SIMPLICITY and DECLUTTERING

—
<sup>‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

La semplicita e la perfetta raffinatezza.’
Leonardo Da Vinci

‘It is very simple
to be happy,
but it is very difficult
to be simple.’ 
Rabindranath Tagore

“You must avoid that the curriculum gets overloaded and all lose sight of its coherence. That’s why we need a regular ‘curriculum cleansing’ - and we do it way too little”</sup> Sluijsmans 2023, Openbare les / Accepting her chair University of Applied Science Rotterdam

<sup>'Ha um gosto de vitoria e encanto na condicao de ser simples.
Nao e preciso muito para ser muito.'

'There is a sense of victory and delight in the condition of being simple.
You don't need a lot to be a lot.'
Lina Bo Bardi / Italian Brazilian architect,
winner Venice Architecture Biennale’s
Special Golden Lion award 2021</sup>

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: Miro visualisation of how the value of ‘simplicity’ is central to our Studio’s philosophy and methodology, and makes technical and human resilience, as well as ‘green design’ and financial health and resilience an organic part of the whole. Find our valuesystem here.

If you want to uphold quality, you must ensure you review your curriculum on a regular basis. By intentionally promoting the things in your curriculum you value most, and removing anything that distracts from that, you apply the principle of minimalism. As a Studio, we believe such decluttering is one of the ways to achieve ‘simplicity’.

Teaching with clarity requires you to simplify the course/training. Let us lead the way in determining how to prioritize and do less so that students understand more.

A curriculum is never finished, it is always in progress. Internal and external trends and stimuli slip in. These include flexibilisation, internationalisation, digitalisation, new forms of assessment, different learning outcomes, new research projects, even ideas that came up in daily practice.

An overloaded curriculum not only leads to ineffective learning (cognitive overload), it also negatively impacts your wellbeing as coordinator, and that of your teaching team.

Developing a simple curriculum design is actually hard. Allow us to come alongside and partner with you, to ask good questions and help you move forward. Simplicity is part of our value system and resonates with anyone who embraces the beauty and impact of minimalism.

Our design studio

‘Simplicity and decluttering’ is part of our design studio with clients and has a teacher trainer component to it.

We come alongside you, and partner with you, to take your existing curriculum and simplify it using a coherent set of design angles:

1. technical resilience - to ensure a robust and fit for purpose open building framework for your curriculum
2. human resilience - to ensure the wellbeing of you as coordinator, and your teaching staff during development and delivery
3. designed to be green - to ensure you do the least harm to the environment with your design decisions.

Key projects

Follows soon

Our Audio Podcast

‘Preparing for an effective and resilient curriculum design; two guiding principles that transform how you go about its content in all simplicity’
Prefer to read? Looking for resources? Transcript
Listen to A) dosage on: Acast Spotify Apple
Release March 20 / June 21 ‘23      

In this episode on dosage (A), we tackle the problem over so-called ‘overload’ in terms of content in your curriculum. Perhaps to your surprise, we will link it directly to how you prepare for the content in your curriculum design, whether it is a module, course, training or a degree.

We go even beyond that: with technique - you can design for your own human resilience during preparation; your balance, your enjoyment of the simplicity in curriculum design.

Related publications

Follows

More design angles we use

Technical resilience
Human resilience
Modular
Evidence-based design
Financial health and resilience by (re)design
Innovative and deep pedagogy
Multi- Inter- and transdisciplinary
Blended
Bichronous
Designed to be green (and technological simplicity)
Nature and aspirations
Flexibilisation and personalisation
Simplicity and decluttering

References

Dominique Sluijsmans & Luc Sluijsmans 2015 Voorjaarsschoonmaak in the toetsenhuis

Frontier, Tony 2023 Teaching with Clarity. How to Prioritize and Do Less So Students Understand More.

ScienceGuide 2023 ‘Haal af en toe de bezem door het curriculum’ Openbare Les Dominique Sluijsmans, Hogeschool Rotterdam

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

We are here especially for you as unique professional, to come alongside you and partner with you, as you work on a (architecture / urban / development / policy / land / water / climate) curriculum, so that you can offer effective and resilient education in its simplest form.