TECHNICAL RESILIENCE:
A FRAMEWORK FOR A DECADE


“How can I integrate a resilient approach to teaching in these times?

A surprising answer was provided by StudioBlended. Tikvah coached me in making my educational approach and impact last longer.

I realized that acquiring knowledge is a process that obeys the rules of resilience very strongly.”


Dr. Alexander Jachnow, Urban Researcher and Strategist
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), Erasmus University, Rotterdam





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

Our technical approach to curriculum design is based on ‘constructive alignment’. This has proved to be the most robust technique for design. Source: Biggs, J., & Tang, C. (2011). Teaching for Quality Learning at University. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press.

Technical Resilience

When you design a curriculum, you would like it to lead to effective learning and ensure that your time, energy and cost investments make sense over a longer period of time. At our Studio we call this design quality ‘technical resilience’.

We advise you on how you can design for an effective and resilient curriculum that lasts up to a decade - even if your subject area experiences paradigm shifts and transitions and therefore requires you to rejuvenate content regularly. Our ‘fit for purpose‘ approach to technical resilience is cutting edge, and allows you to enjoy the benefits of delivering a mature course/training, including its impact on educational results and accreditations.

How is our Studio different from any other educational specialist you will find at your own campus or beyond? We are unique in our approach: we bridge the silo between your content field and the educational realm of expertise. Not only do we come alongside you to advise on your educational design, we partner with you with a broad comprehension of your field. This is how we design a fit for purpose framework for the curriculum with you, relevant for a decade. Scroll down to discover more about ‘fit for purpose’ and key projects.

Steps to be taken for a technically resilient framework:
1. Strategise the scope of your content (paradigm shift and hype cycle analysis)
2. Articulate guiding questions for your course to set direction and raise curiosity
3. Set learning objectives/outcomes
4. Establish the big ideas of your course, expressed as statements
5. Balance the body of knowledge with skills and human capabilities
6. Ensure constructive alignment - from learning objectives to formative/summative assessment and activities
7. Craft the fit for purpose open building framework into ‘simplicity’. Make hard choices, determine dosage, both for evidence-based effective learning, and to do justice to your expertise.

Read more about our (re-)design studio.



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

Key projects


Did you know? 
The open building framework is a unique approach by StudioBlended. It is rooted strongly in the ‘understanding by design’ school of practice for secondary schools (with foundational work by Tigh & Wiggins 2004[1], Tigh & Willis 2019[2]) and in constructive alignment, enriched then by evidence-based insights (cognitive psychology, neuroscience) and contemporary debates on curriculum design in higher education (see i.e. Schoot & Sluijsmans 2021) and made practical for course coordinators in academia.



[1] Mc Tighe, Jay & Judy Willis 2019. Upgrade your teaching: understanding by design meets neuroscience. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) : Alexandria (USA)

[2] Mc Tighe, Jay & Grant Wiggins 2004. Understanding by Design: Professional Development Workbook. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) : Alexandria (USA)


Click to expand, and get a full illustration of our ‘fit for purpose‘ framework for technical resilience. Here you see the re-design/re-structuring of a decade strong technical/interdisciplinary course (4 weeks), reimagined to be ready for the next decade. You first see the open-building framework (golden) for the post-graduates, and then the undergraduate trajectory that fits into it, in a modular way (green). This work stems from 2013, and is still valid in 2023. Curious? tikvah@studioblended.com

Our frameworks are fit for purpose. We see an analogy with land cadastres. We identify the way your curriculum works within a relatively short time and at relatively low costs and then propose a robust and resilient framework as you continue to develop and deliver your course or training.

This enables you to begin to work regardless of the overall context as you find the optimum way to apply the framework in your unique environment, improvise with technique, and innovate.

Our bespoke ‘Fit for purpose’ open building framework stands strong for up to a decade ahead, and is able to incorporate ongoing development in the content. As such it also guides sound financial health for the course in terms of ensuring investments are smart (i.e. what to develop, when?).

Technical perfection: the pencil - it keeps its qualities in whatever context or time period (by Philippe D'Averio). Analogy explanation by an Italian technical architect (AM).

