5.2.4 New Perspectives on innovative learning activities

These are my reflections on the power of innovative learning activities. These activities:

• Promote active, autonomous and transformative learning in the students.
• Provide students and teachers with competencies and technological skills that allow them to search for, organise, and analyse information and communicate and express their in a variety of multimedia projects.
• Enable teachers, students and the general school population to communicate and share information.
• Engage students and teachers in collaborative, project-based learning in which they work together on real-time, real-world like, language projects.
• Provide students with individualised or differentiated instruction at all levels of ability, interest and/or learning styles.
• Allow teachers and students to assess performance (a total interactive, interpersonal human process).

Although innovative learning activities are learner centered, the teacher’s role is the most important.

Who are innovative teachers?

These are teachers   who are alert to new ideas, forge them into something uniquely their own, test them, and persist until their students are engaged and their teaching is transformed.

Innovative teachers are passionate about teaching:

They devote time to being better teachers, are genuinely interested in students, and carefully analyze their teaching. They find out why things are working and why they are not.  They work with a number of different approaches. They are open risk takers They also help students take responsibility for their own learning, usually rely on active learning strategies, create a safe classroom environment, work with their students as colleagues, often measure their success by the success of their students, and seek out colleagues who also value teaching.

Innovative teachers recognize the need for freedom to learn:

 Combining challenge and flexibility can produce a moment of excitement for both the teacher and the student. Innovative teachers see opportunities rather than limitations in their students, facilities, their colleagues and institutions, and in themselves. They help students continuously grow with small steps that build both confidence and competence so they are more willing to become more innovative themselves.

They cultivate professional knowledge and skills.

Innovative teachers often stay up-to-date with the latest news and developments related to their field. They are critically aware of the politics, pedagogy and practices of school systems; they model learning in order to do better things for students. They themselves are “guinea pigs”   who immerse themselves into new learning opportunities. This  helps them understand the bigger picture of the system within which they work, providing the tools they need to diversify their practices and advocate for their students.

They are confident, yet aware of what they don’t know and keep themselves vital

 Innovative teachers are keen in the awareness that they will never know all there is to know about education or about learners—or about anything at all, for that matter! They are always learning, trying new things, reflecting on the outcomes and redesigning their practices in response to those outcomes. They see life as one giant learning experience. These teachers are eager to learn from colleagues, journaling partners, use of the Internet, and others. They also solicit student feedback continuously and view it constructively. They are also willing to connect and are able to connect. They are not limited to the ideas in their own school but connect with others outside and choose what works for their classrooms and remix it to be applicable.

Because of this; they are open to new ideas and are willing to take professional risks based on their experience. They are brave, open, honest and confident, but most of all, they are humble. They know that, as educators, they have a great responsibility to encourage all students to become the best they can be.

How can I as teachers adapt my teaching to include more elements of innovative learning in my own lessons?

I am going to centre on only one aspect from the qualities of an innovative teacher which I consider would create a difference in learning –Reflective Practice.

Reflective Practice involves  looking  at  what  I do  in the classroom,  thinking  about  why  I do  it,  and  thinking about if it works –a process of self-observation and self-evaluation. By collecting information about what  goes  on  in  my classroom,  and  by  analyzing  and evaluating  this  information,  I can   identify  and  explore  my  own practices and underlying beliefs. This may then lead to changes and improvements in my teaching.

As a teacher , I bring my own  background  and  experience,  certain  beliefs,  assumptions,  knowledge,  attitudes  and values to the classroom yet  teaching  takes  place  in  a  social setting    that    has    its    own    unique    characteristics, opportunities  and  constraints.  The  practice  of reflective teaching  will help me explore  the  implications  of  all  these  complex factors with the intention of helping me  understand and improve teaching-learning  practice.  

On the other hand,  reflective practice  would help me  develop an  analysis of feelings and the evaluation   of  experience  associated  with  reflective   teaching   practice   and   lifelong learning . This will develop me into an autonomous, qualified   and   self-directed    professional leading to improvement of the quality of care, stimulating personal and professional growth and closing the gap between theory and practice.