Trialling innovation: Studying the philosophical and conceptual rationales of demonstration schools in universities

Abstract

The concept of the demonstration school (a community of learning and applied research inquiry in an integrative designed space) dates back to the Peripatos of Aristotle. In contemporary times, demonstration schools-housed on university campuses and often integrated with teacher training programmes-have been supported with Deweyan arguments about trialling learning environments that meld theory and practice. Many are sites of educational research, where educationalists, practicing teachers and pre-service practitioners collaborate to teach, study, reflect and debate. Some have integrated problem-based curricula approaches with learning analytics, design thinking, digital adaptation and eco-friendly uses of technology. At the same time, some are also places in which competing imperatives play out, as those on site seek to adapt pedagogic, infrastructural, funding and governance arrangements to accommodate stakeholders. This chapter first recounts the historical legacy of demonstration schools before analysing contemporary realisations of demonstration schools' sites drawing on recent research in Asia, Europe and the USA. The focus is on how these modern learning environments are shaped by discursive connections between philosophy, learning science, design, innovation policy and science and technology studies. Drawing on expertise across these fields, we investigate how these sites meet the contemporary challenge to link the pedagogic, spatial and technological/digital in sites where social and educational innovation coexist.