Examining the Elephant: What is Innovation?
A Hindu folktale tells of three blind men encountering an elephant. "It's a tree," says one, stroking a leg. "No, no, it's a snake," says another, feeling the trunk. "No, this must be a house," insists a third, spreading his arms against the bulk of the elephant's body.
All three had a different perception of the elephant based on the part they examined, and all three conclusions were wrong. The elephant was larger and more complex than any of the men realized.
Innovation is like the elephant: difficult to describe and more complex than we realize.
Jack Trovato, drama teacher at Alpha Secondary School in Burnaby, British Columbia, suggests that "an innovative practice goes beyond the curriculum to provide students with different ways to achieve learning outcomes." His students produce an evening "dessert theatre" series of one-act plays. The students learn and refine skills in stage management, lighting, sound, set design, costumes and other aspects of production management, such as publicity and budgeting.
"Rather than seeing students as clients sitting at desks, we see them as our children," agrees Marie-Chantal Vanier, who teaches students with learning disabilities at École Lac-des-Fées in Gatineau, Quebec. Innovative teachers use this connection with their students to create the approach (an unconventional one, if necessary) that gives students what they need to learn, she says.
"Innovation is very much a synergy, more than its separate elements," adds Pascale Baillargeon. She teaches several high school courses at Qaqqalik School in the small Nunavut community of Kimmirut. "Innovation happens when the interaction between idea, curriculum, student and teacher goes farther than you expected." For example, rather than dissect lab specimens imported from the South, she had her students dissect seals, she explains. Then, respecting cultural values and concerns about waste and respect for the land's resources, she invited the entire community to a feast when the class exercise was finished. "We also used the hide to create little craft objects that we sold at a craft fair," she says. A simple problem - the difficulty of obtaining dissection materials - became an interesting community-wide project.
As Baillargeon found, innovative practices capitalize on strengths in one area and apply them to others, proposes Kevin Harrison, who teaches at Timberline Senior Secondary in Campbell River, British Columbia. At a former school, he helped increase the academic standing of an entire school population by applying the principles and practices of sports team coaching - trips, team T-shirts and school recognition - to academically inclined students, creating the same cachet among students in an "A" as in a touchdown. Not only did the approach succeed in raising grades and graduation rates, it is still being used some 10 years later.
The Adminovator
Educational innovation is not the sole domain of teachers, points out David Hildebrand, business education and software applications teacher at Garden Valley Collegiate in Winkler, Manitoba. He and Peter Gallant, instrumental music and social studies teacher from Summerside Intermediate School in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, agree that an important element of both a teacher's and a school's innovative practices is an administrator who welcomes innovation. They coined the word adminovator for this type of administrator.
Hildebrand and Gallant describe their schools as being fortunate enough to have adminovators who streamline the paperwork, say "Why not?" instead of "No!," provide advice and resources when necessary and cheer students' and teachers' successes. "I wouldn't be the teacher I am without the support of my principal," asserts Gallant. "He's constantly suggesting new ideas and approaches."
"An adminovator is someone who can run the school, but at the same time look beyond the administrative role to the wider community. They'll see the possibilities, then create the climate and culture that make innovation possible," explains Hildebrand.
The arrival of an adminovator can really change the atmosphere in the school for students and teachers, observes Betty MacLure, who teaches Grade 2 at Wainwright Elementary School in Wainwright, Alberta. A new principal instituted the virtue of the month program, developed a project in which all students and staff made a clay wall tile for the school entrance, had murals painted in the school lobby and encouraged all teachers to adopt a microphone system in their classrooms. "[Adminovators] come to the school with new ideas and enthusiasm and get everyone involved in building an energetic school culture," says MacLure.
But innovation - whether it be teacher- or adminovator-inspired - should not be created and done just for the sake of being different, points out Sherry Taylor, Grade 5 teacher at George H. Luck School in Edmonton. An innovative practice is created to meet a need, solve a problem or create an effective learning experience. Her outdoor classroom in the schoolyard (which features miniature versions of four local ecosystems) helps children who may have never planted a seed or watched a flower grow connect to the natural environment and, through those experiences, to the curriculum.
"The curriculum is the foundation or roots of learning, and shouldn't be ignored," continues Taylor, "but innovation is the plant and flower that grow from the root." Teaching to the curriculum, just because it is safe and comfortable, will not help students grow and blossom, she cautions. "Trust your instincts and training," she adds. "You're less likely to jump on the fads, and more likely to create something that really works."
This can be another unappreciated aspect of having an adminovator in the school, points out Karen Douziech, English and theatre appreciation teacher at McNally High School in Edmonton. An adminovator is someone who is willing and able to give a teacher useful feedback. This can be risky, too, she admits, but "we all need constructive comments to help us improve, to stay truly innovative rather than just different."
Innovation may be as difficult to define as an elephant - especially if you try to take it in pieces as the blind men in the folktale did - but, like an elephant, innovation certainly makes its presence felt. There is no mistaking an innovative practice, or administrator, teacher or school!