May the Code Be with You: The 42 Learning Model in Germany

Abstract

42 is a series of software engineering schools in Wolfsburg, Heilbronn, and Berlin that offer humanistic and tech education for 1,800 students. Here, they learn Future Skills for a self-determined life in the digital age—without professors, schedules or grades. For the Global Future Skills initiative, we were able to talk to Dr. Max Senges (Fig. 16.1), director of 42 Wolfsburg/Berlin, about their pedagogy and approach to Future Skills.

Ulf-Daniel Ehlers: 42 proposes an exciting take on peer-learning for software engineering. Could you shortly summarize your future learning approach?

Fig. 16.1

Max Senges

Max Senges: The 42 learning environments are composed of peer learning, gamification, and project-based software development challenges. Also, we want to go beyond coding: we offer an egalitarian form of Future Skills acquisition, aimed at enabling students to master fundamental digital and critical social competencies. 42 is a progressive educational approach that promotes collaborative learning, initiates critical-creative thinking, and relies on playful elements. We think that it is an approach which can be useful beyond software engineering education.

Today, 42 forms the largest network of software engineering schools in the world, with more than 40 coding schools of this kind in 25 countries worldwide and more than 13,000 students. In Germany alone, more than ten thousand applicants have registered on the school platform since 2021. Three cities offer the 42 coding school model in Germany: Wolfsburg, Heilbronn and Berlin, each one with a capacity of 600 students thus fueling a talent pipeline of about 1,800 software engineers per year.

Ehlers: This is pretty impressive indeed. Why the need to rethink coding education in this very different way?

Senges: Our different model allows us to support students whose learning needs don’t fit in traditional academia. But it’s not a primary objective, we are not—only—a second chance school. We are a school with a different approach that allows students who are different to find an interesting learning context—but more “regular” students can definitely come and succeed. And being unsuccessful in more ‘classic’ education does not mean being successful in 42. That means a new approach to access—but, maybe even more important, to learning.

It all started in France, in 2013. Then, the founder of the first 42 coding school, the French entrepreneur Xavier Niel, wanted to establish a new form of IT education, independent of universities and their interests. He was interested in a democratic form of education, accessible for everyone—including those who cannot afford expensive French private schools and those who cannot cope with the classic educational paths. It is following his vision that 42 coding schools with their unique pedagogy and curriculum have emerged.

Laura Eigbrecht: So why is coding the field that 42 schools have focused on?

Senges: The original trigger was the increasing shortage of skilled labor in this field in Europe. Across the continent, there is a shortage of engineers, software developers and IT experts. In Germany alone, at least 96,000 IT experts are needed, and significantly more in the coming years. In times of digital transformation, the shortage of IT specialists is becoming a real locational disadvantage. According to a study by industry association BITKOM, two out of three companies surveyed expect the staff shortage to worsen in the coming years.

There are different approaches to how this gap can be closed. Immigration is seen by many as an opportunity. In Germany, the current government is working on a new migration policy. One way to allow highly skilled workers from non-EU countries to live and work in the EU is the “Blue Card”. This new admission system, which also facilitates family reunification, is intended to attract skilled workers. German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck (Die Grünen/Green Party) wants to, as he puts it, “ease immigration requirements” so that qualified IT specialists can come to Germany.

In addition to immigration, however, there is an opportunity to break down educational barriers, and enable people to get technical training more quickly than via the pathway of traditional academia. 42 can give access to coding skills to people who otherwise would not be able to qualify for advanced studies in a university.

Eigbrecht: You say that learning how to code is one focus in 42 schools, Future Skills are another one. Can you elaborate on how this is actually done?

Senges: Future Skills are something we would like all our students to be equipped with. We think that these will help them professionally and personally to shape their life trajectory as well as our digital future, and we would like to highlight three dimensions that are particularly expressed at 42 in Germany here. Of course, literacy in coding and IT sets the foundation to ensure 42 learners feel empowered by technology rather than overwhelmed by it. Secondly, in their celebration of diversity and English as lingua franca, the schools promote planetary thinking—the realization that we all share a responsibility for our planetary spaceship and the need to collaborate across cultures, disciplines and beliefs. Lastly, a third Future Skill dimension facilitated at 42 in Germany is life entrepreneurship. Independent of students’ professional interests and passions, the affordances of the 42 learning ecosystem require learners to identify, assess and pursue learning opportunities that are in line with their lives’ ventures.

