Pedagogical innovation has been a reason for reflection and diverse experiments, covering the different dimensions of education. Almost always when we talk about innovation we get the idea that we are talking about educational reforms and changes. Over the last few years, the need that has been felt to monitor the development of society and the relationships that have been established between people, the way we relate to knowledge, and the development of technology that has taken over our lives in all dimensions, has been forcing the way we teach, as the way we learn has also changed, or at least, we know more about this part of teaching-learning.
The issue of innovation leads us to many empirical experiences that require monitoring, analysis and interpretation of the processes and the resulting conclusions. There are many good practices hidden in classrooms and larger projects, which end up not being continued. Changes are slow, both in terms of policies and practices.
The school and its population have changed. They changed from a stadium that wanted to be static, unique, or rather, the same, whatever the geography and population, to admitting diversity and inclusion. It is curious to note that in companies, in the world corporate, Research and Development (R&D) is seen as a wealth that needs to be embraced; in schools is a problem to solve.
It all depends on your point of view and what you want to happen during the process and its conclusions. It all depends on what we do with what we have and what is offered to us. Where we see opportunities and challenges or if, on the other hand, we just find obstacles to a the status quo that we do not want to question or question.
Quality education for all implies constant innovation, if by innovation we mean adaptation to each individual, that is, to students and their individual specificity. The social dimension of education leads schools to innovate pedagogically towards inclusion and pedagogical differentiation and, above all, lifelong learning. Offer meaningful learning paths with short and medium-term impact beyond school, ensuring that a return to learning will be possible.
This question leads us to consider the possibility of education being transformative and having a true impact on social advancement. Will it really be like that? Does this transformative vision of education, encompassing several dimensions, qualify students who do not go to higher education to the point of altering their social reality?
Innovation occurs mainly at the level of teaching processes, pedagogical differentiation, differentiated assessment and monitoring of paths. The call for specialized technicians to the school context is evidence of the desire to correspond to inclusion and the necessary differentiation. The question that arises in this long process is the effectiveness of these interventions in the medium and long term, in order to make a difference in the lives of these students.
The ecology of pedagogical innovation is, therefore, closely linked to the effectiveness of the procedures, and the changes that are inherent to them, wanting these to be in the sense of differentiation that implies democratization and progressive humanization of educational processes. Therefore, in this line of thought, the ecology of innovation must embrace surgical but profound changes and preserve all that is good. And there is a lot in our schools that is wonderful and that, because it has always existed, stands out in a turbulent sea of ​​haphazard and directionless attempts at change, and that, because it gives a sense of effectiveness, is confused with the most recent discoveries and innovations, not being.
The National Education Council recently published a ‘Recommendation’ on Pedagogical Innovation and also a ‘reference’ to support reflection on the topic. In times of strong winds in education, systematizing and organizing ideas never hurts.
The author writes according to the 1990 Orthographic Agreement