The role of Creativity, Innovation & Critical Thinking within Technology learning

Talofa lava. Malo le soifua. O nai ou lagona nei mo lenei vaiaso 

(A warm Samoan Language week greeting )

The national workshop for technology 2015 delivery, has been a success up and down New Zealand, with 400+ Teachers and Middle Leaders in attendance. 

This particular blog post is my reflection (Thinking about Thinking)

Originally named The Poet (French: Le Poète), the Thinker was initially a figure in a large commission, begun in 1880, for a doorway surround called The Gates of Hell. Rodin based this on The Divine Comedy of Dante, and most of the many figures in the work represented the main characters in the epic poem.

and a summary of session 3 from the workshop, on the meaning of Creativity, Innovation & Critical Thinking.

From P32 of the NZC… 

"Technology is intervention by design: the use of practical and intellectual resources to develop products and systems (technological outcomes) that expand human possibilities by addressing needs and realising opportunities. Adaptation and innovation are at the heart of technological practice. Quality outcomes result from thinking and practices that are informed, critical, and creative."

Creativity

 So in showing the next slide we wanted some robust discussion around Ken Robinson's remark and to really unpack his theory behind the statement. 

What are you thoughts?

  

The video below of Sir Ken's speech is thought provoking and well worth a watch! 

Creative = the ability to generate ideas that are both new, fresh, novel and appropriate (new, useful, feasible e.g. attribute listing, brainstorming, visioning) It generates possibilities......

What is your definition of creativity? How do you teach this skill to your students?

Pedagogical models used in schools to extend creativity and thinking skills.... Are you using any of the above?

 Innovation

http://sciencelearn.org.nz/Innovation 

 The science learning hub is promoting innovative thinking as critical to science education, view the description and decide for yourself if it actually relates to technological practice as well.

 

Innovative thinking = practical application of creative processes to improve or refine existing solutions ( taking existing solutions and redefining and improving to solve specific issues)

Definitions adapted from John Dewey; Richard Paul and Lind Elder; Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and M.A. Rosenman and J. S. Gero.)

http://www.umich.edu/~elements/probsolv/strategy/crit-n-creat.htm

  

"Innovation is about invention. It is about being able to come up with something that nobody has come up with before. Being an innovative thinker means you have a mind that does not quite work like the logical, down-to-earth mind that the majority of people have" 

Critical Thinking

 

Critical / Analytical = the process in order used to gain a better understanding of something as a whole or in parts , to analyse or dissect and understand the relationship between the parts ( analysis of products, environments, systems) Making decisions, judgements and choices ( Beyer , 1995

 

Last but by no means least here are some stratagies you could try in class to stimulate Creativity, Innovation and Critical Thinking.......
 

Thank you to my Colleagues Malcolm Howard, Cheryl Pym and Neville Myers who all had input into the design of the National Workshops for 2015

Bits & Pieces of Relevance

I got asked a question by a DVC teacher in a school recently and I mentally noted to respond via the blog as I felt the response would be relevant to many.

The question:  

"I am redesigning my Level 2 DVC course and I wanted to include the generic technology standard AS91363 but I am not sure if it will count towards the 14 credits in one  subject / domain".

My answer: 

http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/qualifications-standards/awards/university-entrance/approved-subjects-for-university-entrance/

Technology Domain is seperated into three subject areas: Technology, Digital technologies & Design and Visual comunications. Each of these subjects hold their own Achievement Standards but also each has access to the generic Technology standards.

Considerations:
If you are offering generic standards within each of the three areas, students cannot be entered for the same standard more than once. This is not in the students best interest. So if they have the same standard in more than one course, only the best result will count. My advice would be to try to limit the cross over credits by planning courses together within the wider technology faculty.

Next Topic

 Internal Moderation requirements

This week saw the first of many 'South Auckland Hard Materials technology cluster groups' hosted at the awesome De La Salle boys school. Within the session we shared a document in which all of the schools present were asked to indicate which standards they offered in the senior school on a spreadsheet to be shared as a tool for organising out of school internal moderation groups.

The need for this group has come about after changes to the NZQA internal moderation requirements. I felt it would be wise to share what we discussed and the relevance to Technology departments. 

The verification process is to ensure that the teacher judgements are consistent with the standard, before they report the results to NZQA. Below are the key changes :

·       It should be undertaken by a subject specialist with standard specific knowledge. The marker should seek verification of samples of work around grade boundaries, as well as for any grades that need review, to satisfy themselves that their decisions are consistent with the standard.

·       Work for verification should be purposefully selected, rather than being selected randomly.

·       Random selection for external moderation must be undertaken by someone other than the teacher who marked the work, must use a method that does not allow for prediction and must include the work of all students who submitted work for the assessment.

·       The selection should be made as soon as possible after assessment and should be conducted for every standard assessed by the school.

 
Given that there are in smaller schools not many subject specifc teachers it has meant that schools are trying to find teachers in neighbouring schools to moderate/verify work.

Please contact me if you wish to discuss setting up a local cluster or joining one. 

Last but Not least

 

The National Technology Workshops for middle leaders in secondary schools are well under way this week with topics covering:

• Examining Junior Technology curriculum programmes, assessment and progressions

• Exploring key messages related to raising student achievement at NCEA level

• Evaluating the types of thinking required in technology and how to teach to maximise creativity, innovation and engagement.

I will post some snippets in the next blog for those that may have missed out on attending.