dear list - please see the following for a day seminar about Innovation in
Education to be held at the University of Leeds.

Innovation Education is a subject in the National Curriculum in Iceland. It
is a teaching method and approach to learning which has been pioneered in
Iceland and now is becoming more widely known in Europe.
It is an approach to education in primary and secondary schools that
encourages children and young people to apply the knowledge they have
acquired from all subjects in the curriculum in solving real problems. At
its core is the release of children’s natural creativity and imagination.
Rather than teaching the answers, it encourages a relationship between
teacher and pupil that moves the child towards the discovery of their own
practical solutions to real problems they have identified.
It involves inventing new objects, redesigning things that already exist
and building for change to enhance and improve the conditions of social
life. It encourages children and young people to look carefully and
critically at the material world that surrounds them. It teaches, through
active engagement, that the material world has been made by people and can
be altered, changed and improved. It develops critical thinking and
practical skills in design and technology and in marketing and enterprise.



Innovation Education: an integrated approach.

• Nurturing creativity and developing thinking skills across the
curriculum
• Enhancing children’s knowledge and understanding of the material
world

• Lessons from Scandinavian schools




National and International Speakers


Please reserve me a place at the conference.
Name: ________________________
Contact Address: ________________
____________________________________________________________
Tel:___________________________
Email:  ________________________
Return this form to
C. Burke
School of Education
University of Leeds
Woodhouse Lane
Leeds. LS1 9JT







DAY CONFERENCE
FRIDAY
OCTOBER 25TH
2002






Innovation Education:
AN INTEGRATED APPROACH









Programme

THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
HILLARY PLACE
ROOM 1.20

9.30  Tea & Coffee. Registration
10.00 Dr Rosa Gunnarsdottir: Innovation Education, The Icelandic Experience.
10.45 Group Discussion.
11.15 Tea and Coffee
11.30 Kevin Byron. Enhancing Creativity via Innovation
12.15 Group Discussion
12.45 Lunch
1.30 Alan Howe
2.15 Group Discussion
2.45 Tea & Coffee
3.00 Lessons Learned. Futures
4.00 Close


School of Education
University of Leeds
Woodhouse Lane
Leeds
Phone: 0113 243 1751
Email:[log in to unmask]

Speakers
Dr Kevin Byron currently holds a three year research fellowship with NESTA,
the national endowment for science, technology and the arts.
He is a physicist, inventor and educator with over twenty five years
experience working in research and development teams at Nortel Networks at
Harlow in Essex and as a visiting lecturer at the University of Glasgow.
Having already achieved highly in the fields of engineering and invention,
Kevin is enthusiastic about waking people’s latent inventiveness and
creativity.  He strongly believes that creativity and inventive minds are a
vital part of science and engineering education, and is committed to help
people realise their creative potential.
Dr Rosa Gunnarsdottir
School of Education, University of Leeds, and Iceland University of
Education
Rosa Gunnarsdottir started out as a science teacher in Reykjavik and soon
saw that there was something missing from what she was teaching to the
children in her class; resourcefulness and the ability to use the knowledge
and skills that the children already had when entering her classroom.  The
children saw themselves as receivers but not as users and producers in
their social context. As a result of this she has spent the last 11 years
developing a new curriculum subject taught in Icelandic Schools called
Innovation Education, with colleagues from Iceland.  This involved writing
teaching materials for 9 – 12 year old students in the subject. She
finished her doctoral thesis, Innovation Education Defining the Phenomenon,
from University of Leeds where she looked into the theoretical definitions
that could be applied to explicate the teaching and learning processes
identified in Innovation Education.
She has also worked in primary and secondary school in Leeds introducing
Innovation Education to teachers and students both as a days activity
programs and as after school provisions for students.
Dr Alan Howe
School of Education, University of Bath Spa
Mr. Alan Howe is Senior Lecturer in primary education at Bath Spa
University College, where he has led and contributed to courses for
teachers, undergraduates and post-graduates in design and technology,
science and art and design.  Prior to this post he has taught in primary
schools in the south east and south west.  He has recently managed a
successful pilot project for the National Endowment of Science, Technology
and the Arts that investigated ways of stimulating children's creativity
and innovation.  He is co-author of 'Primary Design and Technology for the
Future- Creativity, Culture and Citizenship', published by David Fulton
books and is interested in finding ways in which children can be supported
in expressing their creativity.