Educational Alternatives for Developing Innovative Thinking of Employees
Authors: Ekaterina Batovrina
Issue: 2017, Vol. 3
Abstract
The development of a knowledge-based economy and the knowledge-based industries, the growth of organizational and environmental complexity force the employers to change their requirements for employees. Many employers require staff to think innovatively: the employees are expected to create, implement and promote new ideas and products. That is why the issue of developing innovative thinking of employees is bound to arise. Some organizations are willing to solve it by their means. They invest in training and stimulation programs for employees or in building a particular organizational atmosphere that encourage employees to share ideas, to learn from each other, to engage in self-learning and self-development – it is usually defined as a culture of personal growth. However many other organizations tend to shift the responsibility for developing innovative thinking of employees to educational and training institutions.
The educational alternatives for developing innovative thinking of employees outside organizations became a subject of sociological research (survey) started in October 2015 in Moscow, Russia. 47 teachers of secondary schools, 41 professors and 140 students of universities have already participated in it . The survey results reveal that the students consider innovative thinking as a factor of their professional success. That is why they are interested in its development in the process of education. As for the professors and teachers, most of them are willing to take responsibility for making pupils and students think innovatively by means of case studies, discussions and trainings. They also recommend engaging pupils and students in extracurricular activities such as research projects and competitions. However the respondents’ recommendations cannot be fully performed due to restrictions of educational programs. That is why the first and the main step towards developing innovative thinking of future employees should be an inclusion of requirements for innovativeness in educational standards and a reconsideration of existing educational programs on their basis.
Keywords: innovative thinking, development of innovative thinking, educational standards, educational programs.
To download the article, please click on the PDF file or read on this page below:
Authors: Ekaterina Batovrina
Issue: 2017, Vol. 3
Abstract
The development of a knowledge-based economy and the knowledge-based industries, the growth of organizational and environmental complexity force the employers to change their requirements for employees. Many employers require staff to think innovatively: the employees are expected to create, implement and promote new ideas and products. That is why the issue of developing innovative thinking of employees is bound to arise. Some organizations are willing to solve it by their means. They invest in training and stimulation programs for employees or in building a particular organizational atmosphere that encourage employees to share ideas, to learn from each other, to engage in self-learning and self-development – it is usually defined as a culture of personal growth. However many other organizations tend to shift the responsibility for developing innovative thinking of employees to educational and training institutions.
The educational alternatives for developing innovative thinking of employees outside organizations became a subject of sociological research (survey) started in October 2015 in Moscow, Russia. 47 teachers of secondary schools, 41 professors and 140 students of universities have already participated in it . The survey results reveal that the students consider innovative thinking as a factor of their professional success. That is why they are interested in its development in the process of education. As for the professors and teachers, most of them are willing to take responsibility for making pupils and students think innovatively by means of case studies, discussions and trainings. They also recommend engaging pupils and students in extracurricular activities such as research projects and competitions. However the respondents’ recommendations cannot be fully performed due to restrictions of educational programs. That is why the first and the main step towards developing innovative thinking of future employees should be an inclusion of requirements for innovativeness in educational standards and a reconsideration of existing educational programs on their basis.
Keywords: innovative thinking, development of innovative thinking, educational standards, educational programs.
To download the article, please click on the PDF file or read on this page below:
| Educational Alternatives for Developing Innovative Thinking of Employees by Ekaterina Batovrina |
