An Orderly Disordercreativity and the chaotic curriculum

Middlesex University10 July 2014

. Dr. Paul KleimanUK Lead for Dance, Drama and

MusicThe Higher Education Academy

Complexity is the challenge

‘Stand Out’ companies & organisations

• creativity (leadership, strategies & operations)

• operational dexterity

• reinvent customer relationships

“The effects of rising complexity require bold creativity, connecting with customers in imaginative ways and designing operations for speed and flexibility to position organizations for twenty-first century success.”

Complexity is the challenge

HEI

Students

Failure

Finance

Staff

Reality

Administration Resits

Papergenerator

Learning &Teaching

Understanding

Research

QualityAssurance

GraduatesStress

Skills

Knowledge

How Creative is Improvisation? Louise Gibbs - Leeds College of Music

Small changes can have big impacts

Similar conditions produce very dissimilar outcomes

If it works once, no guarantee it will work again

Regularity & conformity > > > irregularity & diversity

Effect not continuous straighforward function of cause

Learning via interaction with complex environments

Outcomes unpredictable, long-term predictions impossible

order, control, standardisation, conformity,risk-aversion

operating on the edge of chaos

STASIS

Close to certainty

Close to agreement

Far from agreement

Far from certainty

(Based on Stacey 2000)

zone of complexity

LessComplexity

More

anxiety tension disorientation uncertainty,

tension excitement, complexity

disequilibrium, passion

play, fun!!!

Reflect the demand for creativity and creative skills

Capitalise on our students, and our own creativity

Create the ‘Creative Campus’

Seize the creative moment

What might we do….

• to design and create knowledge

enhancing and life enhancing learning

experiences for our students and for

ourselves?

• to create curricula that enable our

students to confront with confidence the

complexities and uncertainties that face

us all?

• to create our very own orderly disordered

adventures of learning and teaching at

the edge of chaos?