Innovating in

Education,
Educating for
Innovation
OCTOBER 15, 2009
The European School 2.0 – The seventh
EDEN Open Classroom Conference
EDEN – European Distance and E-Leaning Network
 How can we incubate creativity?
How can we develop in our children
the capacity for innovation?
After more than 25 years of experience
in the use of technologies in education
why have we progressed so little
in developing creativity and
innovation in our schools?
 1. TYPES OF INNOVATION
2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION
4. A SOLUTION
5. CONCLUSIONS
 1. TYPES OF INNOVATION
2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION
4. A SOLUTION
5. CONCLUSIONS
1. TYPES OF INNOVATION

Two radically different

types of innovation:

incremental innovation
disruptive innovation

If we mix them up,

innovation doesn’t happen
 1. TYPES OF INNOVATION

INCREMENTAL INNOVATION

Incremental innovations build on

existing thinking, products, processes,
organizations, or social systems
They can be routine improvements
or they can be dramatic breakthroughs
but
they address the very core
of what already exists
 1. TYPES OF INNOVATION

INCREMENTAL INNOVATION
Examples of incremental innovations:
• Airplanes that fly farther
• Batteries that last longer
• Televisions with clearer images
• Computers that process faster
• Schools where students learn
better by regularly using the Net
 1. TYPES OF INNOVATION

DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION

Disruptive innovations are addressed to

people who do not have any solutions

They take root in simple, undemanding

applications that are not breakthrough
People are happy to use them, in spite of their
limitations, because no other solutions exist

They do not compete with anything

 1. TYPES OF INNOVATION

DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION

But as they gain strength in the

realm of non-competition

they evolve very fast

and end up replacing

the traditional solutions
 1. TYPES OF INNOVATION

DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION
An example of disruptive innovation:
The personal computer is an example of a disruptive innovation
In the 1970s the professional computer market was occupied
by 100,000 € minicomputers produced by Digital
Equipment Corporation (DEC), Data General and HP.
The first personal computers (like the Spectrum
and the Apple II) were ridiculously limited,
and completely out of that market.
 1. TYPES OF INNOVATION

DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION
They were supposed to be used mainly
as toys by children and their parents.
But they quickly grew up, in this unexplored market
Ten years later, in the 1980s, they were much more
powerful, and starting to erode the minicomputer market
Twenty years later, in the 1990s, the minicomputer
market collapsed in favour of the PC market
DEC and Data General don’t exist any more
 1. TYPES OF INNOVATION
2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION
4. A SOLUTION
5. CONCLUSIONS
3. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION

From the point of view of

the sociology of innovation

educational systems
are networks of actors

that reinforce each other

into stable configurations

These stable configurations

tend to prevent change
3. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
 2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION

Some experts in innovation claim that

in such conservative echo-systems

it is impossible to produce
innovations with lasting effects

the inertia of the system dilutes

or distorts the innovations
and converts them
to the reigning uniformity

It is like pouring water in the desert

 2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION

I don’t share this radical view

Incremental innovation in
educational systems has
a high failure rate
but it can be explored
if sound innovation strategies
are crafted and managed
relying on dependable social theories,
such as Actor-Network-Theory
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005
 2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION

The promising path to innovation

in the educational systems is
through disruptive innovation

that quietly grows in the margins

of the system, unobtrusively

until it starts changing

it, irreversibly

Clayton M. Christensen is an
inspiring author on this topic
McGraw-Hill, New York, 2008
 2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION

Examples of disruptive innovations in the school systems:

• Courses provided on-line to a region
or a whole country, namely:
• courses for gifted students
• enrichment classes for
special-needs children
• optional courses in the languages,
arts, humanities, economics
• distant support to homebound
and home-schooled students
• private tutoring
 2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION

• Pilot schools trying out

new school models
• Special schools for students wishing
to follow project-based learning

• Experimental schools aimed at changing

transformationally the degraded social
communities to which they belong
 2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION

