Skills Education

Is the drive to innovate pushing us to the point it overshadows what we do best as educators? 

Do you feel pressure to be 'innovative' such that it's adding to your workload?

This session explores what ‘innovation’ means and how it applies to the learning process. It queries whether our drive to innovate is overshadowing what we do best as educators and opens the door to a - hopefully - expanded viewpoint of what it means to be an innovative educator.

Even without COVID and the way it has impacted and shaped the education landscape in which we now operate, teaching has been steadily moving toward:

• Blended methodologies

• Increased use of, and integration with, technologies; and

• Increased reliance on digital literacy skills of participants (teachers and students)

A significant push toward innovation and digital tools and tech tips has been on the radar for some time, and in a lot of cases, implementation comes with an expected yield of increased student engagement.  

As a concept, innovation refers to new methods, ideas and products – or at least, an approach to existing products, processes and ideas in new ways. And the pressure to keep introducing ‘new’, to keep on the ‘cutting edge’ can be downright overwhelming. And in some cases, potentially causing a pressure that might also be hindering what we do best.

In our search for innovation, are we missing what’s in front of us? Amongst the plethora of apps, platforms, and online opportunities, there remains one constant – the human mind as the centre of all learning processes. As educators, how often do we remind ourselves that the fundamentals count? That sometimes, being innovative requires a back-to-basics approach?

This session acknowledges the importance of looking to continually improve, but also balances the need to innovate with gentle reminders about the learning process and human factors that can dictate whether our attempts to introduce novel elements to our teaching will truly be successful. 

Content will draw on psychological and adult learning theory and look at, in the context of learning:

• The process  

• Human motivational factors

• The importance of psychological safety

• Explicitly building core skills

More than anything, this session will aim to prompt personal reflection on individual practice and critical analysis of various strategies employed in the teaching arena.

Other Details:

Recorded - October 2022

Duration - Approx. 60 mins

Access - 30 days from date of purchase

Past Feedback:

Here's what others who watched this session had to say:

"Many interesting ideas in this session"

"This has reinforced so much of what I believe and also got me thinking, thank you."

"Focused on different perspective of learning, lots of theories are used."

"Great TAE PD - thanks!"