Toward a smart pedagogy: Devising a methodology for innovation

Abstract

A plethora of practical suggestions could be considered to make pedagogy smarter, more active, and attractive to students while simultaneously being efficient and obtaining results. Creative suggestions are not always innovative. In order to achieve innovation, an interesting method is proposed by Jean-Charles Cailliez and described here, consisting of four main steps: (i) following the path indicated by Boethius and Thomas Aquinas in the Middle Ages to acquire a mens ingeniosa, a kind of creative imagination resulting in inspiration, properly obtained from a few conditions and possibilities, restricted by appropriate observations, and underpinned by correct prospections; (ii) insight and enlightenment for the ideation of creativity will be greatly facilitated by co-design within a team; (iii) after the ideation, generated by inspiration, then comes the time for implementation, that is, creating prototypes of projects in an interactive manner and generating pedagogical actions capable of being tested by experimentation; and (iv) innovation, when the idea materializes itself and may be carried out and be useful. Nevertheless, innovation requires steps of its own, such as incubation, creation of a pilot project, testing, acquiring value, and devising possible uses. For any hypothetical use of an idea, creativity indicates when, how, and in which contexts we should use it. Next, we must design an experiment in order to know how efficient of a pedagogical strategy it is and, eventually, have such resource available for specific, didactic goals. Pedagogy should not be centered only on unique and exclusive resources, but ensure an articulated relationship with other resources. A final discussion is proposed considering whether a smart pedagogy will require smart technologies, with some indications about the importance of the role of advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence, in such innovation scenarios.