PME 811- Module 2

Innovation

Innovation is the creation of new robots, the development of new iPhones that keep developing and even the development of the lightbulb, but it is also so much more than just a new creation. Innovation does not have to come from an inventor. It does not have to be a whole new concept either. Innovation can be built on prior ideas, strategies, and creations. As Badran (2007) states, “Innovation is adding something new to an existing product or process” (page 574). Along with Badran’s definition, it can also be the introduction of something entirely new. Innovation is a process and a development which means, “Innovation requires a lower degree of risk, due to the fact that the progress of achievement is incremental and innovation can be terminated at any stage of development” (page 575). Creativity and innovation often go together. 

Tina Zita’s TEDx talk, “What Is Innovation?” stuck with me because she helps justify my definition of innovation and how it relates to us in education and the real world. We often think as innovators only being inventors or scientist. She explains that with her job in education she gets to try new ideas all the time and that is innovation. She gets to challenge what learning looks like, try new processes, and provoke new thinking. It’s about seeing new opportunities and possibilities in education and in the classroom and trying them out. Tina Zita explains that innovation can be using ideas and your own understanding of them to make an idea work for your own situation. It's about hitting the roadblocks and finding a new path or idea. It doesn't have to effect change on the world or result in money, it can effect change just on you. 

Creativity 

Morrison and Johston (2006) state, “Creativity can be expressed as ‘the ability to make something new, whether a thought or idea, an object, a product or a process, a work of art or performance, or an interpretation.’ This is usually done by ‘making connection with an existing knowledge base, using imagination, experimenting, taking risks, having fun, and making the jump from what is already known or experienced to what is, or might be’” (Badran, 2007, Page 574 & 575). Cropley (2001) summarizes that, “Creativity in essence ‘involves departing from the facts (norms), finding new ways, making unusual association, or seeing unexpected solutions’” (Badran, 2007, Page 575). Beghetto & Kaufman (2007) explain three different types of creativity. Creativity that has a major impact on others, known as “Big C” (eminent creativity). Creativity that involves daily problem solving or the ability to adapt to change, known as “Little C” or everyday creativity. And finally, “Mini C” which is, “Creativity, or the creative processes involved in the construction of personal knowledge and understanding” (Hennessey & Amabile, 2010, Page 572). As Simon (1962) explains, creativity is function. It is “Intelligence, Knowledge, Thinking, Personality, Imagination, Motivation, [and] Environment” (Badran, 2007, Page 575). Creativity is the driving force for positive change in our world, schools, and lives. 

To make sense of creativity in education, Sir Ken Robinson states in his “Do Schools Kill Creativity?’ Ted Talk that “creativity is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.” Robinson defines creativity as, “The process of having original ideas that have value.” He goes on to say, “I don’t mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative. What we do know is, if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” Creativity in education is about encouraging students to have and share their own ideas. Allowing them to problem solve situations on their own and allowing them to discover new concepts and show mastery using their own desired learning method. To me, creativity is a student-centered classroom where value is put on students collaborating, working together, motivating each other, discovering knowledge, and expressing their ideas and thoughts. 

Teaching

Mark Smith (2018) defines teaching as, “The process of attending to people’s needs, experiences and feelings, and intervening so that they learn particular things, and go beyond the given.” As Martin (1996), expresses in his research, we are constantly learning from education, socialization, acculturation, and exposure from people around us whether we ask for it or not. Since “the pool of potential subject matter is so large that no one can hope to teach or learn everything in it” we must rely on the village that surrounds us to share the responsibility of teaching “accomplishments, practices, skills, techniques, values, attitudes, fields of knowledge, [and] world views of the past” (Martin, 1996, Page 4). Teaching occurs in all aspects of life, not just in education and from teachers, but from experiences, homes, culture, and building upon one's own knowledge. 

Teaching in education is more than just setting out with the intention for students to acquire new content to help them succeed in the future. Teaching is motivating students, inspiring them, allowing them to learn from their mistakes, and providing them with skills and tools to survive. Jerome Bruner (1966) quotes, “To instruct someone… is not a matter of getting him to commit results to mind. Rather, it is to teach him to participate in the process that makes possible the establishment of knowledge. We teach a subject not to produce little living libraries on that subject, but rather to get a student to think mathematically for himself, to consider matters as an historian does, to take part in the process of knowledge-getting. Knowing is a process not a product” (Page 72). Paul Hirst (1975) concluded, “being clear about what teaching is matters vitally because how teachers understand teaching very much affects what they actually do in the classroom.” Teaching is about creating a village that can work together to provide children with knowledge, experiences, tools and skills to be prepared for whatever they face in life. 

Learning

According to the article, “What is Learning?”, learning is active, meaning, “Learners build knowledge as they explore the world around them, observe and interact with phenomena, converse and engage with others, and make connections between new ideas and prior understandings” (2019). Learning is also building upon prior knowledge which involves enriching, changing, and growing the base of our current knowledge. Learning is also a process that occurs in a complex social environment. The article states it is “necessary to think of learning as a social activity involving people, the things they use, the words they speak, the cultural context they’re in, and the actions they take (Bransford, et al., 2006; Rogoff, 1998), and that knowledge is built by members in the activity (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006)” (2019). Learning is also a process that is situated in an authentic context and requires learners’ motivation and cognitive engagement. Essentially, learning occurs and happens in many different forms but results in a new perspective or change in knowledge or behavior. 

When discussing learning in the education system it is important to note that everybody learns differently and new knowledge is is built in different ways based on the child’s previous knowledge or learning. It is also key to understand that everyone has the potential to learn too. To help all students learn, Rose and Meyer (2002) state, “Facilitating learning by using multiple means of representation, assessment and engagement helps accommodate students’ differing learning pathways.” Learning is not just about lecturing students on a new concept or asking them to memorize facts. Learning in the classroom in ongoing and active. It involves inquiry, engagement, collaboration, and participation. Learning is about acquiring new skills and knowledge to help them grow and develop. 

Sources: 

Badran, I. (2007). Enhancing creativity and innovation in engineering education. European Journal of Engineering Education, 32(5), 573–585. doi: 0.1080/03043790701433061

Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Washington, D.C: National Academy Press.

Bruner, J. S. (1966). Toward a Theory of Instruction, Cambridge, MA.: Belkapp Press.

Friesen, Sharon. “What Is Learning?” Focus on Inquiry, Galileo Educational Network, 2015, inquiry.galileo.org/ch1/what-is-learning/.

Hennessey, B.A., & Amabile, T.M. (2010). Creativity. Annual Review of Psychology, 61, 569 – 598. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.100416

Hirst, P. (1975). What is teaching? In R. S. Peters (ed.) The Philosophy of Education. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Martin, J.R. (1996). There’s too much to teach: Cultural wealth in an age of scarcity. Educational Researcher, 25(2), 4–16. doi: 10.3102/0013189X025002004

Robinson,K. (2006, February), Sir Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity?[Video file]. https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

Rose, D. H., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning. Alexandria, Va: Association for Supervision & Curriculum

Development.What is Learning? (2019) Berkeley Center for Teaching & Learning. Retrieved from: https://teaching.berkeley.edu/resources/learn/what-learning

Smith, M. K. (2018). ‘What is teaching?’ in the encyclopaedia of informal education.http://infed.org/mobi/what-is-teaching/

Zita, Tina. “What Is Innovation?” YouTube, TEDxSacredHeartCHS, 3 June 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_O-yJHrFx8.