Very importantly, we don’t scan diplomas or CVs at 42. We do not think in terms of deficits, we don’t want to look at what our students are not capable of—we think in terms of opportunities, and we encourage our students to do so. From this point of view, educational institutions should be a place of opportunities, a place of inspiration, of creativity—and a place where people realize what they are capable of. And we think that this learning model at 42 really supports our students’ Future Skills learning.

Ehlers: IT and coding literacy, planetary thinking and life entrepreneurship—these are very interesting and promising Future Skills you propose here. Can you elaborate how you use gamification, which you mentioned before, for promoting them?

Senges: It plays a very important role. Altogether, our learning model is software-based, project-focused and features peer-to-peer learning. For the whole experience, students are provided with a learning environment which looks a little bit like a mix between an online banking account and a fitness app. Students can see their active and future projects, get an overview of their time investments, of campus events and deadlines. They use this software to organize their project work. When they select a project, they receive a project description which outlines the goals, requirements and sometimes constraints of the project. Students then independently solve coding problems that are part of the projects, seek help from search engines or their peers.

Concerning problems, we follow a certain rule set: if you are stuck with a problem, ask Google. If you are still stuck, ask a fellow student. Throughout their studies, students determine their own learning paths and specializations. There are no teachers, schedules or books. At the end of each project, students submit the result of their work: functioning code. If they succeed, they advance to a new level, and new projects are proposed—or ‘unlocked’, in gamification jargon.

Ehlers: And why is gamification such a promising approach for Future Skills learning?

Senges: We observed that at regular universities, professors spend a significant amount of time to motivate their students, correct exams, and deliver the same lectures over and over again in the Prussian tradition of frontal teaching. Formalized, top-down bureaucracy leaves little time for real educational work, little time to help people learn better. What we try at 42 is to provide playful, self-organized, cooperative learning spaces where studying happens in a community and also in self-selected teams, virtually or face-to-face. At the German offshoots of 42, we select students who have the intrinsic motivation they need to become competent and skilled programmers. With this energy, students are able to build their own learning networks and have an experience that is rare in other schools: solving problems together in a group by sharing skills and perspectives. Here, it’s always about project-based, hands-on problem solving. You can test yourself, challenge yourself, push yourself—and do it when you want to, not when a professor wants you to. In many cases, students learn only what they need to get through the current project. If they are particularly interested in a topic or an application area, they end up specializing with appropriate depth. We call it the “go as deep as you want” approach.

This is where gamification comes in: Gerald Hüther says, “The brain is not optimized for memorizing facts, but for solving problems”. A gamified, self-determined educational setting takes away the learners’ fear. Gamification in education means not only transparency, clear and fair rules and quantification, but above all motivation by visualizing learning progress by game elements such as “challenges” and “levels”. “Rankings” as measures of success can provide additional motivation for learners, and cooperative games increase the collaboration effect by making participants experience how to play and learn better and more efficiently in a peer community.

Eigbrecht: So this peer-learning aspect seems to be central in your learning model. We often tend to conceptualize skills acquisition in a kind of individualistic perspective. What are the benefits of focusing on peer support and peer learning instead?

Senges: We use elements of peer learning in various programmatic components of the 42 learning ecosystem. For example, when a project is completed, the student submits it and can then spend evaluation points to receive an assessment as well as constructive feedback. To earn points, the student will offer to evaluate others. Also, some of the projects in the curriculum can only be solved as a team.

Peer learning means to be able to meet with others—in order to tackle coding challenges, to take a walk, to hang out, or to brainstorm. How and when students do that is up to them. The schools in Wolfsburg, Heilbronn and Berlin are open 24/7—and students who get stuck with a problem can turn to other students for help. There are no professors or teachers at the schools, but there is a dynamic local and worldwide knowledge network as a precious resource. So, peer learning is more than an element of our learning model—it is really central for our student selection process and our 42 culture. Students also offer talks and knowledge sharing sessions to pass on and consolidate their newly acquired competences and their knowledge.

In the course of studying at 42, students have to solve increasingly bigger and more complex coding projects. These are designed for learning flow and continuously optimized by using learner data. When a project is finished, it is submitted to two fellow students who review the coding solution and provide feedback. Only if students can explain their coding solutions to others, they truly understand what they have done—you have really learnt something if you can pass it on to others.

