CREARTÉ: A RENAISSANCE-BASED FRAMEWORK FOR BUILDING ESSENTIAL WORKFORCE SKILLS AND FOSTERING INNOVATION

Bryan D. Eldridge1, M.Ed., Leslie B. Eldridge2, AADP, Stan Mullins3, M.F.A 1eCom USA (USA)

2eCom USA (USA)

3Stan Mullins Arts (USA)

Abstract

The Renaissance period left a lasting impression not just on the art world, but in the fields of education and business as well. In this unprecedented era of innovation, individuals leveraged the resources, human capital, and technology of the day to transform human culture forever. In the present Digital Age, we are struggling to leverage the embarrassment of riches we possess through the ubiquitous nature of digital tools and other emerging technology in our classrooms and other workforce-readiness arenas, leaving a sizable skills gap for businesses relying on the products of these institutions for fuelling their enterprises and growing their bottom line. The CreArté philosophy and its implementation framework, the CreArté Method, are designed to enable educators, trainers, and leaders to maximize the potential of their students, employees, and other dependents via their personalized participation in cross-functional, interdisciplinary, and innovation-nurturing applied projects inspired by the impactful lessons learned from the Renaissance.

Keywords: Renaissance, innovation, education, training, differentiated instruction, onboarding

1 LESSONS FROM THE RENAISSANCE

1.1 Rebirth and First Birth during the Renaissance The Renaissance, or rebirth, period that occurred in Italy and other locations throughout Europe in the 15th Century, marked a significant shift in humankind’s culture and intellectual perspective. Coming out of the Middle Ages, mankind had been participating in a God-centered culture. The Renaissance led to a much more human-centered culture, leading to an unprecedented era of innovation. Simply put, man went from passively being in awe of the world around him to becoming an active agent in innovating the laws of science and nature that govern it into a new medium of expression.

1.2 Technology and Entrepreneurship Borne out of the Renaissance Period It is difficult to think of the world of art today without Michelangelo’s David or Botticelli's Venus. The impact of pieces of art such as these shape the way we think about art and how we appreciate the significant impact that the Renaissance had on the world. However, we would be remiss in being so enamored with the end product that we neglect to appreciate the advancements in technology and entrepreneurship that came out of this period as well. Three artists epitomize the transcendence into these more enterprise-oriented areas: Albrecht Durer, Michelangelo Buonarroti, and Tiziano Vecellio.

Albrecht Durer is known artistically for his appreciation of the line but is also perhaps one of the first artists to appreciate the tangible value of the bottom line as well. Durer leveraged the emerging technology of the printing press to not only distribute and monetize his artworks but to broaden the reach of his brand and influence as well. Each of his pieces of art clearly displayed his personal trademark, (as illustrated in Fig. 1) that built cache and identity around his brand.

Figure 1: Personal Monogram and Trademark of Albrecht Durer

Michelangelo Buonarroti, better known simply as Michelangelo, is arguably the personification of the amazing capacity of human achievement displayed during the Renaissance. His innovative use of tools in shaping stone, engineering techniques in quarrying, transporting and construction of stone, and his social approach to his art works are still applied in modern art principles and other industries today. The mark that he commonly used as a signature on his work is illustrated in Fig. 2.

Figure 2: Michelangelo’s signature

Tiziano Vecellio, more commonly known as Titian, was not only an innovator and brilliant painter, but also a widely-appreciated entrepreneur. He employed a pixel-based approach to applying paint to the canvas five-hundred years before the television and the pixilation concept used in our computer screens. His paintings were arguably the primary influence for the impressionist movement that would occur two centuries later. His concept for the marketplace, a key prerequisite for any business to exist, evolved into what we refer to as the “gallery” and can be found on the main street of nearly any size city across the Western world. A common form of Titian’s signature is illustrated in Fig. 3.

Figure 3: Titian’s signature

1.3 Lessons Learned from the Renaissance Period As the three artists in the previous section clearly demonstrate, innovation occurs at the confluence of art and tools but does not persist without meaningful business models, individual entrepreneurship, and an industrious support ecosystem. These are lessons that can be applied across today’s educational institutions and businesses as they struggle to find innovative, creative, and skilled employees.

