An Action Research investigation into the innovation of a creative pedagogic approach within a secondary school Building Schools for the Future project

This study focuses on the opportunities presented by a Building Schools for the Future school rebuild and the associated move towards a personalised learning agenda, to facilitate innovation of learning environments which would allow a vision for enquiry learning to be realised. The study identifies that, historically, education has failed to utilise the opportunities available when developing new learning environments and so a proposal for the key features of effective educational innovation is presented. Against a reconnaissance of pre-existing learning spaces and pedagogies, an action research approach facilitates a series of varied interventions in pursuit of this educational vision. This process of pedagogic innovation is therefore analysed against the core features of innovation, concluded from literature to be a number of change agents with personal mastery working in collaboration, to complete a strategic and reflective journey towards a shared and self-sustaining pedagogic vision. These key features of innovation are also considered against literature identifying the factors critical to creating a Community of Practice which engender such innovation. Finally, the theoretical framework of Professional Capital is considered as a necessary underpinning for creating the empowered individuals necessary for effective innovation. This study concludes that it is only when holistic attention is paid to all these aspects that innovation in education can be fully realised; a less holistic approach results instead only in change, with removal of one or more of these factors giving only a more transient, less embedded outcome. As a result of these considered innovations, it is also demonstrated that, whilst not a completely limiting factor, the provision of appropriate spaces for learning is a significant factor in being able to realise the original vision for the personalisation of learning and in the effective realisation of the Building Schools for the Future vision