Educational Innovation in Times of COVID-19
It seems that world is currently facing a learning culture change in which the number and scores of standardized tests go up, but the understanding and commitment of the student decreases (Ramsay, 2020). As a result of surveys of world business leaders, in 2008, Wagner compiled what he called the seven survival skills that should be developed in the university of the future:
- •
Critical thinking and problem solving
- •
Collaboration
- •
Agility and adaptability
- •
Initiative and entrepreneurship
- •
Communication
- •
Information analysis
- •
Curiosity and imagination
Other studies support the above mentioned by referring to the need of nurturing human potential inside of universities that enhances individual learning results and at the same time complains about facing, what they call, a crisis in human resources and entrepreneurship (Robinson, 2014 and Fayolle et al. 2020). Characteristics such as flexibility, inclusion, collaboration, authenticity, relevance and the extension of influence of the university will be those that distinguish higher education in institutions of the third millennium according to various authors such as Feliz, 2005, Jonker et al., 2020 or Toraman et al. 2020 to name just a few. While ideal educational objectives should remain lifelong learning, global interaction and metacognition. The importance of interaction in the learning process is further strengthened, since it has been consistently shown that students learn more when they interact with the material, when they interact with each other and when they interact with teachers (Friedman, 2005; Dede and Richards, 2020).
Studies carried out on commitment, interaction and participation of students with their own learning in higher education (learning engagement) proposed that they should be involved in practical situations where they can apply their theoretical knowledge by interacting with teachers and with their classmates. The challenge then prevails to promote knowledge capable of addressing global and fundamental problems in order to register partial and local knowledge according to Arocena and Sutz, 2001 or Nursalam, 2020. It seems - say Flynn and Vredevoogd (2010) - that the new generation of University students prefer an educational model based on activity and interaction that does not align with the one currently prevalent in several of the universities. It the same line, Prensky, who coined the term “Digital Natives” in 2001, agrees that today's students are not interested in taking classes in large lecture rooms and prefer, instead, discussion in small groups, often led to carried out on digital platforms, as an ideal means to understand the contents of your study plan. This author also states that students prefer to use search engines to find information and frown on library research methods (as cited in Sanchiz et al., 2020).
The social nature of digital natives, as well as their desire for experiential learning, sends a message to educators about the importance of incorporating interaction and action into the curriculum, say authors such as Philip and Zakkariya (2020). Recently, the relationship between the faculty and the student is changing and the study plans should be transformed in order to give rise to a co-designed course in which the student participates in establishing the learning outcomes and in deciding the experience that they will live; While the faculty seems to be in charge of monitoring, evaluating and certifying their progress, some others are seeking to collaborate and work with colleagues in order to make a challenging, rich and diverse curriculum stated Pérez et al., (2011) and Harrison (2019).
The educational needs of a particular human community, arises as a result of the search for the preservation and cultural projection of the said society in time (values, context, beliefs, history, traditions, etc.) (Jaeger, 2019). However, due to the current large amount of information to be transmitted, the generation of new knowledge and the power, submission or democratic relations between nations, this process naturally had increased in complexity (Abbagnano and Visalberghi, 2019).
The above implied the adaptation or innovation of the teaching and learning processes; That is, to elucidate the best way of “how” to teach and “how” to learn, exclusive purposes of didactics, from the Greek “didasco”, which means to teach and instruct, but also refers to clearly demonstrate and expose (López, 2016). This abbreviated review of the historical development of education in the world and the need to innovate according to the circumstances that prevail in each era, is again fulfilled with the outbreak of the COVID 19 pandemic, notified for the first time in Wuhan, China on 31 December 2019, all of 2020 and prevailing to date (WHO, 2021). Of course, with all this number of events, it was no longer possible to continue with the regular educational processes as all face-to-face education was transferred to virtual, as part of the international efforts to avoid and contain contagions, with their usual social and technical and economic complications (Cicha, Rizun, Rutecka and Strzelecki, 2021). In this way, nowadays, teaching strategies (now more than ever) should be oriented towards the promotion of the student´s active participation on the object of knowledge and an innovative teacher intervention by providing appropriate study materials, organizing the materials in accordance with learning objectives and accompanying and advising in his activities (Zawacki, 2021). This includes providing a demonstration and examples with new material, guided and systematic practice through dialogue and reasoning; Promotion of self-instruction, self-management of learning to obtain, as a consequence, an autonomous, creative and analytical work of the student with new material the teacher’s help (Syahrin, Dawud, Suwignyo & Priyatni, 2019).