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Enabling student-driven innovation through interdisciplinary initiatives within danish vocational education - Examining interdisciplinary project-based workshops as a means of cultivating and applying innovation capacity among students in compliance with the national educational innovation strategy.
Abstract
This thesis addresses the concept of student-driven innovation from the perspective
of vocational education by experimenting with interdisciplinary problem-based
workshops as a tool for generating and applying innovation capacity. These workshops
are adapted from university and university college level initiatives to learn how
experience generated through use of these methods and principles can be applied
within the vocational domain. The research is guided by the main question:
How do interdisciplinary educational initiatives affect the cultivation and
application of students’ innovation capacity, and what are the
organisational implications of these types of initiatives for educational
institutions? This is addressed through a theoretical, methodological, technical and organisational perspective on innovation capacity which make up the idea of student-driven innovation.
... The integration of subjects makes learning experiences more lifelike and equips students with the ability to apply diverse knowledge and skills in an interdisciplinary manner [3]. Through interdisciplinary teaching, vocational students gain valuable skills for their future professional careers and are equipped to tackle the challenges of society and the labour market [14]. In the context of interdisciplinary teaching, project-based learning is one of the approaches frequently emphasised and is well suited for vocational education [14,15]. ...
... Through interdisciplinary teaching, vocational students gain valuable skills for their future professional careers and are equipped to tackle the challenges of society and the labour market [14]. In the context of interdisciplinary teaching, project-based learning is one of the approaches frequently emphasised and is well suited for vocational education [14,15]. Applying project-based learning entails students working actively and autonomously to tackle a practical and authentic task in the form of a project. ...
Teachers in secondary vocational education face challenges in interdisciplinary teaching due to their traditional teacher education within specific subject domains. Collaborative efforts—like those implemented in Teacher Design Teams (TDTs)—can prepare and support teachers for interdisciplinary teaching. Research has demonstrated the factors determining the effectiveness of TDTs. However, it is noted that the sustainable continuation of TDTs remains uncertain over the years. This research investigates the conditions that facilitate the sustainability of TDTs within the context of interdisciplinary teaching. Over the course of three school years, this qualitative study monitored 14 teachers participating in four TDTs within the context of an interdisciplinary vocational education course. During the initial two school years, the TDTs received external support from the main researcher, transitioning to an autonomous operation in the third school year. A yearly interview with each participating teacher and meeting reports were collected and analysed with thematic analysis. One of the main findings reveals that while the internal coach contributes to supporting TDTs’ progress, the support of the school leader is particularly crucial for sustainability. Although this study focused on school-based TDTs, it underscores the importance of support from outside the school for TDTs’ sustainability.
Managing Innovation is the bestselling text for graduate and undergraduate students and a classic in the field. Emphasizing practical, evidence based tools and resources, this title provides students with the knowledge base to successfully manage innovation, technology, and new product development. The holistic approach addresses the interplay between the markets, technology, and the organization, while relating the unique skill set required to manage innovation and innovation processes.
Problem Based Learning (PBL) is a pedagogical approach that encourages those who take part in its processes to act both as supportive change agents working in collaboration with colleagues, and also as individuals to use their creativity in finding solutions to practical problems. The process of questioning the issues and finding novel solutions using the creative spirit are also challenging for those who teach and deliver PBL based curriculum, and poses some fundamental questions.
'The variety of approaches that claim to constitute practice-based research are several and varied. Silvia Gherardi cuts through the various approaches to address practice-based research as itself a practice in an invaluable guide for organization and management researchers. Written in a characteristically accessible style, this volume is an indispensable guide.' - Stewart Clegg, University of Technology Business School, Sydney, Australia.
This first edition of Strategic Innovation Management is an exciting new addition to the established bestselling texts Managing Innovation and Innovation and Entrepreneurship written by Joe Tidd and John Bessant. Aimed at students taking courses in business studies and management, as well as non-specialist courses in other disciplines, this book provides a practical and accessible evidence-based approach to managing innovation in a wide range of contexts, including: manufacturing, services, small to large organizations and the private, public and third sectors.
The text has been designed to be fully integrated with the Innovation Portal at www.innovation-portal.info, which contains an extensive collection of additional resources for both lecturers and students including teaching resources, case studies, media clips, innovation tools, seminar and assessment activities and over 300 test-bank questions.
