Systemic Innovation in Education and Innovative Learning Environments

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Systemic Innovation in EducationandInnovative
Learning Environments

• Tracey Burns and David Istance
• 18 November 2008
• Bonn, Germany

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Systemic Innovation in VET

• Project objectives
• Conceptualize innovation in education
• Focus on processes and dynamics of innovation in
  education (KM perspective)
• Factors influencing innovation
• A model of innovation
• Innovation strategies
• Role of evidence
• Monitoring and evaluating innovation
• Measuring innovation

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Innovation

• the implementation of a new or significantly
  improved product (good or service), or process, a
  new marketing method, or a new organisational
  method in business practices, workplace
  organisation or external relations
• Oslo manual (2005, OECD/Eurostat)

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Systemic Innovation in VET

• Systemic innovation in VET is change that is
  introduced with the aim of improving the
  operation of VET systems, their performance, the
  perceived satisfaction of the main stakeholders,
  or all of them at the same time.

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Focus of the analysis

• profile of innovation
• use of an evidence base to support innovation
• process and dynamics of innovation
• role of evaluation in innovation

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• Identification of needs
• ? What are the drivers of change?
• Which stakeholders are involved?

• Development of the innovation
• top-down vs. bottom-up approach
• which stakeholders are involved?

• Evaluation
• judgement of outcomes
• How and when is evaluation conducted?
• What criteria are used?
• What are the findings?

Identification of needs

• Knowledge base
• Central role interaction with different stages
• What types of knowledge?
• Tacit knowledge
• Explicit knowledge
• What knowledge sources?

• Output of the innovation
• Product
• Process
• Marketing method
• Organisational method

Development of innovation
Evaluation

• Monitoring
• continuous surveillance of progress
• How is monitoring conducted?
• What criteria are used?
• Summative or formative purpose?
• What are the findings?

Knowledge base
Output

• Implementation process
• Without piloting large-scale implementation
• With piloting
• Small-scale implementation
• Monitoring/evaluation
• Scaling-up

Monitoring
Outcomes impacts or consequences of the
innovation Is there an implementation gap?
Implementation
Outcomes
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Case studies

• Australia Increasing the status of VET FLAG
  Evidence base for VET
• Denmark Globalisation Council Practical
  training
• Hungary Modular National Qualification Register
  Step one forward
• Germany Innovation Circle SKOLA
• Mexico Tech Bac Reform Linking public and
  private resources
• Switzerland Case Management Leading Houses,
  Basic Commercial Training

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Preliminary findings

• Drivers
• Economic (e.g. Need to improve competitiveness,
  increase efficiency of public funding,
  globalisation and rise of new skill needs, etc)
• Social (e.g. provide a solution for school
  leavers, drop-outs, students not taken care
  within the previous VET system)
• Political (e.g. Need for a political
  move/success)
• Technological (e.g. new technology, etc)

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Preliminary findings

• Barriers
• Accountability mechanisms that radically restrict
  risk
• Competing policy agendas
• Horizontal and vertical cooperation
• Timing
• Lack of consensus among stakeholders
• Ownership
• Uptake and implementation
• Resistance to change/fatigue
• Lack of research evidence and consistent
  evaluation
• Timing/policy cycles
• Blue sky research

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Publication (mid 2009)

• A framework report on systemic innovation in
  education (concepts, mechanisms, influencing
  factors).
• A typology of systemic innovation in VET (case
  studies).
• A benchmarking report on good practice (emphasis
  on use of evidence for innovation policies).
• Lessons learned and recommendations from
  inter-country comparisons.

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OECD-CERI Innovative Learning Environments

• David Istance
• Bad Honnef
• 18th November 2008

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Where does it come from?

• Grown out of long-running CERI reflections on
  Schooling for Tomorrow
• A strong focus on the organisation of learning,
  rather than the institutional variables of
  educational reform
• Focus on research and on concrete innovations
  (and less on futures thinking)
• Examples must be relevant for school-age learners
  not the whole lifelong learning range

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Innovative Learning Environments Project

• Exploratory Phase with Mexico
• Innovating to Learn, Learning to Innovate
  report (November 2008), another in pipeline
• Three strands i) Analytical, ii) Empirical , and
  iii) Policy
• Open to countries, regions other partners
  (foundations, business communities, cultural
  groups), including individual ILEs

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Analytical Strand new publication Syntheses
of research findings from leading experts

• Each chapter will address
• How do students learn optimally?
• How can teachers provide a favourable learning
  environment for learning?
• 1 The Historical Developments in the Conception
  of Learning
• Eric De Corte, Leuven University
• 2 Developmental and Biological Bases of Learning
• Kurt Fischer, Harvard University
• 3 The Cognitive Perspective on Learning
• Lauren Resnick (to be confirmed)
• 4

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Analytical Strand Publication (cont.)

• 4. Emotional and Motivational Aspects of Learning
  Monique Boekaerts, Leiden University
• 5 Technology and Learning
• Richard Mayer, University of California
• 6 Learning about real-world Problems
• Brigid Barron, Stanford University
• 7 Assessment for Learning
• Dylan Wiliam, University of London
• 8 Learning in Social Groups
• Robert Slavin, John Hopkins University
• 9 The Role of the Family in Learning
• Barbara Schneider, Michigan State University
• 10 The Community as a Resource for Learning
• Andrew Furco, University of Minnesota

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Learning Environments

• Micro-level teaching and learning in context
  not schools per se (collections of learning
  environments)
• May be found in schools or in other settings
• Multi-site (not single classes or individuals)
• Concrete examples, not just theoretical (but may
  be underpinned by formalised approaches to
  teaching and learning)

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Innovative Learning Environments (for OECD/CERI
project) are

• Departures from the traditional approach of most
  general or vocational education to respond better
  to learning needs they are innovative
• They serve the learning needs of children and/or
  adolescents (3-19 years), exclusively or with
  others
• Seek to provide optimal learning and development
  in cognitive, meta-cognitive and socio-emotional
  terms, whatever the curriculum focus
• Aim at a broad set of learning and educational
  needs, not very specific types of knowledge and
  capabilities

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Empirical Strand

• A universe of ILEs from as many countries as
  possible (200-400), recorded to standard format

• An Inventory 40-50 cases, looking at the
  conditions under which ILEs get started, develop,
  are made sustainable (2009)

• Observatory with 10 -12 cases representing
  different types of ILE, thick in-depth case
  studies on learning process in context (2009-
  2010)

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One important avenue is research-based
innovation

• There are innovations in education, but neither
  the profession nor the public at large looks to
  research to produce them. Instead, they are
  expected to come from imaginative practitioners
  and from outside sources such as technology
  companies
• Research-based innovation is research aimed at
  creating innovation. The criterion is
  fruitfulness does the idea have potential? Is
  it worth developing further? It depends crucially
  on understanding the nature of the problem.
• Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia in
  Innovating to Learn, Learning to Innovate,
  OECD/CERI, 2008

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while protecting the public dimension of
educational knowledge and application

• A possible outcome would be the emergence of
  educational tool companies at the interface
  between public educational research and schools.
  These companies would heavily rely on patenting
  educational methods in order to generate income
  by granting licenses to schools.
• (Innovation in the Knowledge Economy
  Implications for Education and Learning,
  OECD/CERI 2004 89)