Abstract

PEIRANO R., Claudia; ESTEVEZ S., Swapna Puni  and  ASTORGA, María Isabel. Rural schools: opportunities for innovation. Cuad. Investig. Educ. [online]. 2015, vol.6, n.1. ISSN 1510-2432.

Nowadays, rural population represents 70% of the world population and the differences between city and country constitute an important obstacle to sustainable development. Because of this, the approach to rural education is being carried out through subsidiary policies oriented to diminish poverty. However, multigrade rural schools are a unique space for the development of inclusive education that acknowledges and respects individuality and the learning pace of each student, and that summons teachers to organize learning communities and use the available technology. Throughout the year 2014, a teacher-support experience was carried out in six rural schools in Chile, during which educational projects under the Project Based Learning (PBL) method were developed with the community’s active participation. The main goal of the intervention was to facilitate those processes ensuring quality learning in students through projects closely linked to local identity and the articulated work of teachers and community. Teachers taking part in the project valued the training in strategy management, which will allow them to strengthen the students' motivation towards learning and the possibility of using tools to work with the community in a context of learning, cooperation and reciprocity. The intervention allowed an in-depth knowledge of characteristics and needs of a group of rural schools, from which a proposal of innovative teaching model of intervention was designed that adjusts itself to the reality of the rural world of the 21^st century.

Keywords : rural education; Teaching method innovations; teacher education; rural communities.

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