It is extremely important to nurture creativity within students from an early age and thus, educators, nowadays, are committed to creating an innovative learning environment for their students. Educators feel that flexible and imaginative learning spaces based on curiosity, inquisitiveness, discovery and real-world problem-solving are much better for student development than merely rote learning and information-heavy class tests. Here are some methods employed to facilitate an innovative learning space:
1. Introspection: Self-reflection or introspection in the innovative classroom is as necessary for students as it is for educators. Introspection can help educators reflect upon their teaching techniques and methodologies to gain insight into what is working for the class and what isn’t. Similarly, it is important to teach students self-reflection so that when their actions are appreciated or criticized, they can look back at their actions and interpret the consequences logically.
2. Adaptive environment: Innovation in education cannot be achieved without a flexible or adaptive learning environment. Teaching spaces, methods and techniques undergo continuous evolution and to create an innovative classroom, educators must continuously adapt to the newer trends in education. Non-traditional and out-of-the-box education techniques should be adopted with an open mind.
3. Open-ended discussions: To create an innovative learning environment, it is imperative for modern educators to encourage open-ended questions and discussions. The answers to such questions and discussions cannot be found in a textbook and encourage students to think freely and logically. Open-ended questions can have multiple answers, points of view and hypotheses. These typically lead to collaborative debates, engaging conversations and stimulating exchange of ideas within the classroom.
4. Problem-finding technique: Learning students and educators have spent too much time finding solutions to problems but in an innovative classroom educators must teach students the problem-finding technique. The problem-finding technique helps students in real-world problem-solution discovery. This method helps students to think deeply, and critically and ask practical questions while looking for logical solutions.
An innovative learning environment is the need of the hour since it helps in the all-round development of students rather than focusing only on their academic prowess.