2 THE IMPORTANCE OF 21ST CENTURY SKILLS

2.1 Why the Conversation about 21st Century Skills is Relevant Reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of historical periods such as the Renaissance and the industrial age provides us with a better understanding of how the evolution of labor, skills, and the marketplace in general can focus stakeholders on developing the proper perspective for viewing our current context and challenges.

2.2 The Renaissance’s Humanistic Revival and how it reformed Education After the ancient period of classical Greece and Rome, the languages and philosophies that blossomed during this age were all but lost to the medieval world. However, with the advent of the Renaissance, Europe once again returned to the philosophies of humanism and reestablished an appreciation for Latin, Greek, and the traditions of the ancient classics in general. The institutes of learning in this period were not immune to this return to humanism either. Curricula in Greek and Latin languages and literature were installed in schools both old and new, replacing the incumbent scholastic method of instruction with the classical system of education which quickly proliferated around the globe and is still being used in classrooms today. [1]

2.3 Breakthroughs in the Industrial Age Similar to the Renaissance period, the Industrial Age was responsible for a series of technological breakthroughs that changed our culture forever. Some of the key breakthroughs included:

• The automation of human skills with machines • The replacement of human and other animal power with inanimate power (e.g. steam power) • The significant improvement in how raw materials were transformed and in some cases

transmogrified by advancements in the fields of chemistry and metallurgy

Although the initial applications of these advancements were fairly narrow, focused primarily on mining and textile automation, they quickly expanded into other areas. The resulting improvements in transportation alone helped standardize the quality and reliability of goods moved across large geographic areas and helped bind these disparate regions into a unified marketplace. These beneficial outcomes also led to drastic changes and improvements in how metals and metal-based infrastructures were made and how businesses and communications were managed in a rapidly shrinking world. [2]

2.4 Enter the Digital Age From the time the internet was made publicly available in 1995, the adoption rate of internet use has grown exponentially, from 1 in 10 adults using the internet to 78% of adults and 95% of teenagers in 2011. [3] Digital natives, those born after 1981, have entered the world of most things digital and base the majority of their daily lives on social media platforms, smart phones, and constant connectivity while priding themselves as creative and digitally savvy citizens. [4]

The internet could quite possibly be paralleled to the Renaissance in that the Renaissance ushered in the arts, creativity and innovation while the internet provides a digital platform with access to vast knowledge, connectivity, creativity, and exploration through multiple pathways and devices. Coupling the strengths of the Renaissance with the strengths of the digital age creates educational opportunities that seemed impossible only a decade ago.

2.5 The Challenge of Teaching Digital Natives Because of their short attention spans and second nature multi-tasking, Millenials have been often been viewed as challenging to teach. Millenials are very smart, creative and believe highly in themselves. Challenges in education stem from outdated teaching models that were created outside the fast paced, multi-faceted, digital framework students born into a digital age struggle to connect with. Current teaching models used to instruct Millenials are designed to produce outcomes that align with standardized tests whereas digital natives, who are creative by nature, want to explore and curate their own creative pathways to discovery.

2.6 Using 21st Century Skills to Provide Relevant Renaissance Education 21st Century skills refers to a broad set of knowledge, skills, work habits, and character traits that are believed by educators, school reformers, college professors, employers, and others to be critically important to success in today’s world within the domain of both the spectrum of educational settings and the workplace.[5]

These skills are not new skills but rather new “tools” to equip learners in proper communication, collaboration, leadership, creativity and innovation pathways to be successful 21st citizens. We have more tools available than ever before but due to outdated education models, teachers are handicapped in transferring knowledge to students in these areas and are often lacking some of the requisite skills themselves. Educational outcomes based on existing paradigms such as standardized test scores are likely not enough to keep competitive in a rapidly evolving global marketplace.

