Innovation Collaborative: The Strategic Plan

By: Jonathan Katz, Collaborative Strategic Planning Committee Chair and Collaborative Strategic Advisor

Mission
The Innovation Collaborative is a national transdisciplinary¹ forum to foster creativity,² innovation,³ and equity⁴ in teaching and learning.

Purpose  
The Innovation Collaborative provides information about how effective intersections of the arts, sciences, humanities, engineering, math, and technology (STEAM) can reinforce innovative  thinking. To that end, it identifies, conducts, and disseminates research. By supporting teaching and lifelong learning, the Collaborative encourages networking and collaboration across disciplines, institutions, and individuals in both in-school (formal) and out-of-school (informal) settings and the intersections of the two.

​Vision
We envision a diverse, equitable, and inclusive society where:

1. Individuals and Institutions
   1. Have an integrated view of the arts, sciences, humanities, engineering, math, and technology (STEAM); and
   2.  Look at the world creatively and innovatively; and
   3. Identify and solve important problems, from the local to global scale
2. Education
   1.  Is an integrated system that addresses cultural, disciplinary, and institutional boundaries; and
   2. Employs seamless transdisciplinary learning and effective problem-solving experiences in all cultures; and 
   3. Engages, empowers, and prepares students for college and career, and prepares adults for productive lives.

Goal 1: Improving Practice 
To promote and share research about the many ways that the intersections of the arts, sciences, humanities, engineering, math, and technology (STEAM) promote creative and innovative thinking in all audiences and demographics

1. Stimulate Research
   1. Determine effective practices that promote creative and innovative thinking at the arts, sciences, technology, engineering, math, and humanities (STEAM) intersections in in-school and out-of-school learning settings. 
   2. Stimulate research across institutional boundaries that studies the effects and implications of these intersections.
2.  Apply Research to Practice
   1. Purposefully develop effective STEAM practices to meet the needs of diverse learners.
   2. Apply research findings from the Collaborative and other sources to practice in in-school and out-of-school learning settings.
   3. Develop tools and resources for individuals to self-assess and reflect on how they are applying this research to their practice.
3.  Establish Research-based Infrastructure
   1. Provide a diverse, research-based foundation for the movement that connects the arts, STEM, and the humanities in a variety of learning settings.
   2. Work with cross-institutional partnerships to support this movement.

Goal 2: Collaboration
To create equitable opportunities for individuals and institutions to convene and share in interdisciplinary conversations, collaborations, and experiences that lead to a shared vocabulary, a common understanding of the value of these intersections, and an appreciation for their applications

1. Convene
   1.  Convene Research Thought Leaders to collaborate and to advise on the Collaborative’s work.
   2. Convene networks and fields of practice to promote the importance of arts, STEM, and humanities (STEAM) intersections in learning.
2. Disseminate
   1. Disseminate existing research.
   2. Host symposia, present at conferences, and publish findings.
3. Proliferate
   1. Promote collaboration across individuals, institutions, and disciplines within the Collaborative.
   2. Promote collaboration with individuals and institutions outside of the Collaborative.
   3. Link researchers and/or practitioners across the arts, STEM, and humanities (STEAM) to grow the STEAM field and to promote Collaborative goals.
   4. Share findings, strategies, and outcomes of these collaborations.

​Goal 3: Policy Development and Implementation
To identify shared beliefs among individuals and institutions regarding the importance of the arts, STEM, and humanities (STEAM) intersections in teaching and learning, resulting in a policy agenda and individual policy statements that form the foundation of equitable collective efforts

1. Identify and Articulate
   1. Identify shared beliefs regarding transdisciplinary teaching and learning.
   2. Identify opportunities within education policy and legislation to further support these shared beliefs.
2. Create
   1. Create individual position statements on shared policies/practices in transdisciplinary education that support creativity and innovation.
   2. Create an annual legislative agenda focusing on key opportunities that support the Collaborative’s mission and vision.
3. Educate and Inform
   1. Share position statements and annual legislative agenda with policymakers at the national and state levels.
   2. Distribute position statements and annual legislative agenda throughout the Collaborative member institutions.
   3. Support and monitor efforts by Collaborative members to share position statements and annual legislative agenda with their primary stakeholders.
   4. Join with other education stakeholders to bring the Collaborative’s position statements and annual legislative agenda into other related efforts.

