Page 33 - Looking_after_school

1. Today's discourse: why should the student be at the center of education?

goals and the organisation of (traditional) education become matters
of critical discussion.
The proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council
(2008) which formed the basis for the European year of creativity and
innovation is exemplary for this innovation perspective and its goals:

“Europe needs to boost its capacity for creativity and innovation for both
social and economic reasons. The European Council has repeatedly rec-
ognised innovation as crucial to Europe’s ability to respond effectively
to the challenges and opportunities of globalisation. […] The modern
economy, with its emphasis on adding value by means of better use of
knowledge and rapid innovation, requires a broadening of the creative
skills base involving the whole population. […] Innovative capacity is
closely linked with creativity as a personal attribute based on cultural
and interpersonal skills and values. […] Innovation is the successful
realisation of new ideas; creativity is the sine qua non of innovation. New
products, services, processes, strategies, and organisations require peo-
ple to generate new ideas and associations between them. Competences
such as creative thinking and advanced problem-solving are therefore
as essential in economic and social as in artistic fields.” (European Com-
mission, 2008, pp. 2-3)

This perspective on innovation emphasises the economic relevance
of features like creativity and creative thinking which have tradition-
ally been more associated with the cultural elite and localised out-
side of the economy. According to this line of thinking, tapping into
these creative capabilities and skills must be done on a broad scale
for economic reasons. It is pointed out that “education and training
[is] a determining factor in enhancing creativity, innovation perfor-
mance and competitiveness” (p. 2). Education of the future must thus
set creativity and related skills as its goals. The maximal development
of individual creative skills is essential, not merely for the innovative
knowledge economy, but for functioning in such an unpredictable
world. At the same time there is a strong feeling of doubt whether the
current organisation of education is capable of meeting these needs:

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