Fostering innovative skills within the classroom: A qualitative analysis from interviews with 60 innovators

Fostering Innovative Skills within the Classroom: A Qualitative Analysis from Interviews with 60 Innovators. The Educate to Innovate project was initiated to better understand the innovation process so thatK-12 schools, colleges and universities, businesses, and policymakers can better promote innovation throughout the educational, entrepreneurial, and industrial ecosystems in the U.S. The Educate to Innovate project began with semi-structured, open-ended interviews with 60successful U.S. innovators. Digital recordings of the interviews were transcribed and analyzed qualitatively to identify attributes common to several innovators. This paper presents a qualitative analysis of six major themes that relate to classroom-level strategies for fostering innovation: 1) Exposure to Compelling Challenges and Real-world Problems, 2)Experiential/Hands-on Learning, 3) Changing Students Expectations about Failure, 4)Collaborative Learning, 5) Teaching Students how to Implement Ideas, and 6) Teaching Cases of Innovation. Implications of these classroom-level strategies for fostering innovator skills are discussed, including risk-taking, identifying “good” ideas, the ability to see the “big picture”, flexibility in one’s ideas, communication skills, and managing time and resources well.