For a few weeks, much of my curiosity has centered on this idea of innovation (whatever that is!) in schools and the leadership required to bring it about. An earlier post, Leading Innovation for Systemic Change, represents the early stages of my curiosity. Over the past few days I’ve generated some inquiry questions on innovation in K12. Here are the questions I plan to explore as I think about how to transfer what I learn to my practice. Questions:
- What is innovation? How is it defined? Is there a common understanding or do multiple definitions/interpretations exist?
- Why innovation? Why is this a shift we should care about as educational leaders?
- What does it look like in schools?
- What are we already doing that’s innovative?
- How can we lead for innovation? What conditions are necessary to support innovation from teachers and leaders?
- What kinds of learning environments and instructional practices best support innovation in learners?
- What can parents do to support the development of innovation skills outside of school?
- Does a person need any particular skills to innovate? If so, can they be learned?
- If I wanted to connect with the main thought leaders in K12 innovation, who would they be? What other resources, including books, blogs and minds, would I want to access?
Books:
- Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World (@DrTonyWagner)
- Pure Genius: Building a Culture of Innovation and Taking 20% Time to the Next Level (@DonWettrick)
- How to Come Up With Great Ideas and Actually Make Them Happen (@EwanMcIntosh)
- Inquiry and Innovation in the Classroom – Using 20% Time, Genius Hour and PBL to Drive Student Success (@AJJuliani)
Bloggers:
Have suggestions for additional inquiry questions, books or bloggers to add to the list? Add them in the comments or visit this Google Doc. Thanks for your help!
I've retired from public education after 34 years, most recently as Superintendent. In addition to blogging at WorkingAtTheEdge.org, I co-host two podcasts at TLTalkRadio.org and ShiftYourParadigm.org. Learn more at https://workingattheedge.org/about/.
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Innovation seems to be tied to personalized learning for teachers, students, and leaders. I met Ken Grover at the #RCSeLearn conference in Indiana. He created and has an Innovation School in Utah. In addition, he is instruction another public school, Lincoln HS in Cambridge City, IN, to create and innovate another school environment inside their current high school setting. If you want to find out more, connect with Ken @OmerLeeroy.
I did some thinking about this topic a while back: http://d20innovation.d20blogs.org/2013/12/12/thoughts-on-defining-innovation-in-education/. I like your questions! Some thought leaders you might want to investigate are Will Richardson, Eric Sheninger, Vicki Davis, Joyce Valenza, George Couros, Alec Couros, Pam Moran, Steven Anderson, and Tom Whitby.