The introduction of Swiss Learning Plan 21 is one of the key milestones for education in German-speaking Switzerland, and sounds the final death knell for the old days of chalk+talk and lists of facts. Modern education is oriented towards the future needs of industry. It’s about training synapses, but even more importantly, about teaching children to find solutions for themselves and work well in a team. It’s about learning to analyse data, and about developing useful skills for the personal and professional future. If schools are to achieve all this, they need not only the right teachers, but also the right infrastructure, so that the classroom itself becomes a part of the learning experience. That’s exactly what’s been achieved at Degersheim primary school, where local furniture manufacturer Lista Office LO has upgraded four classrooms to meet the needs of education for tomorrow.

Swiss Learning Plan 21 was introduced throughout German-speaking Switzerland over three years ago. Putting into practice this new approach to learning requires new strategies – but the choice of strategy is left open to the classroom teachers. They can decide which learning style will best support their students in achieving their learning goals at any given time. For schools, what this means is that every classroom should be equipped to support any teaching method that the teacher considers applicable.<s> </s>

Challenging encouragement and support

The need for flexibility is one of the key challenges when it comes to implementing Swiss Teaching Plan 21. Teachers don't just have to make the right choice about teaching methods. They need to be creative and innovative, to encourage and support every student individually – the child who needs encouragement and support; the child who needs motivating with new challenges.

Classroom as learning tool

In 2010, Reto Thöny, school principal in Chur, developed the Chur Model of teaching, a skills-oriented approach to sharing knowledge that dovetails perfectly with the philosophy of Swiss Learning Plan 21 and has thus gained traction in recent years. The primary school in Degersheim is one of many schools that has transformed its teaching methods to follow the principles of the Chur Model. The school has now fitted out four of its classrooms to support the new learning styles, since a multifunctional classroom is a key requirement of the Chur Model.

Rather than the old static arrangement of furniture, with every pupil assigned a fixed place, the new order of the day is versatility and agility. The refurbished classrooms must be able to adapt on the fly between traditional blackboard teaching, individual study, pairwork and groupwork, which means that both students and teachers must be able to transform the space quickly, easily, and quietly. These transformations represent in themselves a key skill that the children are learning: self-management. From an early stage, the children must learn to make decisions and take responsibility for their own learning – beginning with determining the right environment for their work, and creating it. The diverse learning settings that can be created with the agile furniture design thus serve as an educational tool in themselves.