The way students learn is changing. The way teachers learn should change too.

November 2, 2018 Island Teacher

Innovation is one of the most important concerns of any organisation. Innovation in all human areas is applicable to product development, methods of management, ways of doing works etc.  

In all of the definition used for innovation, changing or improvement of the process or product are common. Innovation is a process that is carefully thought out and planned.  The final outcome might have resulted in many small developmental steps.  Innovation is different from creativity.

What is the difference between innovation and creativity?

Innovation is closely tied to creativity i.e. putting creative ideas into action is an innovation, whose consequences should be positive. It is the process of doing something better for the first time, which was not previously done by any entity. It can also be termed as a change which can bring a new edge to the performance and productivity of the company. It is of two types i.e. evolutionary and revolutionary.

MIT Teaching Systems Lab

Last OctoberMIT Teaching Systems Lab Professor Justin Reich gave a lecture on a new approach to innovation in the classroom.  Speaking at a Nord Anglia Education event he put forward the belief that regularly testing our ideas paves the way for both teachers and students to learn through experience and evaluate how to move forward.  Initially, I thought that a high degree of failure might be problematic and in some ways a throwback to a different time where students were caught up in pedagogical wars.  On the other hand, we are told that we should give teachers more autonomy.  I suppose i can buy into that idea, as long as the teacher is clutching a copy of Visible learning in one hand and carefully documenting any innovative experimental approaches with the other.

 

Why the need to change?

Talk to any teacher or leader and they will usually say that they want to get better.  I have never met a teacher that was satisfied.  they might occasionally be discouraged or uninterested, but deep down they usually have a desire to do the job better.  However, good intentions do not lead to improvements.

“Things don’t get better just by trying; they get better by trying, evaluating how we’re doing and moving forward from there”


Professor Justin Reich

The full article can be read below.

https://www.nordangliaeducation.com/article/2018/10/11/innovative-teaching-and-learning-in-schools-is-achieved-through-regularly-testing-ideas-learning-from-them-and-deciding-how-to-move-forward

The MIT Teaching Systems Lab investigates the complex, technology-mediated classrooms of the future and the systems we need to develop to prepare teachers for those classrooms. 

 

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