INSIGHTS AND OUTLOOKS

Dirk Van Damme

• How do they enable the world to better address the problems of our times, finding itself at a crossroads of paradigm shifts

• What have schools and educationalists to tell to the world– Not the passive recipient of social change,

but also in itself the driver of change– Is education also a system of values

Why innovation, new pedagogy?

• Inclusive• Interdependency• Networked, connected• Research-driven, knowledge-intensive• Pedagogical optimism

What are the characteristics of an ecosystem of innovation?

• Complexity leading to immobility?• Risk-taking and failure

– Do we learn enough from mistakes?

• Innovation as the new doxa• Stability or chaos• Professionalism and disempowerment

Trade-offs to innovation

• What’s the right label for the opposite force?– “Conservative”– “Traditionalist”– “Elitist”– “Obscurantist”– “Authoritarian”

• Or is it– “laisser-faire”, “defaitism”– routine

The restoration agenda

• Pedagogical ‘architecture’– Architects might be a better role model

than medical doctors– From curing to enabling

• The power of design– Challenging pedagogical gravity– Integrating technology– Imaginative but doable– Beauty

From the utopian to the practical mind