7 Essential Principles of Innovative Learning

A recent article on Mind Shift titled, "7 Essential Principles of Innovative Learning," by Katrina Schwartz talks about principles to keep in mind to engage students in learning. In her writing she includes a few very good observations about the need to learn how to be a self-directed lifelong learner. Below are a few excerpts. “Adaptive expertise tries to push beyond the idea of mastery,” said Jennifer Groff, an educational engineer and co-founder of the Center for Curriculum Redesign. “You may be proficient, but without adaptive expertise you can get stuck very quickly as the world shifts.” “You may be proficient, but without adaptive expertise you can get stuck very quickly as the world shifts.” She ends the article with a brief description of an innovative learning environment, "Students aren’t broken up into grade levels, instead they learn in mixed-age groups as well as in groups of roughly the same age. Learning is directed by students, often project-based, evaluated primarily through writing and projects, self-assessments and peer-assessment. The schedule is periodic, focusing on a topic like geography or history for three to four weeks and crossing into multiple disciplines. The teacher is seen as an active mentor and coordinator and the school has active parental involvement."