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Here is a full list of publications by The Innovation Unit (listed in alphabetical order). You may also be interested in our Toolkits section. A D&R System for Educationby Tom Bentley and Sarah Gillinson
A D&R System for Education draws on what we know about innovation and research within education and in sectors like healthcare, information technology and pharmaceuticals. It also examines what we are learning about the importance of users and collaborative development in generating and spreading innovation in other sectors from manufacturing to social care. In effect, this signals a shift from research and development (R&D) to development and research (D&R). The publication calls for greater support for the involvement of teachers and school leaders in this process. All-Age Schooling
The Innovation Unit brought together heads, managers and federation co-ordinators interested in looking at collaborating with schools of other age groups, to overcome difficulties around transition. We quickly realised that collaborating into all-age school federations or amalgamating into all-age schools brought a whole range of benefits for everyone involved. This practitioner-written guide gives you the background to all-age schooling with some examples of the challenges you may face, with possible solutions. An Introduction to School Federations
TOP ^ Harnessing knowledge to practice: accessing and using evidence from researchby Philippa Cordingley, Miranda Bell and Donald Evans
With a few notable exceptions, there has often been a gap between education research and educational practice. The team from the Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education (CUREE) outline the barriers that exist and look at attempts that the system has made to overcome them. They examine some of the most recent investment into putting research to work in classrooms and what different educational agencies are doing to support this process. Honest Brokers: brokering innovation in public servicesby Matthew Horne
Highly innovative sectors of the economy benefit from an infrastructure of science and innovation parks, business incubators, R&D labs etc. What would the equivalent infrastructure look like to support innovation that tackled chronic disease, youth crime, climate change or teenage pregnancy? This booklet explores the role of innovation brokers in public services. It looks at what they are, what they do, and why they might be needed to support innovation public services. In particular, it looks at how they broker knowledge and relationships between innovators with ideas, managers and commissioners looking for solutions, investors and policy makers. How do you measure impact?
Developed as part of the Next Practice in System Leadership project, this booklet examines the need to gather baseline data in order to capture emergent learning from trial sites. This guide outlines the baselining strategy, with lots of case study examples. Learning about Personalisationby Charles Leadbeater
Learning Futures: Next Practice in Learning and Teaching
This publication sets out the reasons why innovation in pedagogy is needed in order to inspire young people and enable all of them to confidently meet the challenges of the 21st Century. It argues that some key emergent (and well known) practices, taken together, might transform teachers and learners experience of schooling. Learning Futures proposes a way of thinking about these approaches. 'Next Practice' in education: a disciplined approach to innovationby Valerie Hannon
This publication describes a new approach to stimulating, incubating, and accelerating innovation, which is strongly driven my users needs - ‘Next Practice'. Next Practice in education sets out to do three things: to capture what we know so far about the process of encouraging public services to become more innovative; to describe the Next Practice innovation model, which is built upon these understandings; and to describe the practical programme in train at the time of writing (March 2007) which utilises this model. Professional Learning Communities
Want to find out more about learning in a network? Recent research found that effective professional learning communities have a positive impact on teachers' morale and practice, as well as making a positive difference to pupils' engagement and learning, and that it can be an effective way of improving the teaching and learning in your school. Using self-evaluation, reflective enquiry, dialogue, collaborative learning and problem solving, these materials are aimed at school leaders, CPD co-ordinators and other leaders of professional learning interested in developing their school, early years setting, department or faculty as a professional learning community. They will also be useful for others who are helping schools to develop their professional learning. Spreading Innovation Across Local Authorities
Spreading Innovation Across Local Authorities: Realising the Potential of School-based Networks is designed to assist local authorities in their efforts to realise the potential of school-based networks, especially as they endeavour to meet the demands of the 'Every Child Matters' agenda. This booklet outlines a number of generic challenges that may be faced by local authorities, illustrating each with examples of how they are currently being interpreted and addressed by different local authorities. It is hoped that this booklet will stimulate discussion within and between local authorities, assisting them in their efforts to realise the potential of school-based networks. Systems Thinkers in Actionby Michael Fullan
