An Innovative Ecosystem to Promote Innovation among Primary School Students

Abstract

The objectives of this research were (1) to examine innovative competencies among primary school students and the components of an innovation ecosystem, (2) to design an innovation ecosystem to promote innovation among primary school students, and (3) to evaluate the effectiveness of the system. This study employed Participatory Action Research (PAR) in three phases, and five PAOR cycles. The target group consisted of 52 students from Grades 4 to 6, as well as 16 stakeholders. The research instruments employed in this study were the Innovation Ecosystem Quality Checklist (IOC = 0.91), the Interview Guide (IOC = 0.96), the Behavior Observation Form (IOC = 0.85), the Focus Group Discussion Questions (IOC = 0.88), and the System Effectiveness Evaluation Form (IOC = 0.91). Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis, and the reliability was verified through triangulation. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including the mean and standard deviation.

The findings revealed that: 1) students’ innovative competencies comprised observation, questioning, interaction, experimentation, and idea connection. The ecosystem consisted of (1) actors, (2) activities, and (3) artifacts in four dimensions. 2) The ecosystem design employed a five-step design thinking process: understanding, defining the problem, brainstorming, prototyping, and testing, with continuous stakeholder participation; and (3) evaluation of effectiveness using the CIPP model indicated the developed innovation ecosystem enhanced students’ innovative competencies in five aspects, improved teachers’ capacity for active learning management, established an innovation ecosystem within schools to foster learner innovation, and encouraged community participation in learner development. The effectiveness of the innovation ecosystem was at a high level (= 4.11, S.D. = 0.74).