Generating solutions for society’s complex problems will require the development of a diverse workforce that is committed to technological and social innovation. However, opportunities to experience curricula that integrate technical skills, inventive habits of mind, and commercialization-oriented business acumen are rare and inequitably distributed, and education systems lack professional development and support mechanisms to help educators teach innovation authentically while balancing other existing curricular demands. These issues are being addressed by a rapidly growing field called invention education, which uses trans-disciplinary and equity-oriented pedagogies to promote knowledge and agency in habitual problem finding, solution design, prototyping, fabrication, intellectual property creation, and market sector investigation.

Our goals for this Research Topic are fourfold: (1) to introduce invention education as a promising area of study within STEM education and closely related disciplines; (2) to consider the ways in which invention education overlaps with but is also distinct from existing pedagogies including STEM; (3) to provide theoretically framed examples of invention education programs and their outcomes, and: (4) to consider the potential contributions of invention education to educational and societal progress. In service of these goals, we invite papers that address one or more of the multiple dimensions, units-of-analysis, and contexts in which invention education research takes place, including: curriculum development and implementation, invention education in formal and informal settings, invention education capacity building efforts for educators, the role of invention education in the formation of an inventive identity, the psychology of inventive thinking in STEM contexts, and strategies for diversifying the population of students who experience invention education.

This Research Topic welcomes quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies addressing invention education, including, but not limited to:

- The Nature of Invention Education and its relation to STEM education.
- Consideration of Invention Education pedagogies in comparison to others including STEM, engineering, environmental studies, entrepreneurship education, etc.
- Invention Education in international contexts, including case studies.
- Broadening participation in Invention Education through diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Assessment and evaluation of Invention Education: programs/curricula, processes, and outcomes.
- Pathways to Invention Education.
- Psychological and sociocultural factors that facilitate or inhibit persistence in invention and innovation related coursework or learning experiences.

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Frontiers in Education

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