Andreas Koini
As Head of Antwerp International School, Andreas Koini makes sure students establish practical links between what they learn today and their future endeavours. Under his guidance, AIS keeps innovating. The school transforms an old gym into a state-of-the-art STEM centre and builds strong community ties within the cosmopolitan city of Antwerp and AIS’s home country Belgium.
Andreas, what is your vision of a future-ready and innovative school?
I would like to equip learners with the tools and mindset for self-determination. Whatever aspirations our learners have for their future, I see it as essential that we empower them to create and develop their own ideas right from the outset of the thinking process, through all design cycle stages and even, if desired, make a career out of them. I envision holistic education based on conceptual understanding and fostering approaches to learning to be at the heart of a future-ready school. Nevertheless, it remains a fact that the development of creative, technical, entrepreneurial and all other academic and meritocratically assessed skills is still a major factor for admission to tertiary education and thus future success; I am just convinced that these skills come to a lot easier to self-determined learners.
What are the challenges and opportunities for your school right now?
All of us are working tremendously hard at the moment. We might have set up all kinds of systems and procedures to deal with the crisis but in reality, we are constantly adjusting to an ever-evolving situation. Nevertheless, it is incredible to see how pedagogy is pushed forward as a result - flipped classroom environments, teachers completely rethinking their roles as educators, use of technology, fostering of student and teacher autonomy, breaking up classic school scheduling structures and usage of physical space: all of these developments are exciting and encouraging. My only worry is that we will be very tired at the end of the current crisis and might lack the energy required to transform learning experiences long term.
Innovation is high on your agenda, you are just transforming an existing space into a new STEM centre. Why did you make this a priority for your school?
We are transforming our old gymnasium and the surrounding science labs into an open plan collaborative learning zone including a fab lab, materials workshop, math zone, science labs, young learner lab. We believe that our holistic approach to learning will lead to self-determined learners. Through upgrading our STEM facilities to an interdisciplinary and experiential learning space we are committing to
- Emphasizing the development of creativity, innovation, analytical thinking and collaboration through STEM studies
- Fostering our learners’ awareness of environmental challenges
- Actively encouraging STEM participation of our female learners
- Providing early exposure to STEM for our youngest learners
Our ambition goes beyond school-based learning. We are actively establishing collaborations with academic and industry partners in the region. Antwerp and Belgium are home to major petrochemical and pharmaceutical corporations; it is the world's diamond trading centre. All these industries are rooted in STEM and face major environmental challenges. This is a perfect opportunity for our students to learn locally and think globally.
Thank you, Andreas. Good luck with your ambitious building project!
Learn more about AIS in our section Learning Spaces.
Follow the school here: www.ais-antwerp.be
