Supporting collaborative creativity in education with The i5 Framework

The recent call for education to support student creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking has required a change in traditional views of teaching and learning. Teachers are being asked to engage in creative work in order to bring about innovative educational practices. However, when teachers are asked to make pedagogical changes, the supports given to them vary widely and are not often successful in bringing about change. In this study a process that supported collaborative creativity among teachers and instructional coaches was created in order to support teachers in the design and implementation of new teaching and learning experiences. The framework that was created, The i5 Framework: Innovating Educational Practice through Collaboration, can support teachers in the design and implementation of new teaching practices. The use of The i5 Framework was found to support teachers in their goals of designing new learning experiences for students. The participating educators found that The i5 Framework helped them support creativity and critical thinking in their students and provided them with a quality professional development experience.