Investigating the Determinants of the Innovation Adoption for Continuous Improvement in a Teacher-Training Institution: Evidence from the COVID-19 Period

We are living in an ever-changing world. The changes in science, technology and economics constantly impact areas closely related to human life, such as education and health. Organisations must rely on innovation to remain relevant and effective in a constantly evolving society. Educational institutions, namely schools, colleges or even training institutions, contribute to product innovation when they produce new and significantly different products and services such as new syllabi, new resources or new educational experiences like e-learning. They carry out process innovation when they bring about significant changes in how they provide their service, for instance, changes in the way their teachers work together, communicate with parents or offer services in collaboration with other institutions. With the onset of the medical catastrophe of COVID-19 and the pandemic thereafter, the education sector plunged itself into adapting to the use of technology to keep its service functional, albeit with significant challenges faced in its effective implementation. In this article, the focus is on studying technology implementation in an early childhood care teacher-training institute to establish service innovation in education in the post-pandemic era. Multiple perspectives were derived from all the stakeholders, such as student-teachers, teacher educators and heads of schools (as future employers) regarding teacher preparedness and student-teacher readiness. The inputs helped us to develop the conceptual model for future teaching-learning. The conceptual model A.D.O.P.T. (Act with growth mindset, Deliver Quality, Open to Adaptation, Prioritize with Precision, Team Engagement) highlights how the stakeholders move from makeshift ‘jugaad’ innovation to sustainable development of the educational system through grassroots innovation.