Overcoming the resistances to innovation in the classroom
February 2007
Nick Soucek, Futurelab
Let us think back to the Victorian classroom. Discipline was strict, the curriculum rigid, and personalised learning meant having access to one’s own slate and chalk. The Victorian classrooms and schools were draconian spaces.
Since then, it seems unproblematic to claim that classrooms and schools have changed significantly. As a result of changing attitudes of society, and in relation to the recent absorption of digital technologies into all aspects of contemporary life, roles and practices around education have changed. The classroom and the school have become multi-disciplinary, dynamic and nurturing spaces for learning and education. Well, this may seem unproblematic, but on closer inspection this perception of education in UK classrooms becomes more troubled.
In actuality it may be that contemporary schools are not the dynamic and stimulating environment we imagine them to be, and in fact they may instead have more in common with the Victorian classroom than we like to think. Although I am not suggesting that things have gone unchanged, it is worth considering what role technology IS having on teaching practice and content? Things have changed, but how much? Are teachers developing new, updated, and more effective teaching practices? Should teachers be responsible for changing current practices, or should it be imposed in a top-down approach? What can be done to ensure that formal education does not suffer stagnation?
Futurelab is investigating these questions through two concurrent research programmes. Firstly, Teachers as Innovators is investigating the teacher’s role in the use of digital resources in the classroom. By looking at what innovative practices teachers are undertaking in today’s classrooms this programme aims both to understand what innovation in the classroom means, as well as what can be done to stimulate the application of more innovative and creative uses of both existing and new resources. Secondly, Models of Innovation aims to draw together a collection of different approaches to communicating, developing, criticising and disseminating ideas, practices and concepts. In an interdisciplinary fashion, methods, models, techniques and tools are sourced from across both existing educational practices as well as from industry. The output will be a set of versatile resources available to be used by teachers in a bid to empower them, and encourage communication and discussion in new and effective ways. These resources will come with recommendations for helping to overcome the resistances and barriers to innovation in the classroom, as well as within the school as a whole.
The overlaps between the two programmes are broad, not least because of the potential for the models to be embedded within the recommendations for teachers. Here are some of the models that will be included amongst the Models of Innovation.
Diamond 9
Diamond 9 is a tool used to promote discussion in the early stages of development. Participants are provided with nine cards, each containing a broad question or issue, and are then asked to arrange these in order of importance within the grid that has a diamond shape. An emphasis is placed on the participating groups justifying their chosen placements, and this is used to stimulate discussion and understanding. When practiced effectively it helps to engage participants through encouraging the comparison of perceptions and acts to draw together a consensus of priorities.
Informance
Short for ‘informative performance’, Informance is a method that is best used to share a practice or concept through the acting out of a scenario. The physical enactment of a scenario is very helpful in demonstrating the performing participants’ understanding and intuitive responses that are prompted. Quickly testing context- and behaviour-based concepts helps to open up discussion, and by building a shared understanding of the possible implications and concerns around the scenario in question Informance acts as both a practical means of illustration, as well as a tool for dissemination.
Scenario testing
Scenario testing is an elicitation technique that helps to prompt a constructive evaluation of early stage concepts, and is best aimed at potential users or practitioners. Participants are provided with a series of cards depicting possible future scenarios, and are then asked to share their perceptions of the significant issues each scenario raises by both the practice within and the context around each scenario. Used in a multi-disciplinary environment, this approach can be very effective at bringing forth issues around specific practices that are otherwise not apparent, as well as helping the facilitator to share the developing concepts effectively.
KEEP Toolkit
Ongoing development at the Knowledge Media Laboratory (KML) has produced Version 1.9 of an open source resource called the KEEP Toolkit. Designed as a web-based package of tools for teachers, the KEEP Toolkit contains tools that can be used by teachers, students, as well as more broadly in institutions, to quickly create and publish representations of knowledge and information accessible on the web. Utilising purpose-built software designed to organise and display teaching and learning materials, the toolkit claims to output the “materials and reflections into visually appealing and intellectually engaging representations”. Utilising the connected nature of the web platform, the toolkit additionally promotes the sharing of the stylised knowledge representation amongst peers with an aim to establish networks for exchange and dissemination.
The brief examples of innovative models above help to give a taste of the different ways innovation can be approached within the context of education. These models require simultaneous changes or flexibility, such as allowance of time within the employee’s schedule. These activities can be used across groups of teachers and senior management both within and between schools, and can help to support, develop, and make easier new and existing initiatives.
However, what works in one situation, be it a specific classroom or series of schools, can often be inappropriate in other situations. This is something that is often acknowledged in theory, and yet largely forgotten in practice. The process of understanding what approaches are likely not to work for instance, and subsequently developing an understanding of what existing approaches will work or need to be developed, is just one of many keys to innovating practices.
The Teachers as Innovators and Models of Innovation research programmes have been designed to capture and showcase teachers’ innovative practices in today’s classrooms, as well as capture models and methods from a more interdisciplinary scope. These will all go towards answering the question of what role teachers have within the development of education, and what can be done to overcome the barriers and resistances to innovation in the classroom. What is becoming apparent, however, is that this asks further questions. What is meant by innovation? What is meant by the classroom? What is meant by the teacher? These are very broad questions in themselves, and the relationships between them are also very important. These concepts are blurred, overlapping, and transient. What is most important, however, is that they don’t juxtapose effectively with the current reality of formal education in the UK.