Agora as the concept of a learning marketplace
- PB Projects
- 7 hours ago
- 6 min read
Education today is evolving beyond classrooms and curricula, it’s becoming a living marketplace of learning, where ideas, methods, and experiences are exchanged across borders. In this new landscape, schools like Agora in the Netherlands are not just places of instruction but prototypes for a global learning economy grounded in purpose, play, and personal agency.
Visiting schools that aim for learner-centered education has been one of the most transformative experiences of my professional journey. Living in the Netherlands and incorporating aspects of it in my home country, Honduras, has helped me see education from two very different perspectives, one shaped by scarcity and resilience, and the other by structure and long-term planning.
In the Dutch education system, schooling is publicly funded and compulsory from age 5 to 16. Most children attend publicly run or publicly subsidized private schools, and parents are free to choose the institution that best fits their child’s needs, whether religious, secular, or based on a specific educational philosophy.
After primary education (basisonderwijs), students move into one of several secondary pathways, based on academic performance and interests:
VMBO – a four-year track combining general and vocational education.
HAVO – a five-year track preparing students for universities of applied sciences.
VWO – a six-year pre-university track leading to academic study.
The system is designed to offer diversity with structure, providing students different paths to success while maintaining academic standards. Teachers can enjoy substantial professional autonomy, though schools operate within a national framework that sets learning goals and examinations.
Through the years, some educators have questioned the rigidity of this model, leading to the rise of innovative schools that experiment with interdisciplinary, project-based, and self-directed learning. These institutions complement the mainstream system by offering an alternative for students who thrive in nontraditional environments. One of the most well-known examples is Wings Agora in Roermond, in the south of the Netherlands.
Wings Agora: Learning Without Timetables or Subjects
The name Agora comes from the Greek word for “public square”, a place of gathering, conversation, and exchange. Wings Agora embodies that idea by creating a space where students are active participants in their own learning.
At Wings Agora, there are no fixed schedules, no traditional subjects, and no classrooms in the conventional sense. Each student works with a coach who supports them in identifying interests, setting goals, and designing personalized projects. The curriculum grows from the learner’s curiosity and intrinsic motivation rather than from externally imposed plans.
The school’s motto, “Jij bepaalt wat zinvol is voor jou” (“You decide what is meaningful for you”), captures its philosophy perfectly. The focus is on developing autonomy, curiosity, and confidence, helping students become adaptable thinkers prepared for a complex future.
I had the opportunity to visit Wings Agora as part of a learning exchange organised with Rob Perrée. The school welcomes visitors as long as they also bring something to share. In return for the visit, I was invited to lead a workshop with first- and second-year students on how to turn an idea into something real.
It was remarkable to see 13- and 14-year-old students speak fluently about prototypes, design processes, and business models, not as memorized terms, but as part of their lived experience. Their ability to connect design thinking with entrepreneurship and creativity was striking. They weren’t rehearsing knowledge; they were thinking, building, and explaining through practice. That day was my first contact with Wings Agora, and it was a breath of fresh air reminding me about what it means to learn with purpose.
Learning as Exchange and Reflection
The idea of learning as exchange lies at the heart of both Agora’s educational philosophy and the Reimagine Education coaching program, led by Rob Houben, an educational innovator also closely connected to the Agora network. After my first visit to the school, I became increasingly curious about how project-based learning could be sustained and deepened through middle and high school education. This curiosity, and a desire to reimagine how these principles could take shape within our own practic, ultimately led me to enroll in the Reimagine Education program.
The course is based on the All Learners Building Blocks framework, a model that helps educators and school leaders design meaningful learning environments by breaking education down into its essential components: The Experience, The Facilitators, and The Requirements.
The Experience – Learning through doing This block focuses on what learners actually experience in their day-to-day learning. It emphasizes freedom to explore, to experiment, and to create, “freedom to experiment and research, also known as play.” Learning begins with hands-on engagement, where curiosity drives inquiry and mistakes are part of progress.
