Can innovation, in this field, contribute to bring solutions and achieve education goals?
International experiences have shown that innovation in education does not mean a set of isolated practices that have to be implemented by the education actors. Indeed, innovation has to be a systemic approach that guides education work within an integrated organization.
In this perspective, this approach put all concerned actors and stakeholders together: learners from all levels, education and training actors, curriculum designers, governance and educative leadership, evaluation and assessment managers, and the whole surrounding environment around schools.
How can educational innovation contribute in supporting school reforms? And how can innovation participate in the implementation of Reform Strategic Vision 2015-2030?
The debate in the symposium will be focusing on the following axes:
Innovation in Pedagogy: Issues and Stakes of Reform
Educational innovation implies all irregular practices in teaching and training activities. This common thematic is providing a rich subject for a large debate.
What do we mean by educational innovation? What are the pedagogical stakes and concerns of innovation? What are the issues and interests of educational innovation? Additionally, what are the obstacles against innovation? What are the inherent risks related to this particular type of innovation?
This part also aims to assess the contribution of educational innovation in educational reforms generally and pedagogical models specifically. How does it contribute to the improvement of the education system and to what extent can it accelerate the implementation of the 2015 -2030 Strategic Vision?
Role of educative actors in enhancing pedagogical innovation
Pedagogical innovation is after all a mindset and a way of perceiving the teaching-learning operation. Seeking to innovate in problem solving or improving a pedagogical approach requires an individual readiness to innovation and needs a motivating environment.
The teacher, as an important educational actor, is the initiator of innovation. However, can a teacher innovate when his work environment conditions are unfavorable to innovation? The individual readiness to innovation, mentioned above, is similar to the astonishment and questioning abilities of early childhood period. Can the teacher experience again such attitudes while taking courses in initial and continuous trainings programs?
The issue of preparation for pedagogical innovation is mentioned in the latest report of the HCETSR about the Promotion of Education and Training Professions. It is emphasized in the professionalization concept of education job and in the process of self-assessment trough critical thinking about practices, while considering the education and training structure as a core element of the education system where reforms should be applied.
How can teamwork of educational staff and schools’ autonomy, as recommended in the overmentioned report, promote innovation and allow practices such as testing pedagogical innovation and evaluating experiences
Pedagogical Innovation and Curriculum
Curriculum’s reform requires a prior thinking about the needs of the 21st century learner and the skills he or she has to acquire. Can we consider education to innovation as an education based on critical thinking, observation and analysis, civic and human rights as well as media and digital use? How can these different combined dimensions of education contribute in structuring the cognitive outputs we get from offered courses and subjects? Moreover, how can education to innovation build creation spirit required to solve problems encountering conception and implementation of curricula.
How can different components of curriculum benefit from innovation in the whole processing starting from conceptual thinking to programs elaboration, passing by integration of information and communication technologies, setting textbooks layout and different forms of evaluation, etc.? Can we increase involvement of education actors and learners in the implementation of curricula through innovation and the relevant requirements in terms of initiative taking?
Governance, Leadership, Evaluation and Educational Innovation
Some international experiences have shown that innovation in governance and leadership in education, starting from local schools to central management structures, can have significant impacts on promoting quality and equity. Governance modes define the guidelines for organizing systemic interactions within an education system, starting from decision-making in central structures toward management and leadership of schools and training entities.
What role does innovation play in improving governance and leadership in the education system generally and in school and training entities specifically? What role do governance and leadership play in promoting pedagogical innovation? Is there any particular type of governance that enhances pedagogical innovation, its experimentation, and then its generalization?
What is the relationship between governance and leadership, at all education system levels, and the success of educational innovation?
How can the surrounding environment of a school, a university or a training centre foster educational innovation? How can it support educational innovation and how can the latter be beneficial to its components (family associations, education civil society, businesses partners, professional associations, etc.)?
These four axes form the fundamental topics of the conference program. In addition to the opening session and the plenary conferences, the symposium includes parallel and sucsessive panels that aims to find answers for different debate questions and therefore give more insights to the Council for the elaboration of educational innovation strategy.