Page 63 - Looking_after_school

2. The architecture: from the educational institution
to the learning environment

education are translated here into competencies that are required to
perform in several domains of society, and governments can decide on a
minimal expected proficiency level for all learners. The expected out-
comes could concern basic and general competencies (social, cultural,
political, scientific…) or specific competencies (in specific scientific
domains or professions). The architecture of the learning environ-
ment makes it possible to translate these competencies to different
proficiency levels and to design learning trajectories, accordingly. The
architecture of the educational institution, in contrast, is not focused
on getting results but on working towards goals. In light of these goals,
the educational institution bases its decisions – often through means
of deliberations - on standard proficiency levels. In a way, there are
also different levels of proficiency within the architecture of the edu-
cational institution, but these are organisationally translated into dif-
ferent streams, programs, and grades. The learning environment, in
contrast, is directed towards obtaining outcomes: the proficiency level
of learning outcomes is determined as an indication of the competency
level required to perform in a certain domain. Education or learning
is then an organised and formalised offer of learning paths which, on
the one hand, is adjusted to the expected competencies, and, on the
other, is customised for the learner who wants to realise a certain level
of competence within a certain domain.
In this architecture, a learning path is considered efficient and effec-
tive in so far as all learning functions are attuned to the achievement of
predefined learning outcomes. The teacher no longer integrates and
embodies these learning functions, as is the case in the educational
institution; here, the teacher is often a member of a multidisciplinary
design team and becomes more and more the designer of learning
environments and the coach of learning processes. Personalisation of
the learner – in order to customise the learning environments - seems
to coincide here with a de-personalisation of the teacher. The inte-
grated assignment of the teacher breaks up into a number of learning
functions which are now to be performed by numerous technologies
or experts, depending on what or who is most efficient in taking up the
required functions. The customised offer can include several differ-
ent components: support, length of time, learning means, methods of
assessment, moment of evaluation… But this customised offer is essen-

63