The Facilitators – The people who make learning possible This block highlights the role of teachers, mentors, and learning communities. Facilitators guide rather than instruct; they create conditions where students can thrive independently and collaboratively. Their task is to coach learners toward their own goals while ensuring they feel supported, challenged, and seen.
The Requirements – The foundations that sustain learning This block deals with the systems, structures, and agreements that make learning sustainable. It includes time, space, trust, and culture, the conditions that allow autonomy and innovation to flourish. When these requirements are aligned, learners and educators can focus on growth instead of compliance.
Each of these elements connects back to the learner’s why, their purpose, and helps turn experiences into artefacts that make learning visible and meaningful.
During the All Learners' course, I explored my own why, experimented with new ideas and point of view, and created artefacts that documented my learning journey. The culmination of the course was the development of a training platform for Play Based Projects, a future collaborative space for our educators designed to make knowledge sharing and transfer more seamless.
Through this process, I was reminded that diverse viewpoints can merge to shape learning as a continuous project cycle, grounded in reflection, creation, and connection. It highlighted the value of pausing to reflect and iterate, rather than focusing solely on execution, and reinforced the idea of learning as a dynamic ecosystem where educators and learners grow together through purposeful engagement.
Visiting Agora with the Reimagine Education Coaching Cohort
Later, I returned to Wings Agora for a second time, this time with the inaugural cohort of the Reimagine Education Coaching Program. We spent a full day immersed in the school experience, beginning with an evening barbecue at Rob Houben’s home and continuing with a student-led tour the following day. The students generously shared insights into their daily routines, how they collaborate with mentors, and the ways they manage their self-directed projects.
What impressed me most was their clarity of thought and confidence in communication. One student had already published her first book, while the Lego League team had won multiple competitions and even secured sponsorships from local companies. Their ability to integrate academic, creative, and entrepreneurial thinking was truly inspiring, a reminder of the kind of professionals the future holds, as these learners already display remarkable maturity and capability.
Their level of independence and intellectual depth was a direct reflection of the supportive environment around them. With the right guidance and opportunities, they were empowered to pursue ambitious goals and take genuine ownership of their learning, a powerful example of what education can achieve when learners are trusted and well-supported.
1st cohort – Honduras, Kenya, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom represented.
Continuing Connections
One of the most rewarding outcomes of this journey has been seeing how the connections continued to grow after the course. The first cohort has remained in contact, regularly sharing updates and supporting one another as we continue developing our projects. Since then, a second cohort of participants has joined the Reimagine Education program, and an online gathering was organized to bring everyone together. During this session, I had an in-depth conversation with an aspiring founder of a preschool in India who plans to adopt the Reggio Emilia approach, one of the key philosophies that inspires and informs our work at Play Based Projects in Honduras.
Additionally, the Play Based Projects team later traveled to Real World School
in Costa Rica, where Rob Houben also serves as a consultant. Real World School is an innovative learning community that focuses on self-directed, project based education, helping students connect their learning to real-life experiences. This visit extended our learning journey beyond Europe and into a close to home educational and cultural context. A separate Play Based Projects blog post will provide a deeper look into our observations and insights from this visit.
Final Reflections
From the All Learners course to the visits at Agora and Real World School, this journey reminded me that education is not about transmitting content, it’s about transforming experience. Real learning happens in the connections between theory and practice, between educators and learners, and between schools and communities. The ongoing dialogue with colleagues and partner schools has shown that the end of the course was not a conclusion, but a transition into continuous learning , a living, evolving network of people who believe in the power of play, purpose, and reflection to transform education and the global learning landscape.
Perhaps the most meaningful insight has been realizing that these shared experiences continually shape our daily practice. By reflecting on what we learn and adapting it to our own contexts and needs, we turn knowledge into growth, contributing to a vibrant global learning marketplace where ideas, practices, and perspectives are exchanged, refined, and reimagined to meet the needs of an ever-changing world. If you are an educator, ask yourself: how can my school become a marketplace of ideas and agency?
Written by Vania Suazo
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