University...without lecturers

A very special university, with students but no teachers, just opened in the US late last month.

The school is named 42, after the answer to the meaning of life in the best-selling science fiction novel "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams.

The 42 University in the US, a branch of the 42 Institute in France, will train about 1,000 students a year in coding and software development. What makes this school special is that students will support each other through projects, then grade the work of their peers.

It all looks like “the blind leading the blind” and it is hard to imagine that parents would feel comfortable entrusting their children to such a teacherless school.

However, since Academy 42 opened in Paris in 2013, the number of applications has consistently exceeded the school's enrollment capacity.

No tuition

Recent graduates of 42 Academy are working for many major companies, including IBM, Amazon and Tesla, as well as starting their own businesses.

The academy was initiated and sponsored by French technology billionaire Xavier Niel, ensuring that students studying here receive free tuition and free accommodation.

Mr. Niel and his co-founders, all tech and startup leaders, are trying to do to education what Facebook did to media and Airbnb did to the lodging industry.

They aim to do this by combining a form of “peer-to-peer learning” with project-based learning. Both are popular methods in education research, but they often require the supervision of a teacher.

Students at School 42 choose project topics, such as taking on the role of a software engineer to design a website or a computer game.

They complete the project using freely available resources on the Internet and with the help of their classmates tinkering alongside them, in a large room filled with computers. Another student is then randomly assigned to grade their work.

Just like in computer games, students will be promoted after completing a project.

They will graduate when they reach level 21 and the whole process usually takes 3 - 5 years. And at the end, students will be awarded a certificate, not an official degree.

The Self-Made People

The founders of 42 Academy claim that this learning method compensates for the shortcomings of the traditional education system, which turns students into passive recipients of knowledge.

“The feedback we get from employers is that our graduates are better able to learn for themselves and find out the information they need, rather than waiting for their superiors to tell them what to do next,” said Brittany Bir, who is in charge of branch 42 in California and is also an alumna of the Paris academy.

The idea of ​​learning from your peers is not new. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle is said to have used “archons” (leaders of students) to help teach his students.

Recent studies have also shown that learning from peers can help students gain a deeper understanding of a subject.

Professor Dan Butin, founding dean of the School of Education and Social Policy at Merrimack College (Massachusetts, USA), believes that both peer learning and project-based learning should be applied more widely in colleges and universities.

They are, he says, “much better learning tools” than lectures, which do not stimulate students to think.

The value of teaching

However, Professor Butin said, Academy 42 went too far in completely eliminating teachers.

His research found that peer learning was most effective when students were placed under the supervision of a subject-matter teacher.

“The main reason for the existence of a teacher is to guide students to accurately grasp complex, ambiguous and challenging problems, which are often beyond their self-awareness and capabilities,” Mr. Butin explained.

Professor Butin emphasized that the main value of a university is to verify and adjust, supplement students' previous knowledge and perceptions of the world.

42's model offers an alternative to Moocs (massive open online courses, which allow large numbers of students to learn a subject online at a low cost).

The creation of 42 University also follows the rise of "coding academies" in the US, which offer short, intensive courses to thousands of students looking to capitalize on society's high demand for software engineers.

The active students

But would a teacherless learning model like School 42 work in today’s traditional universities? Ms. Bir admits that it is not suitable for all students.

During the month-long admissions process, some candidates failed because they could not handle the pressure of studying together so closely. A student can easily react negatively if a friend sitting at the next table gives him a bad grade.

"This learning method is only suitable for highly disciplined and very dynamic individuals who are not afraid to learn on their own," said the manager of School 42 in the US.

The model is particularly good for students who are frustrated with being told what to do and how to do it in contemporary education, says Nicolas Sadirac, director of the 42 Institute in Paris. Admissions are open to applicants regardless of previous qualifications. Forty percent of students at the Paris school have not even completed high school.

"School 42 reminds them that learning is fun if they pursue what interests them, rather than being told by teachers to focus on a certain thing," Sadirac said.

According to VNN