Genius Hour in Schools

What is Genius Hour?

Genius Hour originated from the 80/20 of many innovative companies who gave their employees 20% of their time to work on a project of their own liking and choice, and the results were very encouraging. 50% of Google's products are a result of this Genius hour system.

There are certain schools that are using the same method for their students to allow them to explore their own passion and creativity. It not just breaks the monotony of the classes but helps students explore their own creative side which may at times remain dormant. This also has other benefits as many a time students get into group and this leads to them working in collaboration from a very young age. This also helps them to be more acceptable to self assessment as well as peer assessment. Apart from that not all projects are successful but the level of frustration gets diluted being in a group and together they learn to overcome their frustrations by being there for each other and learning how to accept failure and yet move forward. This process unknowingly helps build resilience, and students develop a growth mindset.

Usually if we go by the old teaching practices it is a set of instructions that the students follow. This kind of leads to a fixed mindset and students are not free to explore their own ideas while in the class or in school. They remain within a tight boundary. In a fixed mindset children tend to believe that their basic abilities, intelligence and talents are fixed, this leads them to not developing their talent. However, we need to encourage the growth mindset. Growth mindset is a system or belief that intelligence can be nurtured through learning, effort, motivation and also freedom to express and explore oneself.

By: Madhuchanda Saxena

Content: http://www.spencerauthor.com/genius-hour-reasons-2/