In order to validate the knowledge and skills acquired, students take exams at certain milestones in the course of their studies where they have to solve programming challenges in the areas of their recent study focus without internet or peer support.

Two sum up, the whole model is student-centered—both in terms of content and equipment. To support this, all schools have state-of-the-art digital work stations and equipment such as whiteboards, micro-kitchens or gaming areas which promote collaborative learning, informal knowledge-sharing as well as identity- and community-building.

But all this doesn’t just run by itself—in order for peer learning to really work in a complex subject matter such as software engineering, you need a critical mass of students. We have observed that it takes approximately 150 students for peer-learning to really work; so that you can always find someone who knows or who is lucky enough to find a clue through trial and error.

Ehlers: It is really fascinating to have peer learning and collaboration as a foundation of an organizational learning culture. So, as I understand it, you really have to have students who are committed to this approach. So how do you find these students who are also willing to contribute to their fellow students’ personal development?

Senges: Yes, it really is a central and important aspect here at 42—starting with the admission process which I would like to describe. Our coding schools are meritocratic in their selection of students: everyone over 18 can take the admission test. For this direct access to become an IT professional, students do not need high school diplomas or any other school certificates, and they neither need any prior coding experience. Applications from all nationalities are accepted and the program is offered entirely in English.

Students are selected after completing a four-week bootcamp called “Piscine”—which is French for swimming pool—during which the learners “dive” into the world of programming, and explore if software engineering and peer-learning are suitable for them. As said, the Piscine requires no prior knowledge, no degrees, no programming experience, but it comes with an intense workload in which all applicants experience the limits of their learning capacities—participants usually report that the Piscine has been a very profound learning experience for them. On average, 150 “Pisciners” start a bootcamp, from which about 50 students are selected to start in a cohort.

Eigbrecht: It really sounds like an immersive and intense experience. How do you ensure to also connect learning to the real or more professional world?

Senges: Well, that’s where our focus on Future Skills comes in. For example, the social skills to give and receive feedback, to know when to ask, and to assess one’s strengths and shortcomings all help to work in a professional setting. After 12 to 18 months at 42, depending on the individual pace of the student, the program requires learners to engage in 4 to 6 months of practical experience, either in an internship or in a startup-like project. Two-thirds of 42’s graduates receive a job offer after their first internship. In addition, a number of exceptional entrepreneurs can be found among the thousands of graduates of 42 schools.

In Wolfsburg, students also have the opportunity to work in a so-called FabLab on questions and challenges relating to self-fabricated hardware and to mobility. The school is also developing a one-and-a-half-year specialization in Software Engineering Automotive & Mobility Ecosystem called SEA:ME. This program is developed in collaboration with around forty fellows—experts from academia and industry—as an Open Educational Resource. Once tested and successfully rolled out in Wolfsburg and Berlin, it will be offered as an addition to the existing curriculum after the undergraduate studies. At SEA:ME, students will learn about software development for the automotive and mobility sectors through hands-on projects divided into three modules. In the first module, challenges around sensors and actuators in embedded systems are covered by programming a model digital electric vehicle, a PiRacer. In the second module, participants learn to set up and administer machine learning systems for autonomous driving. In the last module, participants solve ecosystem projects that deal with interoperability and coordination between vehicles as well as with traffic signals and other roadside units like charging stations.

Ehlers: It seems like this is the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that promotes reflection and thus Future Skills learning. I would like to learn more about where your learning approach is rooted, theory-wise. What are your assumptions about how students learn that you build your didactic model on?

Senges: That’s a very important question. This is how we think about learning: we come into the world as learners. We want to try things out, we want to develop our talents, we want to offer value to society. Learning is deeply rooted in every complex living organism. Monkeys, for example, learn in groups. Monkeys are copycats. Behavioral researchers such as Frans de Waal (2016) have been able to prove that apes always pass on what they have learned to their descendants and thus develop their own traditions in their respective groups. In an experiment that De Waal conducted, chimpanzees observed how to open a box, which contained fruit. Later, they showed it to others, who acquired the same ability. He proved that monkeys can acquire skills which they did not develop themselves. In another experiment, De Waal showed how monkeys also understand whether other monkeys are motivated by egoistic or altruistic behavior. When it comes to sharing, monkeys seem to have a clear sense for what is fair and what is not. And we think that peer learning works on a similar principle: here, the person who is able to pass on knowledge empowers others to make progress. At 42, this communal learning spirit replaces professors, books and schedules.

