Flying Free: Unfettering the Spirit of Innovation in Doctoral Level Language Education Programmes

Abstract

The 21st century represents the most information-rich period in the his- tory of humanity. There is an unprecedented richness of information, unprecedented opportunities for sharing it. Small voices are being heard when previously they were not, hierarchies are flattening and power relationships are changing. These developments have been caused by the exponential growth of technology. More material is available for review and analysis, more opportunities are available for expressing and sharing new ideas and, as a consequence, the world is changing at an unprecedented rate. Such developments create the potential, even the moral obligation, for creative and divergent thinking leading to innovation and innova- tive practices, ideally for the benefit of humanity. This is obviously happening with the emergence of socially driven concepts such as ‘community intelligence’ (Lian 2011). Community intelligence can be thought of as the harnessing of the synergies of multiple minds seeking to solve the same problem. Take the Foldit game (http://fold.it/portal). Foldit was conceived at the University of Washington to try to solve a protein-folding problem that had baffled scientists for about a decade. They created a game which they put out into society. The players (240,000 of them), not the scien- tists, solved it. This is a wonderful example of innovative, creative and divergent thinking enabled by technology in the service of humanity. A new form of research is born – and that is important and exciting, a true paradigm shift! Mainstream language learning and teaching has yet to experience such a shift. In general, rather than investigating completely novel paradigms, many language researchers, especially those doing doctoral research, appear more preoccupied with refining established ones – perhaps it is the nature of the doctoral exercise or the reward structures of the profession. It is arguable, however, that for significant progress to occur in the field, new ways of thinking need to be brought into action. It is incumbent upon universities and, especially, doctoral programmes which can mobilise hundreds, perhaps thousands, of new researchers every year, to catalyse the development of innovative mindsets in the field. In today’s world, innovation is not a luxury. It is a necessity that needs to be mainstreamed. Many universities have recognised this need and the authors of this chapter have been involved with the development and delivery of doc- toral courses focusing on innovation and creativity in language learn- ing and teaching on three continents. Some of the principles leading to course development are set down below in a description of the latest course developed for a university in Thailand for students from many Asian countries (i.e. not only Thai students). These remarks may, hope- fully, be of value to others.