Collaborative Innovative spaces

 Reflective entry 8

 Evaluate the outcomes of digital and collaborative innovation in your practice from an educational research perspective 

To create an innovative, open, creative and trustworthy place for students to grow, take risks, and feel comfortable in their own patterns of learning, teachers can create a more innovative classroom.

As teachers, we need to create the ability for students to connect, grow and be innovative. I view culture as one of the most critical aspects to invite innovation and make the classroom a safe place to create, ask questions, and fail in order to learn.

As teachers, we create the mood and tone of the room. Positive classroom cultures that invite authentic learning can lead to more opportunities for students to positively connect with content, their peers, and their teacher.

There are a few ways that teachers can create innovative learning spaces. With various teaching methods, it’s essential for teachers to consider how to use their classroom space. For example, when teachers can move furniture around the class with ease, they can find it is a crucial variable for improving student learning. As teaching has evolved, the classroom space must provide ways for students to work alone, interact with their peers, and provide areas of collaboration. Many classrooms today are still crowded, cluttered, loud spaces that lack the space to move around with ease, cause a gap in communication, and lead to roadblocks when students need to concentrate. This is often the case for my students with special needs. Sensory overload can cause students to have meltdowns of shut down completely and not respond to what is expected of them. Often students require headphones to block out disturbances and help them concentrate.

Learning spaces should be fluid and provide flexibility to support one-to-one learning, collaboration, independent thinking, and group discussions.

In Susan Cain's book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, one of the critical differences between introverts and extroverts is that extroverts tend to get their energy from social interaction and introverts gain energy from quiet spaces and a time to think and reflect alone.

Therefore, when a classroom solely focuses on group work-which emphasizes whole group discussions, small groups working together, gathering peer feedback (all of which require a great deal of social interaction), extroverts in the classroom can grow and gain energy, while introverted students can find themselves easily drained with a lack of motivation to participate.

When possible, teachers can offer students options of working in groups or on their own. Extroverts can complete some projects alone, and introverts can choose to collaborate--both of these ways of teaching are critical to meet the needs of different learners.

Teachers who provide activities that best engage, inspire and sustain students' love for learning are more likely to put in their best efforts, enjoy the process and find positive results.

A change in mindset, mood, and overall classroom vibe begins with the teacher. The teacher sets the tone of the class from the minute students walks into the building. If educators are excited about their subject matter, students will tend to follow. Educators must have a passion for the subjects they're teaching. However, a teacher's mindset regarding how to design and deliver content is critical to the innovative learning process. Most teachers were trained to educate solely from the teacher's point of view. Once again for my students with special needs, I have to work with individual teachers to help them develop a growth mindset. Many teachers expected my students to fit into their classroom setup as opposed to seeing how the classroom can be adapted for their needs. Knowing what technology is suitable for my students and how to differentiate the curriculum requirements and a change in mindset My job is to upskill staff with the special education pedagogy and why we do what we do. 

Self-reflection in the classroom is a way for educators to look back on their teaching strategies to discover how and why they were teaching in a certain way and how their students responded.

With a profession as challenging as teaching, self-reflection can offer teachers a critical opportunity to see what worked and what failed in their classroom. Educators can use reflective teaching as a way to analyze and evaluate their own teaching practices so they can focus on what works. Effective teachers acknowledge the fact that teaching strategies, delivery and finding success can always be improved.

Students need to see that adults in their lives try many things and repeatedly fail, but keep on trying. Students need to experience a failure to learn. This is what motivated my students when they were unable to access the curriculum during the lockdown, they made the effort to learn for the future.

There are many ways to form innovation and inspire creativity in the classroom. Teachers can start with one new project to see how things go with their students while revising, learning and building repeatedly. Innovation is a necessary change we need in schools today, and it can begin with us, teachers.


References


Kukulska-Hulme, A., et al.. (2021). Innovating Pedagogy 2021: Open University Innovation Report 9. Exploring new forms of teaching, learning and assessment, to guide educators and policy makers. Milton Keynes: The Open University. 

Shulman, R. (2018, November 19). 10 Ways Educators Can Make Classrooms More Innovative. Forbes. Retrieved from 

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