NSL Blog

Curiosity and education a non-linear approach

April 13, 2013

Curiosity is part and parcel of the creative process, and creativity is a key component of non-linear thinking. Creativity enables us to discover the new, the novel, to examine and evaluate its possibilities. Creativity in a No Straight Lines perspective is the means to also see the world and its context in a broader context, understanding its richer deeper narrative. In No Straight Lines the theorem is replace fear of the unknown with curiosity. Venture into those places you might fear the most, venture into the unknown as it may well provide you with insights previously hidden from you (too many organisations fail as culturally they are not prepared to take that journey). In No Straight Lines we call for the return of the Craftsman and indeed Craftswomen – people that are innately creative, and are the builders of our non-linear world as opposed to consumers of the past. In the video Paul Collard is discussing how we learn and the creative process. This is important because Unless you give people the power to actually solve the problems, he says, you’re not exploring their creativity at all. Therefore agency is at the heart of creativity. Picasso argued that we are all born artists, social philosopher Richard Sennett says we are all born craftsmen and craftswomen. The true struggle is to hang on to that creativity as we grow up. The world is engulfed in a revolution, which requires us to think deeply how we prepare our children for the future. Not that some people like Michael Gove would agree. We all need the skill to be able to reflect on ones own learning, Collard says usually we don’t expect students to be able to do this  until they’re in university. But actually eight-year-olds can do it if you give them the space to be able to do that. And if they’re reflecting on their own learning and they’re working out when they’re not learning, and working out how to learn and so on and so forth,’ that is learning for the 21st Century.

Collard: Do-it-yourself and collaborative learning from FreedomLab on Vimeo.

Journey further

• Reschooling ourselves for a non-linear world
• The Craftsman
• What makes the Finnish education system work so well?
• Rethinking the industrial mindset: interview with Henry Jenkins
• Craftsmanship in the 21st Century
• No Straight Lines store