Content analysis of the selected and innovative plans presented at the 1st Iranian conference on educational innovations

Every decade is accompanied with new descriptions of the concept of education، responsibilities، new demands and new challenges and a new call for innovation. For the qualitative and quantitative promotion of educational activities in various fields، educational officials are required to pay due attention to educational innovations. The present research represents a descriptive study aimed at recognizing fertile grounds for educational innovations. Analysis of the content of 50 selected plans in the academic year، 2009-10، showed that teachers accounted for 90 percent of educational innovations of which 88 percent pertained to curriculum and 12 percent to other areas of education. Innovations in curriculum were limited to teaching method and they have not been observed in other aspects of curriculum such as educational content and assessment methods applied to innovations by teachers. The most frequent innovation in teaching method (with a frequency of 13) was related to integration of arts into curriculum and the less frequent innovation (frequency = 2) pertained to the method used for playing a role، advance organizers، memorization، and curricular teaching. The present research proved that teachers constitute the most important pillar of innovation and prosperity of education and their potentials should be used in developing various aspects of curriculum.