This first edition of Strategic Innovation Management is an exciting new addition to the established bestselling texts Managing Innovation and Innovation and Entrepreneurship written by Joe Tidd and John Bessant. Aimed at students taking courses in business studies and management, as well as non-specialist courses in other disciplines, this book provides a practical and accessible evidence-based approach to managing innovation in a wide range of contexts, including: manufacturing, services, small to large organizations and the private, public and third sectors.
The text has been designed to be fully integrated with the Innovation Portal at www.innovation-portal.info
Design-trained people have access to a very broad range of professions. Yet there is something paradoxical about this development: ostensibly, many of these highly successful people have moved out of the field of “design.” This phenomenon deserves deeper consideration: how do design practices spread across society? What key design practices are particularly relevant to the problems of today’s society? Should what these people do still be considered design? To answer these questions, first we need to understand various ways that practices can be adopted and adapted from one discipline to the other. Problem framing emerges as a key design practice that can be adopted and adapted to other fields, and one which provides a valuable alternative to conventional types of problem solving. An example will illustrate how this frame creation allows practitioners to approach today’s open, complex, dynamic, networked problems in new and fruitful ways. The paper goes on to argue that the practice of frame creation is still part and parcel of the domain of design, and explores how design can develop into an expanded field of practice.
This paper addresses the impact the user perspective has on an interactive system, when designing for experience. The context is the introduction of a discovery tool in an academic library, where the effects of addressing the users experience (UX) are gathered in the digital and the physical space. How the UX was addressed before the introduction of this new discovery tool and how the users experience was tested afterward, will be discussed. The paper analyzes the results of a multi-folded testing of the discovery tool, including a large survey , focus groups, observations and usability testing. The main focus of this paper is on how the results may support the redesign of this system, and how the library staff made sense of the new insight gained by this approach. This new insight is also a point of entrance to look at those usability and design processes , both intensive and somehow chaotic, that influence the design for the user experiences. This holistic approach will give new insight both to the research community and to the academic libraries.
The paper takes a closer look into one of the main attributes of Design Thinking: Empathy. The motivation for doing so has its roots in the post Design Thinking period, which we are entering now, following a rich decade of the use of this approach to innovation. Approaching a Designerly Thinking perspective of what the designer does in practice, five different epistemological paths will give an understanding of the effects empathy has in the design process. Empathy is addressed by exploring two main aspects, the emotional and the cognitive. The theoretical perspective of Design Thinking, seen as a reflexive practice, or as a creator of meaning, or even as a problem solving activity, is used to understand how empathy can be used in a design context. This aspect is then further analyzed using the results of a large workshop where Design Thinking was used.
This paper is concerned with training students of vocational education programs; specifically, tradesmen and skilled workers to better utilise value networks and knowledge hubs, set up through government initiatives, as an innovation platform. The study indicates that massively interdisciplinary innovation workshops originally designed for university students can be adapted to vocational programs demonstrating similar effects on this demographic. Collaboration around solving real-world problems across various trades and even academic disciplines seems to influence participants' attitude towards not only interdisciplinary collaboration but also entrepreneurship in general. The study is based on two years of experimentation running six independent workshops across ten different disciplines and trades and four educational institutions.
Denne artikel formidler og reflekterer over resultaterne fra den seneste evaluering af nKNOWation-et tvaer-institutionelt undervisningsforløb, hvis formål er at fremme sundhedsteknologisk innovationstaenkning hos erhvervsskoleelever. Artiklen praesenterer og diskuterer det, styregruppen anser som de vaesentligste erfaringer fra evalueringen, samt resultater, der kunne vaere interessante at undersøge naermere fremadrettet. Hensigten er at bidrage til den fundamentale diskussion om innovationsundervisning gennem formidling af resultater fra, og med saerlig fokus på, erhvervsuddannelser. Ligeledes er hensig-ten at belyse vaerdien af tvaerfaglige undervisnings-forløb til udvikling af innovationsfag.
