Innovating Pedagogy 2019

The latest Innovating Pedagogy report from The Open University explores ten innovative trends in teaching, learning and assessment in eduction.

Aimed to inform ‘teachers and policy makers’, the annual report – this is the seventh – is free to download from www.open.ac.uk/innovating

The 2019 report was written in collaboration with the Centre for the Science of Learning and Technology (SLATE) in Bergen, Norway and sketches ten trends ‘in currency’ that they think have the potential to provoke major shifts in educational practice at all levels. These are listed below “in approximate order of immediacy and timescale to widespread implementation”. Digital education features of course, “technology can help us to do new things, rooted in our understanding of how teaching and learning take place”.

• Playful learning Evoke creativity, imagination and happiness
• Learning with robots Use software assistants and robots as partners for conversation
• Decolonising learning Recognise, understand, and challenge the ways in which our world is shaped by colonialism
• Drone-based learning Develop new skills, including planning routes and interpreting visual clues in the landscape
• Learning through wonder Spark curiosity, investigation, and discovery
• Action learning Team-based professional development that addresses real and immediate problems
• Virtual studios Hubs of activity where learners develop creative processes together
• Place-based learning Look for learning opportunities within a local community and using the natural environment
• Making thinking visible Help students visualise their thinking and progress
• Roots of empathy Develop children’s social and emotional understanding

Some of these ideas will be familiar, others more novel so the short sketches provide a useful overview and update, with links to further exploration.