By now our open building framework is simple, and technically perfect - like a pencil.
What is technical perfection? 
It means that it keeps its qualities in whatever context.
If you throw it in water, and allow it to dry it can still write.
Should you keep it for a decade, and then try it again: it writes. It is perfect. Which is why it is not further developed, you just see variations of pencils, no difference in the original design.
It is already technically perfect.
Likewise, our open-building framework for curriculum design is technically perfect. 

Join related studies / 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 Listen to B) slow productivity on: Acast Spotify Apple
Release March 20 / June 21 ‘23 

The episode comes in two clips: A) dosage (technical effectiveness) B) slow productivity (human resilience), the transcript is combining both clips.

In this episode, 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

At our Studio you will find publications such as:

Schoot, Menno van der & Dominique Sluijsmans 2021 Het dichtgetimmerde curriculum; over de doorgeschoven verschuiving van vorm naar inhoud in het hoger onderwijs. Edukitchen. Full article [Dutch].

Mc Tighe, Jay & Judy Willis 2019. Upgrade your teaching: understanding by design meets neuroscience. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) : Alexandria (USA).

Mc Tighe, Jay & Grant Wiggins 2004 Understanding by Design: Professional Development Workbook. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) : Alexandria (USA).




Image: a co-lab between Tikvah Breimer and Lucas Rampazzo to visualize and transform our understanding of a paradigm shift.
Use of original hype cycle and X-curve with permission by authors, Davidson and Drift, Rotterdam (NL), respectively. Find their reference at the bottom of this page.


See the presentation Tikvah Breimer, independent senior advisor, gave at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission in Ispra, Italy, in 2015, on the hype cycle of concepts and a paradigm shift [slide 7-11].


Image: Change, transition - how do you design a curriculum that is time robust, so that you can enjoy maturity in a course - when the content is quickly moving in research, projects, networks, reality? A redesign of the X-curve with permission by authors at Drift, Rotterdam (NL). Find their reference below.


Our lead and founder, takes a lively interest in architecture, and made an extensive exploration of the open building approach in architecture (with distinction) at the Institute for Housing and Urban Management (IHS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Blog entry by Daisy Christodoulou, Educational director of No More Marking, Nov. 2023. Entry about the pendulum of skills and knowledge.



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


Photo: Brazilian Brutalism at FAU USP, a University Faculty that defined its own Architectural Style. Flickr user Fernando Stankuns.

“I received alongside advise on my course design by Tikvah Breimer, and now deliver the actual course.
I feel secure the material is solid and lasting, so I can build on it, incrementally.

I dare to learn by doing, everything you (Tikvah) said is true – I’m calmer, more self-confident, and daring to experiment more. The structured approach the course brought, now brings me deep excitement to keep growing and learning myself too, not just students. It’s so rewarding.

You are so right we don’t need more heavy and extensive technology for excellent higher education,

We need excellent technique and pedagogy, resilience.

I feel secure the material is solid and lasting, so I can build on it, incrementally.

The advisory and training was a gift from heaven. I want you to train our entire team of professors!”

prof. dr. Patricia Samora
Senior lecturer and researcher
Pontificia Universidade Catholica de Campinas
Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism
Greater Sao Paulo Metropolitan Area
Brazil



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.

References infographic at the top Davidson, Forbes
1999/03/11 Conceptual Cycles in Urban Development Management Are we getting better and better -or just going round in circles? Implications for Capacity Building and Research.


Drift for transition, The DRIFT X-Curve.

Hebinck, A., Diercks, G., von Wirth, T. et al. An actionable understanding of societal transitions: the X-curve framework. Sustain Sci 17, 1009–1021 (2022).


Referenceshttps://substack.nomoremarking.com/p/skills-vs-knowledge-13-years-on
 
StudioBlended Foundation 2024

Prefer to have direct contact?
Feel free:
Tikvah Breimer (MSc MAEd MSc)
Independent senior advisor, teacher trainer, lead
tikvah@studioblended.com
+31 6 42 47 29 69



Non profit Foundation

Registration Chamber of Commerce
KvK-number 86242598 (Dutch)

VAT identification number
NL 86 39 07 29 5 B01

Bankaccount

NL40 INGB 0709 6156 04
SWIFT/BIC: INGBNL2A
StudioBlended Foundation


 
   


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About us

We are here especially for you as unique course/training coordinator, 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.


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