Innovative Practices in Education

Alongside the entrepreneur spirit, Innovation is the process of taking new ideas and implementing them into the market. Key word being “new”, an innovation can be sometimes viewed as the application to better solutions that meet new demand-requirements, inarticulated needs or existing market needs. Innovative ideas range from: goods, services, products, processes, services, technologies or ideas that create value for which customers will pay for. For an idea to be an innovation, it must be replicable at an economical cost and must satisfy a specific need. This means is that one must be ready and willing put their new idea to the test. On the other hand, there is recognition that “innovation is also critical to cultural, environmental, social, and artistic progress as well” (Bullinger, 2006). With this stated, high-tech innovation is ultimately the reason why we can be thankful for the many new conveniences of the 21st century. Although we might see the forefront of innovation being very prominent in today’s world, innovation is truly nothing new. From the start of modern man times, innovative ideas have paved the way for civilization to advance and develop into what we are today and at the same time, we have barely begin to chip away at the tip of the iceberg of our true human potential. Some scholars believe that innovation is a

innovation is the introduction of methods that are new and improve to help do things.

Innovation. To some this word means a new idea or product. To me innovation means an improvement on the way that the world views something and inspires change. An innovation is as simple as the wheel or as complex as discovering how to map the human genome. Innovations have the power to impact the world in major ways. Even ideas or movements are considered innovations. The civil rights movement changed our country by opening the eyes of our citizens to the racial inequality that was occurring. It ignited change in the way we viewed each other as human beings.

However, the process of innovation is closely linked to the understanding of innovation – whether it is an act of bringing changes or consequence of an action which represents changes. It is easily understandable that any particular action does not ensure the same outcome but may bring changes, and all changes are not considered innovation. So, it is imperative to develop a clear understanding of the concept for proposing a generalized process of innovation.

In the Book Review of Collaborative Learning, Stoerger said “ emphasis on collaborative learning is pushing educational community to a new forms” (2008). Collaborative learning involves groups of people to work, such as completing a project or producing a product. All team members’ work sequentially to the project and towards to the same goal. It is quite difference with cooperative learning, which members work concurrently on the project and focus their personal objective (Dillenbourg, 1999). For a university student, it is vital to learn collaborative learning, which can benefits for their current studying and for their futures’ career path. It also exists challenges for

This type of instructional method, and its varying implementations, provides the opportunity for each student to make a substantial contribution to his/her team. This contribution is where learning occurs. I do realize that there is a large gap between research and practice, and I know that cooperative learning is not a definite solution to my goals. What it provides is a means to a continuous labor of love moving closer to this goal, not a means to an end. Therefore, as an ongoing task, research will evolve as will my classroom practice. But, I do see some implementation rules that appear to be steadfast and help form my thoughts on constructing my future cooperative learning classroom.

Collaborative learning refers to ‘a variety of instructional practices that encourage students to work together as they apply course material to answer questions, solve problems, or create a project’ (Colbeck et al. 2000, p.60). Collaborative learning is a form of group work and recognised among educators, it has been a successful learning strategy from an educational point of view. This student-centered learning strategy is implemented in the learning process and generally seem to have brought many benefits to students. Thus, Arnold and Boggs (2011) defined that group is ‘a gathering of two or more individuals, who share a common purpose, meet over substantial period of time, in face to face interaction, to achieve an identifiable goal’.

Innovation is the practical application of cutting edge ideas and/or research to bring creativity in an organisation. Different people perceive innovation differently. Introduction of something ‘new’ in any domain such as business, science or society which is better than existing process or object. Innovation is used in various contexts and sometimes can be misleading. It is a highly unpredictable process and depends on internal as well as external focus (Hayashi, 2013).

Unlike individual learning, which can be competitive in nature, students learning cooperatively can capitalize on one another’s resources and skills (asking one another for information, evaluating one another’s ideas, monitoring one another’s work, etc.) ( Chiu, 2008). Furthermore, the teacher's role changes from giving information to facilitating students' learning (Syahrir, 2011). Everyone succeeds when the group succeeds. Ross and Smyth (1995) described successful cooperative learning tasks as intellectually demanding, creative, open-ended, and involve higher order thinking tasks. Five essential elements are identified for the successful incorporation of cooperative learning in the classroom.

Today’s classroom setting is very complex and can be very challenging. Marzano (2010) claims that the most basic issue a teacher can contemplate is what they will do to establish and communicate learning goals, track pupils progress, and celebrate success. The teaching environment in the classroom has changed dramatically due to the many new innovations that have been added. Cohen (October 2010) mentions that the structures, resources, and baggage of an existing school or system can make working towards a new vision of teaching very intimidating.

Many different researchers in different academic fields undertook experimental studies to compare the effects of the cooperative learning methods and the traditional teaching methods on student learning and other outcomes. These varied fields are as follows: principles and methods of teaching (Kilic, 2008); and accounting education (Hwang, Lui & Tong, 2005); mathematics and science; Nattiv, 1994; Vaughan, 2002); social studies (Lampe, Rooze & Tallent-Runnels, 1996; Adeyemi, 2008); geography (Yager, Johnson, & Johnson, 1985); chemical bonding (Doymus, 2008a& Doymus, 2008b).

Problem-based learning (PBL) refers to a learning cycle where learners first encounter the problem, as opposed to the instructor initially providing information to solve a latter problem (Savery, 2006). As the result, students search for the information required to solve the problem instead of depending on already existed knowledge. In PBL, students use triggers from the problem to determine their personal learning goals. Then, they engage in independent or individual research prior to work as a group (Savery, 2006). When research has been started, the students work in groups where they discuss as well as improve the knowledge. Therefore, PBL uses suitable problems in enhancing intellectual capacity. Moreover, PBL is a type of active learning, this is because it introduces students that problem pushes them to ask, and seek for answers, and then they can put together theory and practice; in addition to communicating what they learn to others.

Cooperative learning is an instructional strategy in which small groups of students work together on a common task. This strategy has a lot of benefits. “According to David Johnson and Roger Johnson (1999), there are five basic elements that allows successful small group learning, such as positive interdependence, face to face interaction, individual and group accountability, group behaviors, and group processing”. Looking back at when I was in school, I did not know that small groups were known as cooperative learning but it surely helped me to break out of my shell. At times, I

Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society. Innovation differs from invention in that innovation refers to the use of a new idea or method, whereas invention refers more directly to the creation of the idea or method itself. Innovation and HRM

Alecusan and Dimitrescu (2016) states that innovation is the carrying out of new combinations. It can be carried out by means of a detailed innovation process that can be come up with in different steps. Also, It is defined as how a product or service is come up with in market and how new challenges and opportunities are met. It relies on advanced technology, technological development and exists technologies. Moreover, it is driven by the ability companies has to provide network, to find chances and to get benefits from them (Lopes, Kissimoto, Salerno, Monteiro de Carvalho, and Laurindo, 2016). However, some may have different versions of innovation definition. It shows that there is no common definition of innovation publicly. Moreover,