​DEFINITIONS

Transdisciplinary¹

• Transdisciplinarity is the full integration of different disciplines that achieves a synthesis that transcends, through shared concepts and processes, the individual disciplines.  
• Transdisciplinary learning requires students to work on different disciplines interdependently and simultaneously, seeing that one discipline cannot complete the task without the other. This learning helps students understand that the disciplines rely on each other to contribute to a deeper understanding of each discipline and to achieve an overarching synthesis. This synthesis can help produce higher cognition that would be unlikely through addressing the disciplines individually. It can help solve problems, explain phenomena, create a product, and more. 
• An example of transdisciplinarity.
  • Second grade students were given the problem of inventing a 3D wheel that could navigate Mars’ sandy and rocky surface. Through initial hands-on experiences integrating both disciplines, they combined their grade-level science concepts of texture, mass, rolling, and spinning with art concepts of line, shape, texture, and form. They also integrated disciplinary processes such as (science) observing, asking questions, experimenting, developing a solution, testing, evaluating, using data to develop a conclusion, and (art) creating, presenting, responding, and connecting. In teams, they then used these science and art concepts to design and make their invention and write a team presentation that would show how well their invention solved the problem. 
  • In their experiences, they didn’t separate the disciplines’ concepts and processes by thinking “I’m doing art now” or “I’m doing science now” or “I’m doing language arts now”. Their inventing process transcended each of the disciplines, driven by a strong synthesis that was richer than each individual discipline and that solved their problem, like in a real-world scenario.​

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Creative Thinking²

• Creative thinking is the process of generating novel and valuable ideas that can then be explored and/or expressed. 
• An example of creative thinking.
  • The same second grade students in the transdisciplinary example above used creative thinking by brainstorming in teams to generate novel and valuable ideas to create a wheel to navigate on Mars. They did this by narrowing the problem to make it doable, synthesizing the science and art concepts, and coming up with lots of ideas. 
  • The student team in the image above creatively thought of their wheel having feet with magnets on them to “stick” to Mars’s magnetic soil that is high in iron oxide. They also added scoops to the wheel to scoop up the soil to test it.

​Innovative Thinking³

• Innovative thinking is the process of taking creative ideas to appropriate applications.
• An example of innovative thinking.
  • The second grade students discussed above used innovative thinking when they narrowed down their many creative ideas to choose one idea that best addressed the appropriate application, crafting their wheel to meet the Mars criteria. They did this by first drawing their final wheel design and labeling it with the science and art concepts. Next, they created their wheel in 3D and tested it, making adjustments to improve their wheel.

Equity⁴

• Equity is the intentional consideration, formulation, and implementation of practices, policies, and procedures within an organization to deter systemic biases that can hinder the measurable outcome of programming as well as create barriers that can affect student achievement within demographic subgroups in comparison to institutional expectations and performance standards.  Equity fosters accountability between stakeholders involved in the decision-making process and those designated to perform within the organization.
  • An example of equity.
    • During this period of virtual teaching across the country, conversations are necessary to develop plans of action regarding student accessibility to electronic devices, availability and reliability of Internet services, as well as teacher competency with technology skill, to name a few programmatic practices that can affect student achievement.
• Diversity, within the context of this Collaborative, refers to the demographic subgroups within educational institutions as defined by the US Department of Education in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The four accountability groups defined in ESSA, Section 1111(b)(2)(C)(v) are: 
  • Students from economically disadvantaged environments,
  • Students from major racial and ethnic groups, 
  • Students with disabilities, and 
  • Students with limited English proficiency. 
• Further, the Collaborative extends the meaning of student diversity by including a focus on populations and the intersections of these groups: 
  • Students who identify as female,
  • Students from geographically underserved areas,  
  • Students in alternative education programs, and 
  • Students who are gifted and talented. 
• Inclusion is an opportunity to reach all stakeholders by consciously being mindful of their needs. Inclusion promotes analysis and evaluation in order to determine needs.
  • An example of inclusion.
    • Virtual teaching is a learning curve for all stakeholders, including students, teachers, parents, curriculum designers, and central office personnel.  Everyone’s need is different and must be identified to address the overarching plan of action to ensure that virtual teaching is successful.

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