Activity 2. The knowledge's market

The knowledge's market is a tool for Open Schools that are interested in understand what  students‘ interests can the local community respond to.

The “knowledge’s market” can be a useful tool to meet students’ needs and interests while connecting them to the local community. Not only is this relevant to open the school system, but it also allows a shift from “frontal teaching” to a student-centred learning approach based on students interests.

In primary and secondary schools, there are very few or no devices in the educational programs aiming to enhance the skills that children have built outside of school. In the classroom, work is almost always focused on purely “academic”/cognitive skills and only students who correspond to this interest are valued. What if the school was also interested in the learning that the students have developed outside its walls? Would she not allow not for everyone to gain confidence in their own learning resources? Everyone is rich in knowledge that they can teach another: this is the basic idea of ​​the “knowledge’s market”. This tool aims to highlight the skills of each student in order to set up a marketplace where students offer their skills and make requests for knowledge they would like to master.

Thanks to the Knowledge's market, teachers can understand what are the requests for knowledge of their students and try to find local stakeholders that can offer such competences. 

Activity 2. (3 hours)

Following the guidelines of the module, put in place a “knowledge market” in your class. You will have to ask your students what are the competences they would like to acquire/ the competences they can share, and look if any of these competences can be addressed in the local community.