EDUCATION, RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN INDIA: THE SHIFTING PARADIGMS

Abstract

Innovation is critical to the continuous improvement of education. Different perspectives on possible ways of organising learning that go beyond existing institutional arrangements can help create learning environments that equip people with the deeper knowledge and skills to participate in today's economy and society, and lead fulfilling and meaningful lives. Various factors can drive innovation, for example, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) hold a powerful potential to transform education. Learning sciences and brain research can improve our understanding of how learning unfolds and provide new perspectives on long-standing challenges, inform new practices or reinforce existing ones. Educational research and the production, sharing and effective use of knowledge is also a vital source of innovation. It can provide a useful basis to inform policy making and professional practice. Enormous efforts and investments have been made to reinforce the quality, production and use of educational research in policy and practice. Despite this, using research systematically and meaningfully in education policy making and practice remains a challenge for many countries and systems. Moreover, the links between research, policy and practice are weak and the dynamics of innovation remain to be fully understood.

Measuring innovation in education and understanding how it works is essential to improve the quality of the education sector. Monitoring systematically how pedagogical practices evolve would considerably increase the international education knowledge base. We need to examine whether, and how, practices are changing within classrooms and educational organisations and how students are using learning resources. We must know more about how teachers should change their professional development practices, how schools should change their ways to relate to parents, and, more generally, to what extent change and innovation are linked to better educational outcomes. This would help policy makers to better target interventions and resources, and get quick feedback on whether reforms do change educational practices as expected. The focus of this paper is to better understand the role of innovation in education through issues such as: how does innovation emerge, how can it be brought to practice and sustained, what are the barriers and drivers for innovation and what can governments do to enable a supportive climate for innovation to emerge and to drive innovation? The paper ends with recommendations on the best practices to integrate education, research and innovation for the benefit of all the stakeholders.