Balancing Routine and Innovation

Routine is a good thing. For college students learning new time management skills, moving out of the home, and taking new classes, an established routine in the classroom where expectations are clear and consistent is a welcomed thing. Putting time and thought into a routine of instruction and assessment is one way to insure that educational goals are met. Teachers, who often find themselves engaged in several projects simultaneously, may find that some established routines make a good platform on which to work. Unfortunately, routine may also be a bad thing. When it becomes so automatic that teaching becomes the horse you let find its way home on its own, then there's a good chance that students will perceive the routine for what it is and an even better chance that the teacher has lost enthusiasm for the subject.

Innovation in the classroom, whether with new materials, new skills, or new techniques would seem to treat the calcification of routine. Of course, I understand the resistence to innovation. To innovate involves more effort to change things, risks more opportunities for errors, and invites criticism. Yet still, in addition to the possible benefits for the students, it can restore diminshed enthusiasm and contribute to a new, healthier routine. Ideally then, one would want to work in an environment that encourages and ennables innovation, an environment of reasonable patience as the innovative teacher works on a new balance.