The triple helixof university-industry-government interactions is a universal model for the development of the knowledge-based society, through innovation and entrepreneurship. It draws from the innovative practice of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with industry and government in inventing a regional renewal strategy in early 20th-century New England. Parallel experiences were identified in “Silicon Valley,” where Stanford University works together with industry and government. Triple helix is identified as the secret of such innovative regions. It may also be found in statist or laissez-faire societies, globally. The triple helix focuses on “innovation in innovation” and the dynamic to foster an innovation ecosystem, through various hybrid organizations, such as technology transfer offices, venture capital firms, incubators, accelerators, and science parks. This second edition develops the practical and policy implications of the triple helix model with case studies exemplifying the meta-theory, including: • how to make an innovative region through the triple helix approach; • balancing development and sustainability by “triple helix twins”; • triple helix matrix to analyze regional innovation globally; and • case studies on the Stanford’s StartX accelerator; the Ashland, Oregon Theater Arts Clusters; and Linyi regional innovation in China. The Triple Helix as a universal innovation model can assist students, researchers, managers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers to understand the roles of university, industry, and government in forming and developing “an innovative region,” which has self-renewal and sustainable innovative capacity.
In a time of unprecedented turbulence, how can public sector organisations increase their ability to find innovative solutions to society's problems? "Leading public sector innovation" shows how government agencies can use co-creation to overcome barriers and deliver more value, at lower cost, to citizens and business. Through inspiring global case studies and practical examples, the book addresses the key triggers of public sector innovation. It shares new tools for citizen involvement through design thinking and ethnographic research, and pinpoints the leadership roles needed to drive innovation at all levels of government. "Leading public sector innovation" is essential reading for public managers and staff, social innovators, business partners, researchers, consultants and others with a stake in the public sector of tomorrow. "This is an excellent book, setting out a clear framework within which the practicalIssues involved in public sector innovation are explored, using insights drawn from extensive practical experience of implementing and supporting it. It draws on an impressive range of research and relevant wider experience in both public and private sectors and is written in a clear and persuasive style. The book offers an excellent synthesis of principles, practices and tools to enable real traction on the innovation management problem - and it ought to find a place on any manager's bookshelf." John Bessant, Director of Research and Knowledge Transfer and Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, University of Exeter Business School.
Danmarks økonomiske vækst skal bl.a. sikres gennem udvikling og anvendelse af innovations-kapacitet. Landets uddannelser skal derfor sørge for, at studerende besidder de rette innovationskompetencer, hvorfor mange allerede har indført forskellige tiltag herfor.
Det er dog stadig uklart, hvordan vi systematisk kan udvikle og evaluere disse tiltag på en meningsfuld måde set i forhold til den overordnede strategi om at øge, målrette og anvende innovationskapacitet. Artiklen reflekterer over hvilke forhindringer, der er for at gøre dette samt argumenterer for en model, der kan danne udgangspunkt for struktureret arbejde med udvikling og evaluering af innovationskompetencer i undervisning.
We are largely surrounded by and included in increasingly complex technical systems. These systems often border on the absurd even though they rely on logical and physical forms. This is because they move away from the logical ‘simplicity’ of natural forms. This paper approaches some specific aspects of technical products, i.e. those connected to their formative structure. M. Draganescu emphasized that the aesthetics and the functions of a product are determined by the consonance between the formative structure and the natural structure, and called this ‘architectural thinking’. As an example, consider the well-known ‘golden number’ found both in natural crystals and in artistic and technical products such as the Parthenon. Two questions which this paper addresses are: What is a formative structure? How can the consonance, or harmony, between such a structure and that of a ‘natural’ one be approached?.
Everyday life is defined and characterised by the rise, transformation and fall of social practices. Using terminology that is both accessible and sophisticated, this essential book guides the reader through a multi-level analysis of this dynamic. In working through core propositions about social practices and how they change the book is clear and accessible; real world examples, including the history of car driving, the emergence of frozen food, and the fate of hula hooping, bring abstract concepts to life and firmly ground them in empirical case-studies and new research. Demonstrating the relevance of social theory for public policy problems, the authors show that the everyday is the basis of social transformation addressing questions such as:how do practices emerge, exist and die?what are the elements from which practices are made?how do practices recruit practitioners?how are elements, practices and the links between them generated, renewed and reproduced? Precise, relevant and persuasive this book will inspire students and researchers from across the social sciences.
A much-needed modern interpretation of Joseph Schumpeter's views on innovation, entrepreneurship and creative destruction, which provides a comprehensive and detailed analysis of this great thinker's major works.
