Introducing Schools to Innovation

The paper presents the findings of a project that monitored the work of enterprise circles and analyzed their strengths and weaknesses. Differences were also found between the positions taken by the group of teachers that participated in the project and a randomly selected control group of teachers. The findings indicate that teachers who led enterprise circles were critical of an over-emphasis on administrative work connected to the preparation of typical business plans. They were frustrated by overly detailed and prescriptive syllabuses, are more likely to accept pupil's ideas, and make more frequent use of ICT in their tea ching. They are less likely to attribute open thinking and innovation to their schools and also believed that their schools were less tolerant of mistakes and put more emphasis on discipline. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.