Yesterday I visited the Junior school at Hillfield Strathallan College (HSC). The principal, Shailau Spivak, gave me a tour of the school to show me the various ways the Junior school students and faculty are working to establish a culture of innovation and creativity. What a remarkable place!
Walking around the classrooms and the halls, one cannot help but see creativity explode in both the arts and academics. This is not surprising, given the fact that younger aged children are incredibly creative. Dr. Kyung Hee Kim, a professor of education at the College of William and Mary, gathered data on levels of creativity in American students. She used the “Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking” and found that creativity “declines throughout a lifetime, as 95% of 3 to 5 year olds test as creative geniuses. By the time they hit 20 years of age, that number is around 2%” (21st Century Skills).
Walking around the classrooms and the halls, one cannot help but see creativity explode in both the arts and academics. This is not surprising, given the fact that younger aged children are incredibly creative. Dr. Kyung Hee Kim, a professor of education at the College of William and Mary, gathered data on levels of creativity in American students. She used the “Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking” and found that creativity “declines throughout a lifetime, as 95% of 3 to 5 year olds test as creative geniuses. By the time they hit 20 years of age, that number is around 2%” (21st Century Skills).
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Two of the most pressing questions educators are left with are (1) why is there a decline in creativity and (2) what can we do about it? Part of the solution is to change the way we do "creativity" at all levels of education, not the least of which is Early Education.
What makes the Junior school at HSC unique is that they aren’t taking creativity for granted; instead, they are systematically fostering a culture of innovation in their classrooms. Just like literacy and numeracy, creativity must be developed and honed if it is going to be sustained as the children grow older. The Junior school at HSC is intentionally building the intellectual, social and emotional infrastructure needed to sustain the habits of innovative thinking.
One of the key distinctives is the “Wonder Wall,” which goes beyond differentiated instruction to personalised learning. In almost every classroom, students are given the opportunity to go beyond the curriculum and ask a wonder question.
What makes the Junior school at HSC unique is that they aren’t taking creativity for granted; instead, they are systematically fostering a culture of innovation in their classrooms. Just like literacy and numeracy, creativity must be developed and honed if it is going to be sustained as the children grow older. The Junior school at HSC is intentionally building the intellectual, social and emotional infrastructure needed to sustain the habits of innovative thinking.
One of the key distinctives is the “Wonder Wall,” which goes beyond differentiated instruction to personalised learning. In almost every classroom, students are given the opportunity to go beyond the curriculum and ask a wonder question.
This kind of inquiry is foundational to creative thinking; it teaches students to observe the world around them and to ask questions. As students wonder about things that interest them, they will also begin to wonder about real problems in the real world. To ask “I wonder how airplanes can fly?” is a similar wonder question that Leonardo da Vinci or the Wright brothers asked when they sought to resolve heavier-than-air flight.
It also empowers them to seek their own answers and discover their own solutions rather than look to the authority in the room (i.e., the teacher). Curiosity and creativity are inextricably linked.
Placing a premium on curiosity is one of the things the "Wonder Wall" does well: "publishing" the students' questions on the wall teaches them to value good questions rather than just valuing right answers. This not only fosters a Growth Mindset, it also fosters creative and innovative thinking. Innovation, like education, is a process not a destination. Although answers and solutions do matter, they cannot be reached without good questions drawn from observations in the real world. While watching birds, da Vinci wondered how we could fly; even though he was wrong about flight, da Vinci's "pattern of thinking behind the idea was exemplary" (Perkins, 2000, p.3).
It also empowers them to seek their own answers and discover their own solutions rather than look to the authority in the room (i.e., the teacher). Curiosity and creativity are inextricably linked.
Placing a premium on curiosity is one of the things the "Wonder Wall" does well: "publishing" the students' questions on the wall teaches them to value good questions rather than just valuing right answers. This not only fosters a Growth Mindset, it also fosters creative and innovative thinking. Innovation, like education, is a process not a destination. Although answers and solutions do matter, they cannot be reached without good questions drawn from observations in the real world. While watching birds, da Vinci wondered how we could fly; even though he was wrong about flight, da Vinci's "pattern of thinking behind the idea was exemplary" (Perkins, 2000, p.3).
 |  ABOVE Leonardo da Vinci's sketches of flying machings |
Beyond learning to ask good questions, students learn the process of finding answers. The "Wonder Wall" encourages students to “wonder” and then they are granted time (e.g., “genius hour”) to explore and research. There is a "trial and error" approach to learning this way; there are no textbooks or worksheets ready to guide the students to the best answers. Students need to cast a wide net to find answers. Thomas Edison called this the "draghunt technique," where a range of ideas and solutions are explored; others call this approach "roving far and wide" (Perkins, 2000, p.91). In this messy and at times inefficient approach to learning, students are discovering how to be innovators. Author David Perkins explores the nature of innovative and transformational breakthroughs: the first step is what he calls “the long search” (2000, p.9). The Wonder Wall teaches students to ask tough questions and to keep looking for answers. Most innovations in history resulted from people asking “I wonder?” followed by intensive research and experimentation.
