Page 121 - Microsoft Word - The Future of Learning April 2017.docx

The creative process requires the mind to wander, daydream and consider thousands of potential new connections. Being inspired via our self-reflection can become a powerful prompt; in its own right. This ability to strategically daydream is fundamental in seeking the inspiration for new ideas, concepts and concept frameworks. Inspiration is the kindling that feeds the fire and drives the resulting actions and the effort we need to apply to be creative. In our frantically busy world of ‘life’, we all must take the time to daydream. Our brain craves patterns, so when associations that are not patterns confront us, we struggle with the cognitive dissonance that this creates.
There is not a single type of learner that we want schools to mass-produce, as each learner’s place in their world is unique. Their genetic dispositions will have a significant influence, but as the quote above makes clear, our experiences in life also have a significant influence on who we become. The previous mass- production model for school must now give way to the personalised approach. Personalisation can ONLY happen, if the learner is competent to drive their own learning and the learner has access to a rich information landscape coupled with an understanding of how to learn.
One of the schools the Global Curriculum Project teamed up with in the United Arab Emirates, was the Royal Dubai School. The principal, Kevin Loft and the leadership team, developed an alternative metaphor to the ‘learning pit’ using ocean waves to show the progression of learning as learners surfed their way through the Learning Process. This innovation shows the power of lateral thinking in shifting the same concept-framework and view it through a different context.
The learners are prompted to go for a surf to get the great feeling of riding the wave of learning. Learners must paddle hard to get on to the wave of discovery by building knowledge. They then interrogate their discoveries via good questioning to form ideas and concepts. The learner can then creatively apply those ideas and concepts to be innovative and ingenious and experience the wonder of the ‘aha! moment’
Resource 54: Surfing the Learning Wave
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In fact, highly creative works of art are appreciated because they violate our
predictions. When you see a film that breaks the familiar mold of character, story line, or cinematography (including special affects), you like it because it is not the same old,
same old. Paintings, music, poetry, novels – all creative artistic forms – strive to break
convention and violate the expectations of an audience. There is a contradictory
tension in what makes a work of art great. We want art to be familiar, yet, at the same
time to be unique and unexpected. Too much familiarity is retread or kitsch; too much
uniqueness is jarring and difficult to appreciate. The best works break some expected
patterns while simultaneously teaching us new ones.152 Jeff Hawkins
This innovation highlights one of the key principles of this resource. This resource is not a recipe that must be strictly adhered to, but rather it is a prompt to encourage educators to develop their own unique solutions that suit the context that they find themselves working within. Each community of learners has a unique set of needs and opportunities that they need to meet.
152 Hawkins, J. (2011, November 11). The Memory-Prediction Framework of Intelligence and the Subject of Creativity [Blog]. Retrieved from http://www.creativitypost.com/technology/the_memory_prediction_framework_of_intelligence_and_the_subject_of_creativi