Education is an industry that heavily relies on innovation and the implementation of those innovations. So if education is an industry then why are business models not used to help ensure success in the classroom. Michelle Blanchet asks this very question in her piece for the International Schools Network “Why Schools Should Bring Startup Principles Into Professional Learning” and it proposes a very unique way to look at problems in the classroom. She cites examples of professional development days that are centered around experts explaining how to solve issues in the classroom without having actually interacted with the students. This method is teacher-centric and creates a guideline for teachers to solve issues in their classrooms by the end of the day, rather than lectures, it gives solutions.
Education at its core is a business, so why not use a business structure. Each new year is like a startup business, if this format works for small businesses why wouldn’t it transfer into a classroom. I prefer this method because I am a problem solver. I don’t want to hear a lecture on what I should be doing when they have never set foot in my classroom. Teachers face tons of new problems everyday so it just doesn’t make sense to add more to their plates when we’re not actively trying to find ways to solve the issues already present. A business succeeds because of collaboration, a classroom succeeds because of collaboration but for years when addressing issues district wide it revolves around an expert that may have content knowledge but lacks knowledge on how to execute it in a classroom that they’ve never been in. Students are unique, Teachers are unique, and to approach an issue with a cookie cutter style just doesn’t do any justice to the best traits that a lot of them have.