ABOVE: Students sharing their draft work in order to receive feedback from peers. One of the essential ways, then, that we can sustain creative thinking as students grow older is to help them associate creativity with hard work. Thomas Edison famously asserted that invention is “1% inspiration and 99% perspiration” (Perkins, 2000, p.14). Without a doubt, hard work is an essential ingredient to innovation. The Wonder Wall is deliberately instrumental in nurturing this habit in the Junior school students.
Collaboration is another factor in fostering cultures of innovation. The teacher and fellow students come alongside the learner as guides and "co-sojourners" in the quest for answers. The opportunity to work together with peers and teachers (as well as librarians and other support staff) shows the students that finding answers is often a group effort that takes time and perseverance.
As I stated earlier, what the Junior school at HSC is doing is giving students sustainable infrastructure to wonder about their world, identify real problems, and work hard to resolve the questions and overcome challenges.
Collaboration is another factor in fostering cultures of innovation. The teacher and fellow students come alongside the learner as guides and "co-sojourners" in the quest for answers. The opportunity to work together with peers and teachers (as well as librarians and other support staff) shows the students that finding answers is often a group effort that takes time and perseverance.
As I stated earlier, what the Junior school at HSC is doing is giving students sustainable infrastructure to wonder about their world, identify real problems, and work hard to resolve the questions and overcome challenges.
 ABOVE and RIGHT: Students "publish" their work over the course of the year. This becomes a public portfolio that showcases student work-in-progress. Later, students reflect on their own progress by comparing and contrasting their earlier work with their later work. Junior school students are also given the opportunity to reflect on their progress on report cards home. Self-reflection is twofold: it allows students to "own their learning" and learn to recognise improvements and secondly it enables teachers the ability to assess how well students grasps their learning and their progress. |  |
The "Wonder Wall" is just one of the amazing tools used in the Junior to foster innovation in their students. In Grade 4, students engage in inquiry-based "passion projects" and and PBL initiatives. Following the steps of design thinking (cp. Future Design School), students ultimately develop prototypes in their attempt to resolve real problems.
In this blog post I am hardly scratching the surface of innovation in the Junior school at HSC. "Destination Imagination," numerous successful "Tutty Joy & Innovation Fund" grants and the new Makerspace are just a few more of the ways innovative thinking is being woven into the fabric of a strong academic program. Creating an innovative culture is clearly a passion for the principal and the faculty.
As students at HSC progress through the grade levels, we need to continue to build on the innovation infrastructure established in Early Education.
I would like to offer up a big thanks to the Shailau for her support of my research and for the Junior school to open up their classrooms and let me peek in on the innovation action!
In this blog post I am hardly scratching the surface of innovation in the Junior school at HSC. "Destination Imagination," numerous successful "Tutty Joy & Innovation Fund" grants and the new Makerspace are just a few more of the ways innovative thinking is being woven into the fabric of a strong academic program. Creating an innovative culture is clearly a passion for the principal and the faculty.
As students at HSC progress through the grade levels, we need to continue to build on the innovation infrastructure established in Early Education.
I would like to offer up a big thanks to the Shailau for her support of my research and for the Junior school to open up their classrooms and let me peek in on the innovation action!
 |  Flags posted by students on the "Growth Mindset" wall; students are committing to three principles of growth mindsets: "When I struggle, I learn something new... I am going to train my brain to do it... Mistakes help me learn better..." |
Cited Sources
- 21st Century Skills and Education. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2017, from https://kaboom.org/play_matters/21st_century_skills_and_education
- Perkins, D. N. (2000). The Eureka effect: the art and logic of breakthrough thinking. Whitehouse Station: W.W. Norton.
- Tanner, W. (2016, September 14). What is Innovation? Retrieved April 27, 2017, from https://soapboxhq.com/what-is-innovation/
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