What do drones, aliens, portrait painting and Celtic art have in common? The answer is they are all things students can learn about as part of an initiative we launched during the pandemic called Flexible Learning.

And if those topics don’t take their interest? They can always make their own film, go birdwatching or try their hand at Surrealist art.

Flexible Learning was born of our desire to ensure that alongside the usual mix of English, maths and languages we were teaching remotely, there was also time for students to use lockdown to continue to grow as individuals and learn about themselves.

The value of flexible learning

So, we developed an array of experiences to help them do just this. These experiences can be as simple as listening to a podcast or viewing a piece of art or committing yourself to a new habit or delving into complex areas of human thought. For example:

• The Greatest Music in the World gives students a few stimulus pieces and then the chance to think about and explain their choice of their favourite music.
• Are We Alone in the Universe? introduces Fermi’s paradox, which asks why we have not met aliens, before exploring possible answers to the paradox.
• Celtic Art demonstrates how to draw a Celtic motif and share their designs.

We made sure all units can be taught live by a teacher or studied independently with a mentor to offer help, and new units are added all the time as teacher or pupil interests dictate.

Reactions to Flexible Learning during lockdown were very positive. Many students appreciated the freedom to study as they liked with active outdoors-based units, while others preferred the live teaching offerings, whereby a unit was introduced online then followed up through an afternoon.

Parents reacted positively as they could see their children were still being active and engaged with learning despite lockdown.

In fact, it all proved so engaging that, as campuses reopened in mid 2020, we retained Flexible Learning and began exploring alternative ways it can be used within the school.

This means that teachers are now using Flexible Learning to help students work on self-management and project management skills, and we can even use the units as activities when extreme weather forces students indoors - as can happen in this part of the world.

What’s more, Flexible Learning provides an infinite palette for inviting exploration with units often able to be undertaken again and again but with different approaches.

For example, a unit that asks students to take a walk around an area they know can be interpreted with a different prompt, such as to take photographs of insects or architecture.

For teachers, the Flexible Learning modules provide the opportunity to move beyond the traditional role of “teacher” and help guide students into forming habits and developing their powers of attention, creativity and engagement.

Perhaps most importantly, it ensures that pupils have the chance to see school as not just a place to focus on academic subjects and exam grades but to learn about the world - and themselves.

Douglas Kidd is director of Curriculum X at International College Hong Kong

This article originally appeared in the 10 September 2021 issue of Tes magazine under the headline ‘Space to expand your horizons: the final frontier’