Every Child an Innovator: Teach and Assess the Seven Aptitudes of Innovators

Balanced research and practice

Research on innovation reveals that there are seven cognitive and psychosocial aptitudes that undergird high achievement across disciplines. What if you could create instructional goals to teach the “aptitudes of innovators,” such as curiosity, creativity, insight, metacognition, or persistence, while still addressing the curriculum content? What if all learners had an explicit, shared understanding of what these aptitudes look like when expressed in their learning and in real life? This session presents an equitable process for creating talent-targeted goals to identify and nurture the aptitudes of innovators in all children. These talent goals are rooted in rich content and applied in performances of understanding that promote talent development and personal growth. Both teachers and learners assess the talent goals using the talent aptitude learning progressions to create developmental rubrics. Examples of talent goals, assessment rubrics, and planning templates will be shared.