Innovative Practices in Education
A Study of the Innovative educational practices in schools Introduction
The word ‘innovation’ is derived from Latin word ‘innovare’, which means “to change something to new”. In other words, we may say that ‘innovation’ means changing the regular way of doing things and involves doing the regular things in a novel way.
The role of a teacher in present context has remarkably changed because of the various factors such as social, cultural, economic and technology developments across the globe. “Teachers in today’s era must be innovative, imaginative, and resourceful and have thorough knowledge of the subject and adopt new techniques to teach innovatively.” J. Krishnamurthy1
Teaching, in the KRISHNAMURTHI FOUNDATION INDIA (KFI) schools as opposed to other regular schools was said to be “different” and hence the researcher picked up these schools to study what and how “innovatively” the students are taught. KFI schools come under the genre of “alternative schools.”
“An alternative school is an educational setting designed to accommodate educational, behavioral, and/or medical needs of children and adolescents that cannot be adequately addressed in a traditional school environment.”2
Its unique features are as follows: • Alternative schools have a small number of students, maximum 200 in the entire school .
• Not more than 15-25 kids in a class
• Children are allowed to learn the basic skills of reading and writing at their own pace.
• There is little or no internal hierarchy in alternative schools.
• Excellent teacher pupil relationship .
• Family atmosphere
• There is an inherent spirit of cooperation with self discipline.
• Uniqueness of each child is nurtured.
• The ambience is essentially fluid and informal.
• There is no uniform. “KFI schools are not just about transference of ideas or facts in books, but is also about feeling the earth, watching the sunset, listening to the
The word ‘innovation’ is derived from Latin word ‘innovare’, which means “to change something to new”. In other words, we may say that ‘innovation’ means changing the regular way of doing things and involves doing the regular things in a novel way.
The role of a teacher in present context has remarkably changed because of the various factors such as social, cultural, economic and technology developments across the globe. “Teachers in today’s era must be innovative, imaginative, and resourceful and have thorough knowledge of the subject and adopt new techniques to teach innovatively.” J. Krishnamurthy1
Teaching, in the KRISHNAMURTHI FOUNDATION INDIA (KFI) schools as opposed to other regular schools was said to be “different” and hence the researcher picked up these schools to study what and how “innovatively” the students are taught. KFI schools come under the genre of “alternative schools.”
“An alternative school is an educational setting designed to accommodate educational, behavioral, and/or medical needs of children and adolescents that cannot be adequately addressed in a traditional school environment.”2
Its unique features are as follows: • Alternative schools have a small number of students, maximum 200 in the entire school .
• Not more than 15-25 kids in a class
• Children are allowed to learn the basic skills of reading and writing at their own pace.
• There is little or no internal hierarchy in alternative schools.
• Excellent teacher pupil relationship .
• Family atmosphere
• There is an inherent spirit of cooperation with self discipline.
• Uniqueness of each child is nurtured.
• The ambience is essentially fluid and informal.
• There is no uniform. “KFI schools are not just about transference of ideas or facts in books, but is also about feeling the earth, watching the sunset, listening to the
References: 4. Gefter, A., “Living online: This is your space,” New Scientist 2569 (2006): 46-48. 5. Gupta Deepti, 2005. ELT in India: A Brief and Current overview, Asian EFL Journal Volume 7. Issue 1, Article 12. 2. O’Grady, William, Michael Dabrovolsky, and Mark Aronoff. 1993. Contemporary linguistics: An Introduction. New York: St.Martin’s Press. 4. Prensky, M., “ Digital nayives, digital immigrants,” On the Horizon 9.5 (2001). 5. Thelwall, M., “MySpace, Facebook, Bebo: Social networking students,” Association of Learning Technology Online Newsletter 11 (2008). 6. Vyas A. Manish and Patel L. yogesh “Teaching innovatively – A new Pedagogy for a New Century.” PHI Learning Pvt Ltd. New Delhi (2009).