2.7 Building Modern Academic Institutions on the Principles of the Renaissance The principles of the Renaissance are being implemented in academies and charter schools across the United States. Some examples of such institutions are provided in the following list:

• Renaissance Academy of New York – an elementary school with a thematic approach to learning and a focus on the Arts

o http://www.renacad.org/Our_Program.html • Renaissance Academy of California – a K-12 program with a focus on tutoring and removing

barriers in study o http://renaissanceacademy.com/academics.htm

• Renaissance Arts Academy (Los Angeles, Ca.) – a small charter school with a focus on music and the performing arts through small-group instruction and collaborative methods

o http://www.renarts.org/ • Renaissance Academy Charter School (Phoenixville, Pa.) – public K-12 charter school that

focuses on developing core values and character development as part of a college-prep education

o http://www.rak12.org/

While most of these programs have at least some of the elements of the cross-discipline approaches and focus on the arts reflective of the Renaissance, few if any have a total commitment to project-based education as the core of their offering. CreArté and its operationalization via the CreArté Method is in its first generation of incorporating 21st Century skills, innovation, personal development, assessment, and leadership development together in a flexible and extensible model.

3 DEVELOPING THE CREARTÉ METHOD The application of CreArté needed to be able to extend from working with young children developing life skills and subject matter knowledge in classroom environments to assisting in the enablement and development of human resources in the workplace. In order to achieve this far-ranging applicability, a great deal of flexibility needed to be implemented into the approach at both general and specific levels in a way that keeps a central framework of consistency intact. This exercise began with identifying the common components of CreArté independent of context or audience.

3.1 Common Components of the CreArté Method The CreArté Method is the framework and enablement ecosystem that operationalizes the application of CreArté. At the core of the CreArté Method are the common components, their corresponding roles, and how individuals filling the roles are to be assessed and evaluated.

The common components of the CreArté Method include:

• Mastering models o Built on the role of “Master” in common studios of the Renaissance, the role of teacher or

instructor is expanded into that of coach, manager, or facilitator o Focuses on the development of empathy, relationship building, and the ongoing

development of leadership skills o Masters are evaluated on two key success factors:

§ The overall success of the project, i.e. did the project meet or exceed its objectives

§ The degree to which all team members showed improvement in entry-level assessment versus post-project assessment and evaluation

• Mentoring models o Mentoring may come from teachers, instructors, students, colleagues, or other experts

who may be internal or external to the respective organization o Intended to be used as a way to develop or sharpen leadership and responsibility skills in

high-potential performers o Mentors success is measured by improvements in entry-level evidence versus exit-level

evidence of their mentees • Skills-based assignments

o Allows for both enabling students to do what they do best and for peer teaching in small groups/teams

§ Effective approach for letting Millenials “be a star” and stay engaged o Peer teaching assignments are designed as a scaffolding exercise to start grooming and

preparing students and employees for leadership positions o Success for individuals taking on this role is measured by improvements in entry-level

evidence versus exit-level evidence of their peers in the area covered • Interest-based assignments

o Allows individuals to pursue areas that they either had a prior interest in or use this assignment as an opportunity to learn something new in a very concentrated manner

o Peer presentation and possibly peer teaching assignments are designed as a scaffolding exercise to start grooming and preparing students and employees for leadership positions

o Success for individuals taking on this role is measured by the increase of entry-level interest versus exit-level interest of their peers in the area that they are assigned to

§ An excellent opportunity to build persuasive communication skills elemental to sales, management, public relations, marketing, communications, etc.

• Back-to-basic pathways o 21st Century skill building and remediation for those whose pre-test assessment evidence

indicates weakness in one or more prerequisite areas o Could lead to remediation activities outside of group or special assignments to build skill

to threshold readiness levels while participating in core group activities • Advanced pathways

o Allows high-potential, high-achievers. or otherwise uniquely knowledgeable team members to pursue advanced applications of project goals or to research areas where the outcomes of the project could be extended into

o Helps accommodate team members who have consistently produced mastery-level evidence in similar prior projects

§ Good for avoiding boredom and maximizing engagement in Millenials o Success factors and associated criteria determined by instructor prior to advanced

project initiation • Innovation gates and reporting

o Specific innovation goals must be monitored and met at different gates in the project § These innovation goals can be set at the project-level only or at both the project

and individual levels o Broader applicability of lessons learned from the project must be noted and indicated for

each project-based achievement and general group and individual advancement in innovation

