Beijing Academy: Innovation, Design, and Learning

—Taking Beijing Academy as an illustrative example, this article aims to discuss a model of “design-as-learning, learning-as-design”. —As a member of an international panel of the school, I have involved significant periods of observation of classroom work, focus group discussions with students, meetings with teachers and administrators, and sessions with governmental officials and external partners for the school. This has provided rich first-hand data for the analysis. —This article argues that learning environments should be constructed around powerful theories of learning, that those theories should be subjected to constant and repetitive critique and revision in light of evidence, and most importantly that there is no fundamental difference in roles between adults and young people in the organization. —This article has the potential to address the transitional issues resulted from the policy-driven reform and institutionally-determined definitions of learning and urges adults to transfer agency for learning of individual students