Many organizations in both the private and public sector are confronted with stiff challenges as they face rapid changes in the business environment. Understanding the causes of these changes is essential if organizations are to fashion suitable management responses. In a highly competitive and globalized scenario, business creativity provides the spark that fosters the development and implementation of innovation and organizational change.
This introductory chapter reviews the position and influence of Porter's work in academia and outside; the path of Porter's work; as well as the outlining the book as a whole. Following an overview of Porter's position and influence briefly described above, the chapter traces the evolution of Porter's thinking by reviewing his key articles and books. The chapter highlights how Michael Porter came be one of the most influential figures in strategic management research over the last three decades. It is argued that Porter infused a rigorous theoretical framework of industrial organization economics with the then still embryonic field of strategic management and elevated it to its current status as an academic discipline. The chapter also discusses Porter's influence on national and regional economic development policymaking, as well as his foray into a number of other topics, including inner city development, environmental regulations, and health care services.
Competitiveness derives from the creation of the locally differentiated capabilities needed to sustain growth in an internationally competitive selection environment. Such capabilities are created through innovation, and because capabilities are varied and differentiated, and since the creative learning processes for generating capabilities are open-ended and generally allow for multiple potential avenues to success, a range of different actors may improve their competitiveness together. According to this article, the efforts to promote competitiveness through innovation can rarely be understood in isolation from what others are achieving at the same time. This applies whether one is speaking of countries, of national groups of firms in an industry, of subnational regions, or of individual companies. Indeed, it is worth emphasizing that the degree of interaction between innovators in search of competitiveness has tended to rise substantially historically, and has attained new heights in recent years.
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Three paradigms, which today compete for dominance in scientific society, can be identified. According to the "entrepreneurship paradigm' individuals champion the implementation of an idea or the gaining of independence. The "technology-economic paradigm', views technological development as the determinant of innovation. The "strategic innovation paradigm', stresses market opportunities. Innovation is the ability to recognise market opportunities and to transform them into external and internal business strategies. The strategy is the framework for innovation development. The last part of the article discusses the implication of each paradigm for industrial policy. -Author
This paper interrogates influential contemporary accounts of interdisciplinarity, in which it is portrayed as offering new ways of rendering science accountable to society and/or of forging closer relations between scientific research and innovation. The basis of the paper is an eighteen-month empirical study of three interdisciplinary fields that cross the boundaries between the natural sciences or engineering, on the one hand, and the social sciences or arts, on the other. The fields are: 1) environmental and climate change research, 2) ethnography in the IT industry and 3) art-science. In the first part of the paper, in contrast to existing accounts, we question the idea that interdisciplinarity should be understood in terms of the synthesis of two or more disciplines. We stress the forms of agonism and antagonism that often characterize relations between disciplinary and interdisciplinary research, and distinguish between three modes of interdisciplinarity. In the second part we outline three distinctive logics or rationales that guide interdisciplinary research. In addition to the logics of accountability and innovation, we identify the logic of ontology, that is, an orientation apparent in diverse interdisciplinary practices in each of our three fields towards effecting ontological transformation in the objects and relations of research. While the three logics are interdependent, they are not reducible to each other and are differently entangled in each of the fields. We point to the potential for invention in such interdisciplinary practices and, against the equation of disciplinary research with autonomy, to the possibility of forms of interdisciplinary autonomy.
The increasing adoption of more open approaches to innovation fits uneasily with current theories of business strategy. Traditional business strategy has guided firms to develop defensible positions against the forces of competition and power in the value chain, implying the importance of constructing barriers rather than promoting value creation through openness. Recently, however, firms and even whole industries, such as the software industry, are experimenting with novel business models based on harnessing collective creativity through open innovation. The apparent success of some of these experiments challenges prevailing views of strategy. At the same time, many of these experimenters now are grappling with issues related to value capture and sustainability of their business models, as well as issues of corporate influence and the potential co-option of open initiatives. These issues bring us back to traditional business strategy, which can offer important insights. To make strategic sense of innovation communities, ecosystems, networks, and their implications for competitive advantage, a new approach to strategy—open strategy—is needed. Open strategy balances the tenets of traditional business strategy with the promise of open innovation.