These are examples of opportunities for

disruptive innovation that don’t clash against
the mainstream educational echo-system

In this way, innovation can

incubate at leisure until it
matures up to a level where
it can be transposed to the
mainstream system
 1. TYPES OF INNOVATION
2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION
4. A SOLUTION
5. CONCLUSIONS
 3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION

Educating a creative and innovative

generation requires other concerns
besides those related to
language, maths and science
Ten years ago, in the early days of the
Blair government, a commission led
by Sir Ken Robinson produced
 3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION

Educating a creative and innovative

generation requires other concerns
besides those related to
language, maths and science
Ten years ago, in the early days of the
Blair government, a commission led
by Sir Ken Robinson produced
a 240-page report on how to make
progress in the creative and cultural
development of young people
NACCCE, UK, 1999
 3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION

Unfortunately, the report has

been ignored since then
Last May, the BBC celebrated
the 10th anniversary of its neglect
Studies and research reports keep
being produced all over the world
insisting, for instance, on the
importance of the epistemologies of
Design and of the Visual Arts
Arts Council England, UK, December 2008
 3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION

The formative role of the engineering

paradigms are also being stressed
namely in the United States
The distinct epistemologies
of science and engineering
“science explains what exists”
“engineering creates what never existed”

and their complementary roles in

education have been stressed
National Academy of Science, USA, 2009
 3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION

Very innovative experiments,

engaging thousands of
teachers, are under way

such as those conducted by

Kieran Egan’s Imaginative
Education Research Group (IERG)

But they all have

one thing in common:
Yale University Press, 2008
 3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION

If they remain at the margins of the

conventional educational echo-system
following a disruptive path
or if they are based on
very cautious, strategically
managed, incremental innovation
they succeed
and produce lasting effects
3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION

Otherwise
and that’s what we
witness most of the time
they fail
and leave no lasting effects

HOW CAN WE IMPROVE

THIS SCENARIO?
 1. TYPES OF INNOVATION
2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION
4. A SOLUTION
5. CONCLUSIONS
 4. A SOLUTION

STILL ONE PROBLEM:

In a world that keeps changing,
who knows how to progress?
Who teaches who?
How can we set up an organic,
reflective follow-up process,
that analyses difficulties,
assesses consequences, and
clarifies how to progress?
 4. A SOLUTION

MY ANSWER:
By establishing lasting partnerships between
research units and school communities
around action-research and design-research
projects conducted by mixed teams of
academic researchers and school teachers

in a reflection about how school

curricula and pedagogical practices
can evolve in this changing world
 4. A SOLUTION

These projects should be financially

supported and assessed on the basis
of their contribution to sustained:
• system innovation and cultural change
• enhancement of didactical approaches
• improvement of educational practices
 4. A SOLUTION

The national and international publication

and presentation of the results of these
projects, by members of the mixed teams
and the dialogue and mutual help:
• face-to-face (at conferences)
• at a distance (in social networks)
strengthens sustained reflective practices
and further mobilizes all the parts
 4. A SOLUTION

These projects also provide:

• contextual alternatives
to teacher training
• opportunities for MScs
and PhDs “in the field”
• “authentic” opportunities
for teacher assessment
 1. TYPES OF INNOVATION
2. INNOVATING IN EDUCATION
3. EDUCATING FOR INNOVATION
4. A SOLUTION
5. CONCLUSIONS
 6. CONCLUSIONS

If we want lasting innovation in the educational systems

1
and our children to be more creative and innovative
we need to reinforce our emphasis
on disruptive innovation projects

These should be action-research and

2
design-based research projects
conducted by mixed teams of school
teachers and academic researchers
 THE END
The slides will be available at:
Innovating in
Education,
Educating for
Innovation
http://www.slideshare.net/adfigueiredo

OCTOBER 15, 2009

The European School 2.0 – The seventh
My Webpage:
EDEN Open Classroom Conference
EDEN – European Distance and E-Leaning Network adfig.com