We are curious about this experience of learning. Why, we wonder, is this joy so powerful and becomes an experience that has a deep impact? A feeling that can't be unfelt.
Further, we wonder about the impact of this experience as it relates to how we think of new learning environments for our students that can unleash this hidden potential as creative learners.
Let's wander for a moment outside of education into biology for some insight. In particular, let's peer into the emerging field of creative systems theory.
Creative systems theory illuminates that systems that are living, growing, and creating are ones where each element in that system is creating not only for the larger system but also for itself. For this reason, these systems are called 'autopoietic' which means 'self-creating'.
Look around, the entire natural world is autopoietic. The tree grows for itself, but in the forest, it becomes a part of a larger system that supports the growth of all that is around it.
It was two Chilean biologists who coined the term 'autopoiesis'. Their insight has had a profound impact, allowing us to recognize that systems that are alive and growing have this 'self-creating' nature.
Production systems, at the foundation of an industrial economy, are not autopoietic. They are, instead, artificial, engineered through a logical analytical process. They are 'allopoietic' – 'other-creating'.
Think of the factory worker on the production line of a car manufacturer. The worker is not creating something that is who they are, they are creating something other than themselves, something for the company they work for.
The creative economy, that which we are rushing headlong into, is autopoietic in nature, empowered by new computer technologies and inspires by the creative passions of its participants. We see evidence of this everywhere.
Let us be bold and state clearly: our current education system was developed to produce compliant workers for an industrial economy. It’s allopoietic, teaching students what the system wants them to know.
The time has come for us to transform our education to develop the empowered talent needed for a creative economy.
We must move then, from a system based on 'allopoietic learning', where students are taught a standardized set of knowledge defined by others to Autopoietic Learning where students learn in ways that have personal purpose and meaning in learning communities that are life-giving.
The core skills found in our standards are essential but not sufficient. We must empower each student to be able to answer the 'Why' question for themselves. Why are they learning what they are learning? If we don't we are failing to empower them as creative learners. If we can, the learning will come alive with purpose and meaning, learning that is deep, joyful, and impactful.
Learning that allows learners to learn through and beyond the curriculum, achieving new levels of academic achievement.
Next: Appreciating Friston
DOT FROM preview-next-diagram