APRIL: DIVERGENT THINKING

For the month of April we examined a video clip by Ken Robinson titled 'CHANGING EDUCATION PARADIGMS'. Since we are a school in transition and have access to new technologies (iPads) to aid this transition we are looking at the ways iPads can assist teachers/administrators/support personnel in fostering divergent thinking. How to get the most instructional mileage out of new technology, how to develop our learners into pioneers of higher-order thinking, how can we reshape a broken educational model? These are all questions that arose out of this video and our discussion.

Below are some quotes about Divergent Thinking from the Robinson video:

"The current system of education was designed and conceived for a different age...the culture of the enlightenment and industrial revolution...intellectual model of the mind (then) says: real intelligence consists of deductive reasoning and knowledge of the classics."

On fostering collaboration: "most great learning happens in groups."

Faculty page at the University of Washington about Divergent Thinking: http://faculty.washington.edu/ezent/imdt.htm

*Sir Ken Robinson is an author, speaker, and international advisor on education in the arts to government, non-profits, education, and arts bodies. He was Professor of Arts Education at the University of Warwick (1989–2001), serving four years as Chair of the Department of Arts Education, and as Chair of Research Development within the Faculty of Education. He has also held the posts of Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Warwick Institute for Education, Program Director of the MA in Arts Education and Cultural Studies, and Director of the Unit for Research in Education, Culture, and the Arts (URECA). In June 2003, Robinson was knighted for his achievements in creativity, education, and the arts.The video was viewed nearly half a million times in its first week on YouTube.