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Needless to say, the education system never stays in one place. It changes constantly because of new technologies that move it forward. Of course, the most important question that was always investigated by all kinds of scientists: what are the must-have skills we have to teach modern children in school? We need an education system that will be able to create creative and bright minds to adapt to future changes and make innovations. If you are looking for learning new languages online, you can easily find more information on Preply website.

We can mark three main skills that would be necessary for children in the future:

• Creative thinking;
• The ability to find new solutions for existing problems;
• Flexible mind: ability to find various alternatives for solving any situation.

Great Strategies for School Innovation

According to the must-have abilities we mentioned, it’s possible to create innovative strategies to improve the basic education of kids. Teachers can add some creative things into the learning process to involve kids in studying and motivate them to be interested in learning:

1. A teacher should encourage kids to find the right answer

Usually, schools use ordinary models when kids need to give a direct answer for the teacher’s question. According to the Pestalozzi method, the teacher must encourage kids to find the right answer to the question on their own. This helps to develop imagination, observing, reasoning, and judging.

2. Give kids a space for learning

In the traditional education system, the teacher leads the lesson without giving kids any possibility to discover things on their own, developing their skills. According to the Montessori Method, the teacher should give some space for kids to study new things and observe the entire process of studying to give some help if needed. Of course, usually the teacher helps children in learning new things, but it’s very important to give them some independence and possibility to study something new. This method is great for creative thinking developing.

3. Replace traditional desks with the round table

We all used to see children sitting in the classroom at traditional desks. It teaches them some discipline, but again, this method better fits traditional studying when the teacher is the leader, and children just follow him or her. According to the Harkness style of learning, kids should sit around a round table. This makes the atmosphere of the conference, so all children could interact with each other and share their opinions instead of listening to the line provided by the teacher, and following traditional rules.

4. Focus on one idea, not on many

The existing learning methods depend on many various ideas and projects. But according to the Project-Based Learning method, the learning should be based on the students’ ability to combine the knowledge in just the one project, without separating things into smaller parts. This allows developing a creative mind and analytical skills.

5. Every idea is unique

This method defines every idea of the school’s student as a unique project. According to this innovation, kids learn to invent something new, and to seek for unusual solutions for various types of problems. It helps to improve the creative mind to help children make new ideas and projects in the future.

6. Using proper methods of design thinking

This kind of methods helps kids to develop their creativity. Usually, such tools are based on brainstorming and discussion things in groups. There are a lot of various methods depending on children’s age, like Lego serious play, reverse brainstorming, scampering, Disney method, etc.

7. Using various models for problems and solutions

There are two directions for solving problems the students should know:

• problem-to-solution — this method helps to find the optimal solution after formulating the problem. Children should identify the particular problem, and then select the most suitable solution;
• solution-to-problem — according to this method, children should seek a solution to the nonexistent problem.

In general, these two methods allows children to think about the problem with various perspectives.

8. Thinking about previously taught skills

Traditional education programs require moving from one lesson to another. But children should link previously studied things with new. There should be some time for linking the previous studied experience and knowledge with the information studied on new lessons. This is very important to get the ability of critical thinking and evaluating problems properly.

As you can see, the process of innovation is endless; it’s always possible to think up new ideas for improving the studying process and involving kids into learning.