5.1 The Nation of Novelty
The novelty Distinctive Notion encompasses the
sub-themes of novelty, surprising students, not what
everyone does and contrary to the norm. It represents the
idea of novelty that is very apparent in the interviewed
professors‘ conception of pedagogical innovation. It is, in
particular, a question of a new way of teaching that is
different from the usual practice, which implies going
against the grain and may surprise students when
implemented.
By way of illustration of the notion, one professor asks
his students to summarize their exam’s text in l4O
characters, the length of a Tweet, This is pedagogical as the
teacher wanted his students to summarize their text in
different ways; and it is new and surprising as in his
discipline lengthiness is the usual expectation.