Ashley HallSenior Tutor - Innovation Design Engineering RCA ashley.hall@rca.ac.uk www.designcreate.info www.rca.ac.uk

Partner - Diplomat design ashley@diplomatdesign.comwww.diplomatdesign.com

Innovation Design Engineering: Non-linear progressive

education for diverse intakesAshley Hall – Royal College of Art

Professor Peter Childs - Imperial College London

Motivation for the Paper

• Disseminate IDE teaching practice for comment and reflection

• Demonstrate models used to develop non-linear programme

• Explore the case for non-linear design in Innovation Design Engineering

Cristina Ferraz Rigo – Imagine a phone

Greg Epps - Robofold

Rombout Frieling – Flupper

‘Our education systems are dominated by linear assumptions of what will be relevant to the future, and frankly we don’t know what will be relevant to the future. What we do know is that it won’t be linear.’

Sir Ken Robinson Apple Education Summit

Innovation is reduced by:

• Top down control structures• Fixed hierarchies• Greater prediction• Individual assessment• Lack of collaborative working

Non-LinearityReasons for a non-linearity padagogic model

• Convergent vs. divergent models• Fit to individual problem solving process• Diversity of output• New educational models to reflect Industrial

demand for thinking based skills

What do I mean by non-linearity ?

• A non-linear curriculum facilitated for enhancing divergence• Does not refer to student problem solving methods though

its inclusive of all• Is progressive in terms of students development

Details: Teaching Strategies

• No implied course narrative• Avoidance of simplified problem solving

techniques• Contrast of contexts and scales to allow

individual creative development• Group working and interdisciplinarity to

promote divergent thinking

Conclusions & Future

• New paradigm to support creative divergence• Benefits more diverse and better fit of mind to

problem solving activity and creativity.• Application to other types and levels of

programme

Questions

REFERENCES

[1] Robinson K. Creatively Speaking: Apple education leadership summit 2008, San Francisco California, http://educationinnovation.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/12/ken-robinson.html.

[2] Houghton R. S. A Chaotic Paradigm: An Alternative World View of the Foundations for Educational Enquiry, Doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin- Madison, 1989.

[3] Glanville R. Variety in Design, Systems Research Vol. 11, No 3 1994.

[4] Robinson M. Classroom Control: Some Cybernetic Comments on the Possible and Impossible, Instructional Science, Vol. 8, 1979.

[5] Cross N. Natural Intelligence in Design, Design Studies, Vol. 20 January1999.

[6] Festinger L. A Theory Of Cognitive Dissonance. 1957 (Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson,)

[7] Rittel H. Dilemmas In A General Theory of Planning, Policy Sciences 4, 1973.

[8] Dorst K. and Reymen I. Levels of Expertise in Design Education, TU Delft, 2004.

[9] Kelley T. with Littman J. The Art of Innovation, 2001 (Profile Books).

[10] Conversation between Prof Jeremy Myerson and a new IDE student circa 2006.

[11] Sketch by student Elena Figus as part of ‘I am a brand’ workshop, IDE programme, Nov 2008.