Higher education institutions (HEIs) are significant operators in societies. Education is their main product and through learning, HEIs influence communities. The curriculum is the statement of pedagogical thinking, which presents not only the content of studies but also how they are taught in the institution. From the perspective of community development, teaching methods are significant. The teacher centred approach highlights the role of the teacher, whereas active teaching methods focus on students who are active operators and learners.

The project IRIS aimed at developing an active pedagogy model for TUDARCo, Tumaini University Dar es Salaam College, and improving the role of the HEI among the community. IRIS relied on the concept of reverse innovation that enables community members' participation in innovation, learning and developing processes along with HEI’s students and teachers.

This paper draws together the development of the active innovation pedagogy model FinTan. The model is based on the premise that HEIs are linked with communities and learning is an interactive and collaborative process, in which students and locals find solutions to recognized problems. Teachers’ role is to guide, support and enable the active learning process. In addition to reverse innovation, the paper presents the theory of change that IRIS leaned on.

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