It's About Learning

Tony Wagner, Harvard Innovation Education Fellow provides a summary of the findings he has published in his latest book Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change The World.

Wagner is not suggesting we change a few processes or reform the system. He says,

The system has become obsolete. It needs reinventing, not reforming.

He has identified five ways in which America’s education system is stunting innovation:

1. Individual achievement is the focus – but innovation is a team sport.
2. Specialization is celebrated and rewarded – but learning to be an innovator is about learning to cross disciplinary boundaries and exploring problems and their solutions from multiple perspectives.
3. Risk aversion is the norm – but without failure this is no innovation.
4. Learning is profoundly passive – but innovative learning cultures teach about creating, not consuming.
5. Extrinsic incentives drive learning – but we should be nurturing the curiosity and inquisitiveness of young people: it’s a pattern of play to passion to purpose.

While Wagner speaks specifically to the problems within the American Education system many, if not all, of the same problems exist in the Canadian system.