Innovation in Education: What’s Old and What’s New

The world our kids will need to compete in is radically different from the world ten years ago. The old adage about education that “what was good enough for you when you were a kid is good enough for today” gives comfort and justification that everything is fine. Everything is not fine. Our schools are training students in memorization of information and test-taking as opposed to finding and exercising their creativity and innovation skills to compete in the coming innovation economy. We need innovation in education.

If we are not preparing our children for the future, then we are preparing them for failure.

In this article, I will present the need for change, the challenges to changing the education system, what are some steps to encourage teachers, schools, and administrators to change, — and what parents can do today to help their children prepare for the coming innovation economy.

The Need For Education to Change

Education needs to change. This is not a new argument. This has been a topic for years. I wrote about it in my first book, Beyond The Obvious, back in 2012 and nothing has changed. The education system is doing the same thing the same way they have for decades, if not for centuries.

The 21st-century workforce has different requirements than previous centuries did. We no longer can rely on memorization skills as the basis for career success.

The challenges we face as a society require us to innovate solutions to problems we are facing here and now — and to be prepared to innovate solutions to problems that don’t even exist using technologies that haven’t yet been invented. How do you memorize and test for something that doesn’t yet exist?

The skills we need for the innovation economy emphasize collaboration, creative thinking, and problem-solving.

What Is This New Innovation Economy?

The innovation economy describes a shift from a traditional manufacturing-based or extractive economy to one reliant on creativity and innovation. The definition used by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and others is “the production of novelty through creativity.” It has been referred to as an ‘economy of…