schools worldwide adopt a new way of learning.
In the coming year, we will continue supporting more schools and expand the positive impact that passion-based learning has on schools, educators, and, most importantly, learners.
In addition, the schools involved in the project have the opportunity to reflect and connect about what worked well and what could be improved, based in part on student feedback.
As Learnlife trainer Joan Urgell says, “In the end, let's not forget, part of this project involves a change in culture, a change in outlook, where the student is much more responsible and involved.”
If you're interested in learning more about the project or how to get involved, you can learn more about our training programmes here and view the video about this project below.
