IMAGINATION, CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

Learning is not something that is ‘done’ to a student by a teacher. Learning only happens when a student chooses to engage with what is being taught. But, obviously learning can also happen without a teacher. Regardless of how old we are, whether we ‘succeeded’ in school or not, learning is what humans do. As long as we live, learning is a choice. Traditional schooling was (is?) about a teacher imparting knowledge perceived to be useful to a group of students. This happened in an enclosed space, for a fixed time and with no outside influence or interference for the duration of the ‘lesson’. Exams, assignments and essays were, and often still are, done alone. In the industrial society where these students left school and entered factories, this was good preparation for their lives as adult workers – performing repetitive tasks, probably alone, in an enclosed space and under supervision and with little or no outside interference. So does traditional schooling as described st...

In a previous post Managing Change I wrote about two ways that change can be affected – forced change (F-Change) and nurtured change (N-Change).   The role of management for each of these is vastly different.   For anyone seeking to instigate change the polar opposite approaches might be: F-change N-change Demand insist on perfection Listen to staff opinion and objections and follow up Lead from the front, because no-one else has the required vision Deliver resources, feedback and follow-up in time Direct decide who is capable and who does what by when Arrive to key meetings and show willing to engage with staff Assert assert your authority to make change See for yourself Dictate the way things are done Encourage learning, ideas...

A quick search on Google Images can throw light on how technology has changed our lives. (@abdulchohan, Festival of Education 2012).  Try this for yourself – search for Google Images for 19 th century surgery and 21 st century surgery.  In typical images of 19 th century surgery you will see men in suits operating on a patient lying on what looks like the kitchen table.  In the 21 st century image you will see surgeons in a clean environment surrounded by technology.  Try the same for printing, or banking to see the impact technology has had on our lives. But when the same search is done for education, there is a difference.  Pictures of 19 th century schoolrooms – of children sat at desks in rows facing the teacher – are not so dissimilar to some 21 st century pictures.  There are exceptions, but it is clear that technology has not yet made an impact on all classrooms.    In recent years the rise...