• Reflection and post-mortem exercises and communication o Each team member is required to keep an online reflection journal to describe their

personal experience through the project and every “light bulb” moment they encounter o Detailed post-mortems of every project should be curated by a master to prepare

participants for transfer of knowledge and skills gained to future applications

For example, considering the following key characteristics of both students and employees of various states and what some common interventions might be as described in Table 1:

Table  1:  Common  conditions  and  common  interventions  for  students  and  employees  

Conditions Interventions for: Students Employees

Poor readiness • Taught by a more skilled peer

• Solo exercises on back-to-basics pathway content

• Mentored by a more skilled or more experienced peer

• Solo exercises on back-to-basics pathway content

Exceptional aptitude or advanced readiness

• Serve as student-teacher to a small group of peers

• Provided with an advanced project more aligned with exit-level knowledge and skills

• Assign them as a peer mentor

• Offer them a special assignment

• Place them in a rotation to experience another role within their ecosystem

Poor native language capabilities

• Back-to-basics vocabulary and language exercises focused on context of project

• Assigned a special project to translate and localize project artifacts to their native language and culture to present to class

• Back-to-basics vocabulary and language exercises focused on context of business

• Assigned research project to determine viability of marketing their company to their native country and/or culture

Strong personal interest in project content

• Assigned to create and deliver presentation related to project content to the class

• Assigned to develop and curate a project Box site or digital repository instance for the project

 

It is clear from Table 1 that there are similarities in how students and employees alike may be presented with similar interventions. To better understand how the CreArté Method could be applied differently in education and training, an example of each context is applied in the following sections.  

3.1.1 Applying the CreArté Method to Education: Differentiated Instruction According to differentiated instruction expert Carol Tomlinson, (differentiated instruction) simply means tailoring instruction to meet individual needs. These needs typical refers to a student’s readiness level, personal interest, learning requirements and other personal attributes such as culture and native language.[6] This area is of growing concern in both U.S. classrooms and classrooms around the globe.

Considering the common student attributes differentiation addresses of readiness, personal interest, learning style, personal funds of knowledge, and other common differentiators, it is not a broad departure to see how each of these attributes could be adapted to fit the components and roles of the CreArté Method listed in the previous section. The teacher has the flexibility to use all or some of these components and the corresponding role assignments and evaluation criteria to apply the method on an ad-hoc or even improvisational manner depending on how well the class, part and parcel, is mastering the topic of instruction.

The teacher can then further adapt the method to meet their familiarity with applying it, their individual teaching style, the overall tenor or mood of the students in the class, the overall or individual readiness of the class based on pre-assessment activities, the type of evidence that needs to be produced or accommodated for, or the nature of the subject matter.

The CreArté Method is also designed to address some of the most common obstacles that are preventing teachers from applying differentiated instruction in their classrooms. Table 2 provides some specific examples of how CreArte attends to these concerns.

Table 2; CreArté Method interventions for common teacher obstacles in applying differentiated instruction

Teacher Obstacle CreArté Method Intervention

Potential impact on test scores Each role in a CreArté project has specific evaluation criteria assigned to it inclusive of national and state standard test requirements

Time required to implement differentiated instruction

Enablement tools, starter-project kits, community support, and illuminated case studies allow teachers to ramp-up quickly

Classroom management issues Profiling tools and proven classroom monitoring techniques are incorporated into the training and support materials for both the “master” and “mentor” roles that enable the development of strong classroom management skills

Modifying long-established teaching patterns and related behaviours

Teachers are encouraged to start with “low-prep” projects provided as examples in the starter-project kits and elaborating on them over time in a manner that is aligned with their existing teaching patterns

3.1.2 Applying the CreArté Method to the Workplace: Onboarding

One of the most common conversations happening in human resource departments today is about the growing importance of having strong onboarding programs for new hires. Some experts indicate that organizations often fall short of reaping the full potential of the benefits of successful onboarding by

focusing too much on the administrative tasks such as filling out forms and setting up computers and not enough time and effort on ensuring that new hires get the personalized attention and direction required to fully integrate into the organization.[7] The chronological position of the onboarding process in the employee lifecycle is presented in Fig. 4.