Policy makers take initiatives to stimulate knowledge ecosystems in technology hotspots. It is implicitly assumed that these ecosystems will lead to value networks through which the participating companies can realize a competitive advantage. Value networks refer to business ecosystems where the value proposition is offered by a group of companies which are mutually complementary. The strategy literature suggests that business ecosystems lead to competitive advantages for each of the partners in the ecosystem. Based on a unique hand-collected database of 138 innovative start-ups in the region of Flanders, we analyze the knowledge and business ecosystem and the financial support network. We find that the knowledge ecosystem is well structured and concentrated around a number of central actors while the business ecosystem is almost non-existent at the local level. Further, we find that the financial support network is almost 100% publicly backed and fails to bridge the knowledge and business ecosystem. The implications for policy makers who tend to focus on the development of local ecosystems are discussed.
We begin this discussion with a brief overview of the history of interdisciplinary education, particularly as it relates to teaching in law schools. We then discuss the goals of interdisciplinary education, with an emphasis on the cognitive and social significance of interdisciplinary thinking for students, faculty, and professionals. Several organizing assumptions follow that guided and, in some cases, emerged from our interdisciplinary efforts over the last six years to develop an interdisciplinary agenda within our university. Next, we identify patterns in interdisciplinary higher education (based on our own experiences), as well as the challenges and rewards for faculty and students that accompany such patterns. Finally, we integrate students’ evaluative comments as we describe some lessons learned to this point in the ongoing process of developing interdisciplinary programs.
This article works out the main characteristics of `practice theory', a type of social theory which has been sketched by such authors as Bourdieu, Giddens, Taylor, late Foucault and others. Practice theory is presented as a conceptual alternative to other forms of social and cultural theory, above all to culturalist mentalism, textualism and intersubjectivism. The article shows how practice theory and the three other cultural-theoretical vocabularies differ in their localization of the social and in their conceptualization of the body, mind, things, knowledge, discourse, structure/process and the agent.
This book discusses the development of a theory on the growth of the firm. It is shown that the resources with which a particular firm is accustomed to working will shape the productive services its management is capable of rendering. The experience of management will affect the productive services that all its other resources are capable of rendering. As management tries to make the best use of the resources available, a ‘dynamic’ interacting process occurs which encourages growth but limits the rate of growth.
Why has capitalism produced economic growth that so vastly dwarfs the growth record of other economic systems, past and present? Why have living standards in countries from America to Germany to Japan risen exponentially over the past century? William Baumol rejects the conventional view that capitalism benefits society through price competition--that is, products and services become less costly as firms vie for consumers. Where most others have seen this as the driving force behind growth, he sees something different--a compound of systematic innovation activity within the firm, an arms race in which no firm in an innovating industry dares to fall behind the others in new products and processes, and inter-firm collaboration in the creation and use of innovations. While giving price competition due credit, Baumol stresses that large firms use innovation as a prime competitive weapon. However, as he explains it, firms do not wish to risk too much innovation, because it is costly, and can be made obsolete by rival innovation. So firms have split the difference through the sale of technology licenses and participation in technology-sharing compacts that pay huge dividends to the economy as a whole--and thereby made innovation a routine feature of economic life. This process, in Baumol's view, accounts for the unparalleled growth of modern capitalist economies. Drawing on extensive research and years of consulting work for many large global firms, Baumol shows in this original work that the capitalist growth process, at least in societies where the rule of law prevails, comes far closer to the requirements of economic efficiency than is typically understood. Resounding with rare intellectual force, this book marks a milestone in the comprehension of the accomplishments of our free-market economic system--a new understanding that, suggests the author, promises to benefit many countries that lack the advantages of this immense innovation machine.
The dynamic capabilities view, by addressing the question of how firms can cope with changing environments, has gained increasing attention in the management literature in recent years, not only in the concept’s original domain (strategic management) but also in many other areas within business administration. However, such remarkable growth has been associated with a proliferation of definitions of the focal construct as well as the emergence of a complex and disconnected body of research. In addition, the approach has also received some recurring criticisms. In this study, the author reviews the diverse research streams on dynamic capabilities, identifies main limitations and challenges, suggests a new conceptualization of dynamic capability as an aggregate multidimensional construct, and provides guidance about promising avenues for future research.
