Tony WagnerKirja-arvosteluja

lots to think about, certainly doesn't support all the testing we do.

Tony Wagner's follow-up to the Global Achievement Gap. He interviews young Innovators and their parents to find out what set them apart.

What you won't find here is Tiger Mom or Helicopter Parent.

What I found was my own Mom. She did many of these things--encouraged us to find our passions, drove us to several libraries so we would be exposed to all kinds of books, and allowed us to try out many different interests. These are the kind of things that Tony found common amongst the Innovators.

I loved the "Global Information Gap", but this one is slooow going for me (stuck in the intro after making several attempts to move through it).

Right on target for me. It inspires me to do more, try more, and be a little more disobedient. Every teacher should read this and wonder if they are part of the problem or are willing to be part of the solution.

Provocative view of the impact of technology on education. The authors question whether learning foreign languages or memorizing calculus rules have any great value when your smart phone can do them better than you (and is learning at a much faster rate). They call out the SAT and AP tests as useful primarily as sorting mechanisms for college admissions -- proof that you can excel in "hard" courses. They applaud the self-directed approaches to learning common in pre-K and elementary settings, such as Montessori and Reggio Emilia, and lament that these approaches peter out in middle school and are rare to find in high school and college.

Wagner is a Harvard professor whose passion is cultivating and seeking innovation in American schools, preschool through higher ed. Using examples of exemplary students, teachers, schools, countries (here's Finland again), and parents, Wagner's profiles augment his stance that our educational system needs to change in order to feed the minds and imaginations of the next generation of innovators. The book is an innovation in and of itself as well; over 60 unique videos are embedded within the (e)book, embedded within the print edition (QR codes) or available on his website.

Innovation is important to our economy. There are fewer routine jobs, and more jobs that require problem solving and an innovative focus. In [Creating Innovators], Tony Wagner uses dozens of case studies to explore how parents, teachers, and employers can help young people develop the capacity and passion for innovation. Wagner casts his net widely. He focuses not only on innovation in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), but also on social innovators, and he draws the conclusion that all innovators benefit from play, passion, and purpose. He suggests that traditional educational systems often discourage innovative thinking and that radical changes are needed to create innovators. He recommends learning that is focused around solving real problems in collaboration with others in an empowering environment.

The basic ideas in this book were not new to me. I've done some research on innovation in the workplace and am aware of the factors that support innovation and those that squelch it. However, I was fascinated by the specific examples of schools that are trying radically different approaches to create innovators. It is these examples that will stick with me and shape my own approach in the classroom.

I also commend Wagner for partnering with video producer Robert A. Compton to develop videos clips that can be accessed by scanning the QR codes throughout the book. I didn't always interrupt my reading to watch the videos as the QR codes appeared in the text, but I was happy to see a book about innovation using an innovative approach to its content.

A thought-provoking look at how we help our kids to develop those creative skills that lead to innovation

If you are a teacher or a parent of a child younger than high school age - read the book. Although it is not as crucial and compelling to me as his previous work, Global Achievement Gap, (which all teachers should read), this is a really important topic that people in education should be thinking about and then acting on, instead of trying to figure out how many standardized tests to give.

I appreciate that Wagner wanted to integrate technology with the different video clips accessible by smartphone tags... but I am a person without a smartphone or tag tech, so I missed out on some things, and I was a little disappointed that there wasn't a way to allow the reader to watch those clips without a smartphone.

Wagner investigates what schools should be teaching for 21st century workers. More emphasis of communicating, cooperation, analysis and critical thinking and much less emphasis on information and multiple guess testing. I especially like his point that schools today kill native curiosity and we really need to foster life-long learning, now more than ever.

Global Achievement Gap is intriguing and challenging. Tony Wagner lists seven survival skills all students must have in order to function well in the future. The skills are:critical thinking and problem-solving, collaboration across networks and leading by influence, agility and adaptability, initiative and entrepreneurialism, effective oral and written communication, accessing and analyzing information, and curiosity and imagination.

So far so good