In “Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change The World” (2012), Dr. Tony Wagner used the term outlier to describe teachers in the primary and secondary school system who were innovative and trying to teach the students to be more creative and successful problem-solvers. Perhaps relative or temporal innovation is a better phrase because, as noted by Zimmerman in “The Amateur Hour” (2020), almost everything we think to be “innovative” in teaching today has been advocated and done in the past by the few who dared.
We think that the term outlier also applies to certain instructors in the post-secondary space. The concept of an outlier is part of the Social Comparison literature and research. Social Comparison theory helps us understand what an innovator will experience and why. The 'tribe' will often react in predictable ways to the outperformer or non-conformer, the outlier. One can hope that the 'tribe' will behave differently, but do not expect them to.
Serial and sustained outliers, outperformers, and non-conformists probably need to be seriously self-motivated. They may get little encouragement, recognition, praise, or support from others. In higher education, they appear to have a passion for working with students and achieving the learning outcomes above Bloom’s knowledge level. Even in the Bloom report from 1956, the authors noted that i) few instructors will put in the effort to teach above the knowledge level, ii) few students will want to be taught above this level, and iii) that institutions for the most part would not care.
It was easier for all; focus on facts, basic interpretation in a structured, well-defined way, memorize facts, recite recipes, and regurgitate algorithms, be able to do text-book problems. Bloom and his colleagues noted how hard it would be to teach and assess for understanding and comprehension, and to be able to actually use the knowledge. However, this does not stop outliers. Outliers will interpret, invent (or possibly re-invent) and work toward a higher quality of learning. The outliers are often not supported. They might find others neutral, apathetic, ambivalent at best. In some cases, they might face direct or indirect hostility, passive aggression, and malicious acts. Some tribe members will have a big problem with the outperformers, outliers, and non-conformists.