Teachers as innovative professionals
The Collaborative StateA Demos publication in partnership with The Innovation Unit and NCSL
Increasingly, creating public value requires collaboration between distinct organisations and people. As a result, policy makers and managers are seeking to understand successful collaborative models, and to develop the tools and skills needed to sustain collaboration successfully in different settings. Building on its predecessor The Adaptive State, The Collaborative State is a collection of cutting-edge essays and case studies from leading international practitioners and scholars. Presenting insights and lessons of inter-organisational collaboration around the world, it offers a valuable addition to the debate on emerging trends in government. The Shape of Things to Comeby Charles Leadbeater
The Shape of Things to Come explicitly links two policy agendas which are deeply interconnected but have often been treated as if they are separate: personalising learning and school collaboration. Personalising learning relies on getting young people to 'invest' in their education. The term is used metaphorically, pointing to the need for learners to be much more profoundly engaged in the process of learning. To achieve this, schools need to use resources flexibly and creatively, especially in partnership, and reach beyond the boundaries of the classroom and the school. The best way to handle the increased complexity this entails is through school networks and collaboration with other stakeholders. Transferring learning and taking innovation to scaleby Philippa Cordingley and Miranda Bell
How can we ensure that excellent education practice does not get trapped on location but travels vertically and laterally to improve what’s on offer to each and every learner in schools? This question lies at the heart of any attempt to improve any education system. Understanding the impact of different approaches has the potential to inform and transform policy-making at every level. In this think piece, Philippa Cordingley and Miranda Bell unpack the most common approaches to take-up, transfer and scale-up that have been used in education. .What's Next? 21 ideas for 21st century learningby Charles Leadbeater
In his latest publication for The Innovation Unit, Charles Leadbeater argues that the current approach to educational reform is running out of steam. Improvement in results have reached a plateau. Educational inequality remains stubbornly high. But some ‘next practices' in innovative schools indicate a fresh approach which energises learners and teachers alike. What's Next? makes 21 recommendations to create an approach centred on children learning with, as well as from, teachers at schools that would feel smaller and offer more personalised learning. Leadbeater sees relationships for learning that embrace the family, workplace and community, as well as the school, as just as important. Working Laterallyby David Hargreaves
Everyone involved in education wants to help students to learn more effectively - but how can this be achieved? David Hargreaves looks at how ideas for helping students to learn more effectively might spread around the schools system in order to transform education. He argues that knowledge about good teaching practice will only spread quickly by schools and teachers linking together into ‘innovation networks' - run by teachers for teachers as a shared professional resource over which all have ownership. |
This booklet describes the essentials of a school
federation. It has been put together by a number of practitioners who
are working in a school federation and, therefore, contains a huge
amount of first-hand experience. This booklet is designed with those in
mind who might want to federate either across or within phases.
In Learning about Personalisation Charles
Leadbeater looks at how personalised learning could become a
characteristic and culture of a whole learning system which responds
directly to the needs of each individual learner. He argues that
personalisation cannot be realised without the active participation of
learners in shaping the services they receive through choice, voice and,
ultimately, co-production.
Michael
Fullan puts forward an argument for system-wide change. His argument is
simple: if a system is striving for both 'high equity and
excellence' then policy and practice have to focus on system
improvement. This means that a school head has to be almost as concerned
about the success of other schools as he or she is about their own
school. Sustained improvement of schools is not possible unless the
whole system is moving forward. And even more than that: they need to
make sense not just of their own reality and work, but to reconceive the
system at the same time.
Highly innovative schools give teachers
confidence and encouragement to spread great ideas beyond their own
classrooms so more pupils benefit. Without this encouragement, many
teachers may be too modest to share these successes.