Figure 4: End-to-end view of typical employee lifecycle

In an informal polling of human resource managers the authors have worked with, the following three reasons were provided as the most common ways onboarding periods fail and encourage good employees leave to soon:

• New hires are not typically presented with a fast track to meaningful, productive work

• Mentoring and apprenticeship models can be financial disasters if not administered and monitored properly

• New hires have difficulty in “keeping score” and seeing how their performance stacks up against expectations (This is extremely important to Millenials)

Table 3 illustrates how the CreArté Method is applied to address these three key areas.

Table 3: How the CreArté Method addresses the three key reasons onboarding programs fail

Problem CreArté Method Solution

No immediate path to meaningful productive work • Replace “seminar” and other traditional onboarding training activities with a CreArté Method project that new hires begin their first week on the job

• Can be an actual client-facing project or internal project

High-risk of utilizing mentor programs • Use mentors only on an as-needed basis within the scope of the CreArté Method component and role definitions

No way to keep score • Each CreArté Method project has a detailed rubric producing a tailored scoreboard for each of the main success factors for the project: financial, temporal, client satisfaction, initial units sold, etc.

• Each role on a CreArté Method project has an evaluation scorecard unique to that role

This project approach can be applied as an ongoing process that new-hires repeat (on different projects) until their evaluation score card indicates that they have the entry-level competencies required to be a productive contributor on a typical client-facing project for their role.

4 CONCLUSIONS AND EXTENSIONS

4.1 Creating Enablement Pathways for the CreArté Community of Practice As more schools and clients use the CreArté Method, the components, role definitions, and evaluation criteria will ultimately converge to standard norms as defined by the members of the community of practice for the approach. Once this step in the evolution of the approach is complete, the following enablement and achievement tools will be available for the entire CreArté community:

• CreArté Charter School start-up kits • CreArté Community of Practice repository for sharing best-practices, project recipes, tools,

policies, etc. • Open Badges for achieving mastery for each of the CreArté Method roles • Custom and project-specific Open Badge standards and step-by-step guides • CreArté Conferences that will offer opportunities for the CreArté Community of Practice and

larger community of educators and trainers to share experiences and build new skills for delivering the CreArté Method

• CreArté Camps where teams show up to address complex projects with real-world experts and mentors

4.2 CreArté Adapted as a Framework for Start-Up Companies Venture Capitalists and Angel Investment individuals and groups have expressed an interest in expanding the CreArté Method to be used as a collaborative way for investors to work with and mentor start-up companies. Adaptations to the current components and roles include:

• New roles on each team for a business mentor • Evaluation criteria is modified to be more longitudinal in nature and focused on common start-up

benchmarks • Potential investors are collaborators in determining all evaluation criteria • Teams may or may not be in direct competition with other teams for investor time and resources • Can be further adapted to be used as a way to teach entrepreneurship and business practices to

younger learners or other first-time entrepreneurs • Any variation of this adaptation could be used in incubators, accelerators, and other start-up

support constructs

REFERENCES [1] Myers, P. Van Ness (1905) “Medieval and Modern History” http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/Renn.html

pp. 251-274.

[2] Freeman, Christopher, and Luc Soete, eds. (1997) “The economics of industrial innovation.” Psychology Press.

[3] Zickuhr, K., Smith, A. (2012) “Digital Differences” http://www.pewinternet.org/2012/04/13/digital-differences/

[4] Rosenberg, M. “Names of Generations” http://geography.about.com/od/populationgeography/qt/generations.htm

[5] Abbot, S. (2014) “21st Century Skills” The Glossary of Education Reform http://edglossary.org/21st-century-skills/

[6] Tomlinson, C., Brighton, C., Hertberg, H., Callahan, C., Moon, T., Brimijoin, K., Conover, L.,Reynolds, T. (2003) “Differentiating Instruction in Response to Student Readiness, Interest, and Learning Profile in Academically Diverse Classrooms: A Review of Literature” Journal for the Education of the Gifted, v27 n2-3 pp. 119-145, Win 2003.

[7] O.C.Tanner Co. (2008) “Onboarding: Early Engagement through Recognition”, http://www.octanner.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/employee-incentives-employee-retention-onboarding.pdf, p. 2.