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PARADIGM SHIFT / DECADE STRONG

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^{“The cutting edge of our Studio, is time-resilient design. I have always found inspiration in landscape photography, where great artist photographers such as Edward Brutynsky highlight just how often we look at the world with a 35 mm lens, and show us, what happens when we take a step back, and take the long-view. My academic work in the field of land has invigorated me to realise just how we can use time for us, design education for the long run, how in reality academic fields don’t move that fast. I became passionate about realising curriculum design that is smart within the lifespan of the working life of a teacher. Surely my robust background in Anthropology and the study of paradigms and subsequent generations, as well as European work on hype cycles in technical fields, has shaped my now decade strong methodology for time resilient curriculum design.”}
Tikvah Breimer (MSc MEd MSc), founder/director of StudioBlended




Are you curious for more? Would you like to get in touch? Feel free to contact our lead directly for any questions or inquiries you may have. tikvah@studioblended.com +31 6 42 47 29 69

Image: “Architectural Sketch by Cazú Zegers © Cazú Zegers – all rights reserved.”

This design angle, is about strategic thinking, and thinking about the present and the emerging near future. How can you design for a course or degree, whose program can then get the opportunity to mature - as opposed to following the winds of change in the various subjects every new academic year?

Did you ever truly realise that the content of your course or degree moves with trends, undercurrents, hindsights? That academics tend to move fast in the hype cycle of concepts? How can you balance much needed innovation, with long standing baseline building blocks of your curriculum?

Your teaching team is made up of generations of teachers at different stages of their working lives, and they each have their own take on the content and on learning.

How to avoid that together as a teaching team you just step into the next hype cycle and start developing material left and right? But also: how do we avoid that eventually the baby will be thrown out with the bathwater? (i.e. if circular economy is now a dominant big idea in education today, how long will it take before the same idea experiences a 'hangover'?).

Often times, a body of knowledge of an academic course or degree has a very strong inertia effect. Lecturers have shelf material. Activities have been already piloted and developed. It’s just easier.

How can you begin to create oxygen and space in the existing curriculum for genuine academic innovation? And what would this innovation be, coming instead from the ground up within your own academic field/s?

What then should you spend your time, attention, and funds on when you develop contemporary Education?

From a pragmatic idealist point of view, how can you strategize a curriculum design that is time robust well into the coming decade?

A light, playful angle to this, are the big ideas.

Where big ideas in your course or degree truly become interesting, is when we start to strategize their position over time, well into the future.

Allow us to give you some background about paradigm shifts, hype cycles of concepts and generations (Thinkpiece follows soon).

From here, to make it practical and tangible, we propose a modular approach to your course or degree. Not to facilitate more flexibility in the first place, but to be more strategic about a robust program, which can mature over time as it is rolled out every academic year afresh. We do this with a fit for purpose framework.

Already curious? Do not hesitate to call us. Or have a look at the workshop big ideas.

Image: Paradigm shift. A co-lab between Tikvah Breimer (MSc MAEd MSc) and Lucas Rampazzo to visualize and transform our understanding of a paradigm shift - and transitions. Paradigm shift and the transition of generations based on Breimer (2006).
Visualisation of the Hype cycle and X-curve based on the work by Davidson(1999), Hebinck et al. (2002) and Drift (2022) respectively, and used with permission.

Related publications

Follows end 2025. Resilient education that stands the test of time - by design. Thinkpiece.

Related work

Breimer, T. (2015) ‘(Informal) Urban Expansion; Anticipation and Preparation’, Urbanisation in Europe and the World expert workshop, Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission, Ispra Italy, May 27-29. Available upon request. 


References infographic:
Davidson, F. (1999), ‘Conceptual Cycles in Urban Development Management; are we getting better and better – or just going round in circles? Implications for Capacity Building and Research’, N-Aerus (Network Association of European Researchers on Urbanisation in the South) conference, Venice. Available: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/369123732_Conceptual_Cycles_in_Urban_Development_Management_Are_we_getting_better_and_better_-or_just_going_round_in_circles_Implications_for_Capacity_Building_and_Research(Accessed: October 27, 2025).

Hebinck, A., Diercks, G., von Wirth, T., Beers, P.J., Barsties, L., Buchel, S., Greer, R., Steenbergen, F., and Loorbach, D. (2002), ‘An actionable understanding of societal transitions: the X-curve framework’, Sustain Sci 17, pp. 1009–1021. Available: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11625-021-01084-w (Accessed: October 27, 2025).

Silverstri, G., Diercks, G. and Matti, C. (Drift) (2022). X-curve, a sense making tool to foster collective narratives on system change. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Drift for Transition. Available: https://drift.eur.nl/en/publications/toolkit/(Accessed: October 27, 2025).


We are here especially for you as unique course/training coordinator, to come alongside you and partner with you, as you work on a curriculum, so that you can offer effective and time/resilient education in its simplest form.

More design angles we use

Technical resilience
Big ideas
Paradigm shifts/decade strong
Simplicity and decluttering
Human resilience
Modular
Innovative and deep pedagogy
Assesment / evaluation
Time dimension
Evidence-based design
Financial health and resilience by (re)design
Multi- Inter- and transdisciplinary
Flexibilisation and personalisation
Blended



Curios? Feel free to contact our senior advisor and teacher trainer directly:
tikvah@studioblended.com

Resilient education that stands the test of time - by design.