At 42, this communal learning spirit replaces professors, books and schedules.

And we also consider learning a superpower. We learn to walk, we learn to speak, we learn to read and write. Others help us, but there are different views about what this help should look like. One of our role models here is Maria Montessori, the Italian reform pedagogue who developed her method at the beginning of the twentieth century to support children and young people in their learning journey. Montessori believed that everyone has their own rhythm, that everyone should be encouraged to be curious and independent. “Help me do it myself” is still the motto of Montessori education today. The pedagogy trusts in the strength and the cognitive abilities of each learner, it takes learners seriously and trusts them. The teachers are supportive in this concept and encourage the child, not entirely without rules, but without a restrictive teaching corset. In Montessori’s eyes, the child is its own master. It is crucial that the students are able to participate in work that “moves” them, in which they are asked to be creators and not just reproducers. At 42 in Germany, we are guided by the Montessori philosophy and support our students in diving deeper into the parts of the curriculum that are interesting to them.

Ehlers: Very interesting! To me, it seems like we rarely hear of Montessori and higher education pedagogy thought together, but it results in some very interesting questions and ideas. Is there any other inspiration for your teaching and learning model?

Senges: Another pedagogical role model is Mitch Resnick, currently professor of educational research at the MIT Media Lab in Boston. For decades, Mitch has been addressing the question of what learning needs to look like in the twenty-first century—and he cites four key points: Passion, Play, Peers and Projects. It is in free play that we discover the world—and that is why, for Resnick, it is and remains the strongest form of learning (Resnick & Robinson, 2017). Play helps us explore, understand and reimagine the world, in other words, to be creative. So we shouldn’t stop playing, because it’s in play that people grasp their possibilities, recognize their abilities, to know themselves. And education should always be about discovering one’s horizons and thus options and possibilities.

Mitch says that it’s depressing how many millions of young learners are still pigeonholed as “non-creative” at a ridiculously early age—but creative thinking is elemental to technological change. According to Resnick, creativity is a social process in which people cooperate, share, and build their work on the work of others. Accordingly, creativity is often the result of interaction with peers. Play and playful experimentation encourage people to take risks, to try things out. However, we feel that in conventional education, the message is: “Stop playing.” We and the whole community of serious game designers disagree: we need more playrooms than classrooms. In play, people build their own understanding of the world because it excites them. And for that, they need spaces, real and imagined.

Eigbrecht: I do like this approach to creativity very much as it is a very different perspective than the one often advocated where you are born creative or not. This perspective empowers learners: looking at today’s and tomorrow’s challenges, we kind of need everyone to be creative!

Senges: Exactly—this is also why we promote it at our schools. At first glance, 42 is about learning programming skills, about coding, but it’s about more than that. The development of character or, in contemporary English, mindset, is just as crucial for each individual as it is for their employers. And to have people have a digital-literate mindset is fundamental to successful digitization and competitiveness.

Allow us to elaborate: 42 in Germany is designed as a humanistic educational institution. In our view, education also means character building, embracing a canon of values like sustainability or an egalitarian view of humanity. At our coding schools the motto is: show us your dedication to learn and your willingness to openly share and learn with your peers. Your previous certificates, your diplomas, your career path are not relevant as they do not provide information about your current motivation and ability to learn—we give you a chance.

More explicitly, the 42 Network has set the goal to have 30% students who would otherwise not fulfill the requirements to access higher education.

Eigbrecht: It seems like we often disconnect this more humanistic vision from technology which we might perceive as cold, inhumane even. How can we think about humans and technology together?

Senges: Well, let’s think about the internet: it has been a paradigm-shifting innovation for society and education. We believe that we are still in the beginning of embracing this new technology, and that the net will make new forms of learning common place—indeed it is the origin, incubator, and platform of planetary peer learning. It is humanity’s biggest knowledge resource and the dynamics of virtual, location-independent co-creation and collaboration are still unfolding. In the best scenario, the internet is the homestead of a cosmopolitan open society, of meritocracy, a place where everybody can share and access all information at one’s fingertips (Rheingold, 2012).

