TEACHING PEDAGOGY WHY IS INNOVATION ESSENTIAL

Generally, the quality of the educational system is measured by the quality of the educators. The educated or teachers are the ones who hold the responsibility of preparing the minds of individuals to cope up with the challenging and dynamic world. Amidst all this, innovation and creativity in teaching practices and models have become an integral part of keeping the students engaged and learn better.

However, innovation in education has been mistaken for the use of technology and new inventions only. Innovation in teaching pedagogy could be in the form of play, creativity, collaboration, enquiry and technology. Innovative approaches in the pedagogy promote learner engagements and make them a line with the new principles of learning. It advocates self-innovation in them and provides valuable insights into the same.

There have been identified concrete clusters of innovative pedagogical approaches which can be worked along with the diverse teaching methodologies. We have outlined six approaches which offer a stronger and practice-oriented focus then considering all the approaches together assuming them as the same.

This approach considers the classroom as a place to apply the content and deepen individual interactions. It can be either with the teacher or through peer collaboration. It relies heavily on digital resources and aims to be engaging and coherent for the learners.

As the name suggests, this approach involves games and pedagogies of games. It is well known that games capture student interest and regulate their ability to handle complexity and develops an urge to learn among the participants.

This pedagogical approach intends to develop the cultural distance and critical capacities of the students. From student life experiences, it helps to create meaningful activities and also depends on active teacher scaffolding.

This pedagogical approach has its focus on the non-metal factors which are involved in learning. It indicates the importance of the body and feelings and looks beyond the purely cognitive and content acquisition. It connects to the physical, emotional, social and artistic aspect of the students.

Focusing on the process of Discovery, experiential learning takes place through enquiry, reflection and active experience. The students are taught sustainable development, outdoor education and service-learning along with guidance and scaffolding which play pivotal roles.

It serves as a platform to develop problem-solving and reasoning skills in the students and considering the challenges as the computer would. Students are instigated to use technology to resolve these challenges.

These approaches for an innovative teaching pedagogy are not stand-alone rather they can be combined in different ways. Moreover, combining them would advocate better working and understanding along with bringing out the most effective versions of the pedagogy.

In the 21st century, innovation is essential in teaching practices. It should reach into the pedagogy practised in schools and classrooms that help the individual advance to better learning processes.