Innovation – the key to success

Industry research has shown that the companies that grow are the companies that innovate. Opportunities to teach the principles of innovation in education, and schooling in particular, have rarely been explored in any serious way. No doubt there has been substantial growth in this area in the last decade. The paper discusses the need for instruction in innovation in schools and overviews projects in a number of countries, and the relative success of each. The majority of these projects were conducted outside what we have considered for centuries as ‘the traditional classroom’. This raises questions about the adequacy of the speed at which education is changing and to challenge educators to remove their rather ‘blinkered approach’ to ‘incrementalist creep’ as the basis of developing future possibilities for education and schooling. Observers would say that education is not keeping pace with societal changes and is in line for a good dose of innovation itself. Research to discover the students’ perceptions of current education, support this observation. The paper concludes with suggestions for a more innovative approach to education and the role of technology educators as catalysts for change.