In Germany, “education for all” has been a guiding principle of education policy for many decades. It dates back to a time when social advancement was established to be dependent on education—but today, education can no longer guarantee socio-economic advancement, and many professions and traditional vocational education preparing for them are becoming quickly outdated. It thus becomes even more important to awaken the desire—the intrinsic motivation—to learn and to continue learning.

Ehlers: So why is it coding that your students should focus on learning?

Senges: At 42, we sometimes say that the programming language “C” is the Latin of digitization—coding C is as useful for a contemporary cosmopolitan life now as speaking Latin has been for centuries. C is a low-level, imperative programming language. It is closer to machine processes than object-oriented programming like Python or Java, and hence allows a deeper understanding of how computers work and organize their work stacks.

Building coding skills from the ground up helps to comprehend the algorithmic foundations of our digital life and our daily interactions with machines. Above all, programming stands for trying out ideas, which is the foundation of the scientific method as well as for creative thinking. Building repeatable processes through code is also closely related to an entrepreneurial mindset, and to pursuing innovative ventures. We truly believe that today, by solving big problems with software, coders can change the world.

“We truly believe that today, by solving big problems with software, coders can change the world.”

Ehlers: You, as educational institutions, thus provide a certain framework for students to learn to, as you just put it, change the world, and to learn Future Skills. Would you say that this should be the responsibility of all educational institutions?

Senges: I would say that the fundamental task of educational institutions today is to enable their students to learn to learn. The quest of education from kindergarten to higher education is to allow students to acquire and use knowledge, and to pursue self-formulated learning goals. Consider the cognitive learning goal taxonomy of the US-American psychologist Benjamin Bloom (see Fig. 16.2) as an orientation framework here—the more advanced and self-reflected learners are about their understanding and competence in a given field, the better our pedagogical approach at 42 Germany works for them. At the higher education level, the goals also include interdisciplinary competencies or Future Skills such as critical thinking, ethical behavior, or the ability to work in a team. Education for “Weltanschauung” or “Bildung”¹ have always been more comprehensive than just subject-specific vocational training, and we at 42 in Germany embrace that challenge with our pedagogy.

Fig. 16.2

Bloom’s taxonomy (Xristina Ia, 2012)

To sum up, firstly, education should always offer a way to develop one’s personality and character. Another important task for today’s education is learning how to work together with other people, including an increased need to collaborate with diverse backgrounds and identities. We welcome a generation that is more aware of discrimination and unconscious biases. In the case of 42 in Germany, highly diverse communities that consist of different cultures and age groups learn together. For example, our communities span from 18-year-olds to professional veterans in their late fifties. This requires various strategies to promote effective and wide-spread inclusion. And last but not least, 42 Germany promotes the idea of planetary thinking. This concept entails a focus on sustainable living and development, as well as a new way to connect with other people—not through ways of binary thinking and stereotypes, but through sharing perspectives and offering allyship.

Eigbrecht: Your approach is indeed very student- and learning-centered. Could you shortly sum up the 42 learning model and your Future Skills approach?

Senges: In order to describe our overall approach to learning, let’s have a look at today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. In today’s globalized, multi-media, hyper-complex world, it is evident that no one’s education is ever conclusive, and that there is no shortcut to learning through experience, as Confucius had already pointed out (see Fig. 16.3).

Fig. 16.3

Confucius (work by Kanō Sansetsu, AMorozov, 2021)

Especially for Future Skills learning, it is important to offer a model to students that works in the long run—meaning throughout one’s life. At 42 in Germany, students acquire skills not just to be prepared to solve big projects later in their career, but by learning meta-skills for problem-solving as such, and skills like goal-setting and planning. In a fast-paced socio-technological world where all knowledge is outdated within a few years, they are able to adapt and grow—and to empower their peers and problem-solve as a community.

Ehlers: And would it be possible to adapt this learning approach to other subject areas than coding?

Senges: Yes, we think that it is totally possible that peer learning environments and curricula can be developed for other Future Skills-relevant areas, such as design, business and entrepreneurship. In order to do this, we need to promote students to develop their own learning strategies, and build peer-learning capacity through exchange and cooperation with others. Then the educators’ job is to “only” provide suitable thematic project work and learning environments that allow students to discover and develop their own talents and interests.

We also need to understand that the learning engine of any school are the students—and this goes hand in hand with a paradigm shift from teaching to learning. At 42, we hope to impact Future Skills learning far beyond our software engineering schools and promote open peer learning spaces with educators, experts and learners from everywhere.