Innovation in Education

Several weeks ago, I posted about traditions in education and promised a future post on innovation.  Since this exam week (and I didn't really want to post about that), I thought this might be a good time to discuss innovation in the classroom.

First, let's address this.  Innovation in the classroom is not new.  It just happens at a faster rate now than ever before, so it looks different.  When teachers started using paper instead of slates in their classrooms, they were trying something new.  When slide rules were replaced with calculators, it was innovative and scary, and there were people who thought it would be the downfall of math.

This brings me to the second point I want to address.  Innovation is, has been, and always will be - scary.  Think about the last time you did something you had never done before (cooking class, new job, new exercise program).  It is always off putting at best.  This is because of an educational concept I teach the kids.  It is called mental disequilibrium.  Most of the time, you walk around with a brain that is in reasonable balance.  When you encounter something new (or upsetting, like a fight with a friend), the balance is thrown off a bit.  After you have had time to practice with the new thing or adjust to the upsetting thing, your brain returns to a state of balance with the new information or skill.  That is what learning is - throwing off and then restoring the balance.   The statement I make to my kids is, "If you are never confused, you are never learning."


Guess what, folks.  This isn't just for the kids.   We also need to learn new things, change old habits, and try something scary.  For some reason, we expect to never be confused again after we have a diploma in our hands.  Maybe, that is because we only ever viewed education as a way to get a job and think once we have that job, we no longer need to learn anything.  That is just stupid, but I'll save that for another post.

Innovation - trying new things - even when we are afraid to fail - letting things be confusing until they aren't any more - These are the things that make us human.  We are made in the image of a God who creates.  What makes us think we wouldn't create as well?  There isn't a special class of creative people because we are all made in the image of a creative God.  We must model this for our students by trying new things in our classrooms.

Traditions are important.  I posted about that weeks ago, but innovation is what keeps the human race moving forward.  We harnessed the power of fire, invented the wheel, invented the telephone, invented the airplane, went to the moon, invented the internet, and whatever comes next because that is what God has put within us all.

As teachers, we must teach innovation by modeling innovation.  We all had a teacher who had taught for 25 years but really had just taught one year 25 times.  That person was NOT our favorite teacher.  He or she did what was easiest, not necessarily what was best.  We must show them how to overcome the fear of failure by trying something new, even if it flops.

I am in a school that encourages this.  We have the freedom to try something new and then mop it up if it makes a mess.  Our IT department gives us missions to try new technological tools, and we get badges (and sometimes prizes) when we do.  If I need to talk over a new idea, they are there for that.  If I ask them to come to my room while we try it the first time, they are there for that too.  They are super helpful.  Our administration supports us when we try new things and helps us figure out how to clean it up if it doesn't work.  They also know that sometimes it may not work the first time but will work next year because we learn from our mistakes.  Our principal, Mandy Gill, in particular, is one of the best problem solvers I have ever known.  If we run into a problem with something we are trying, she doesn't just have us drop it; she helps us figure out how to fix it.  Other teachers are helpful as well.  There is absolutely new competition between our teachers; so if you need a sounding board or a partner on something new, they are are all totally up for it.

Because of this atmosphere, I think we are school of creativity; and I believe our students have absorbed that spirit as well.  They have learned to overcome the fear of new things, and I can't think of anything that will help them more in the post school world than that.