Publish at January 22 2018 Updated May 13 2026
Digital technology should simplify the development of knowledge. Multimedia, enriched content and increased access to online resources would make learning easier. In information-rich environments, everyone would find the material to develop their own knowledge.
But the world of education is made up of "normative constraints" (objectives, curricula, regulated places and times of learning, etc.), while at the same time, digital possibilities exacerbate the possibility of imagining new forms of "creative constraints" (challenge, decided impoverishment of resources, different places, change of framework).
And what if resource-poor environments were stimulating and, above all, creative? A number of examples show how ingenious and creative we can become with the help of creative constraints.
These examples are inspiring new pedagogical practices that incorporate a degree of bricolage into the way resources are arranged for teaching and learning. But how do we move from normative constraints to creative constraints? Let's start by clarifying what normative constraints in pedagogy are, and then explore some ideas for creative constraints.
The constrained student
There's a belief that students can make an effort, and that if they work harder, they'll get results. According toBruno Hourst's analysis, this preconceived notion takes little account of the way our brains function and their specialization in logical or emotional areas. Consciously engaged effort would only solicit logical areas.
This effort would be shunned or resisted by students uncomfortable with this type of exclusively rationality-based approach. Worse still, a logical injunction that makes students uncomfortable could provoke stress and inhibit any motivation to learn. The effort required moves away from an effort that engages a reward circuit to become a constraining effort devoid of meaning.
Reconciling the effort required to learn with the desire to make that effort requires concrete actions whose meaning is perceptible.
Education under duress
The extreme of this situation exists. This is education under constraint, as in the case of closed centers, where paradoxically the aim is to teach children controlled freedom. Is it possible to educate and teach someone who doesn't want to learn? What kind of subjugation project is in question, that of becoming a subject in one's own right, or of becoming the subject of another? What are the ethics of the educator, the teacher, the trainer, when their very mission is to put the learner in the fold of the school, center or organization?
Philosopher François Housset recalls three figures of authority: the magister, the dominus and the genius.
The master is authoritative because he is admirable. The relaxation of tutelage is as progressive as authority is introjected. There's no need for a master when the parent, guide, tutor, peers and learning companions have become internal psychological referents. Constraint is then freely consented to.
Restraint, repression and unlimited stigmatization can produce social catastrophes. For Alice Miller (1984), it was these coercive educational practices in the 19th century that produced the seeds of nationalism and Nazism. The hidden violence of normative constraints could wreak havoc. Love is better than suffering, but only insofar as it condemns us to exercise our freedom. But is constraint only a nuisance to education? There are cases in point that encourage creativity...
Examples of rarities that stimulate us
Arte povera is an approach born in Italy in the 60s to combat consumer society. It aims to make insignificant objects meaningful. By recuperating and diverting the detritus of consumer society, this art form offers new nomadic and elusive artistic gestures. Ephemeral works imagined with inexpensive materials defy appropriation.
Countries like India or continents like Africa know how to create objects or uses adapted to the scarcity of materials. Jugaad innovation is all about resourcefulness and "system D", a source of frugal and sustainable innovation that is useful in everyday life. (An essay on Jugaad innovation in pedagogy through detour: the subjective trainer). The principles of Jugaad are as follows:
Why not imagine, in pedagogy, modifying the learning environment, simplifying it, forcing a rearrangement to create a difficulty to be overcome? In the same way that Arte Povera makes us re-evaluate the conditions of creation, or that scarce resources lead us to look more carefully at those we have, is it possible to stimulate learning with new meaning by restricting our possibilities?
Pedagogical constraints
Pedagogy also knows how to imagine constraints on learning. Smurtz's courses, for example, aim to create original content and new approaches by hybridizing disciplines.
The principle is simple: in a team of teachers, they invent new courses by combining subjects that shouldn't necessarily meet, such as mathematics and poetry, or languages and sport. The benefit is a decompartmentalization of learning. This constraint forces teachers who play the game to rethink their lessons and break with routine.
Asking secondary school art students to put down their markers, brushes, sheets of paper, notebooks and all their art supplies, then challenging them to create a work of art from what's left in the space, is a powerful creative stimulus. The students' bodies become sculptures, the reflections of light become backdrops, cell phones become cameras, capturing the moment. It's an exploration of one's imagination, of the thousand ways of expressing a poetic gesture that is conquered by each participant.
Forcing a group of executives to come up with solutions in a very limited timeframe, to enable them to work together quickly as a team, or to communicate harmoniously, removes some of the obstacles. Excess time could have been quickly taken up by long, useless chatter. Less time means you can think faster. A quick online search can also provide ideas for testing.
Proposing exercises without the use of sight, in the dark, forces you to mobilize your other senses. What is initially perceived as a constraint turns out to be a trigger. Something doesn't go as planned, and you have to put it right. Everyone learns differently, from their own awareness of the situation. Or why not create a mini-course with tutorials?
Removing all paper, whiteboards and flipcharts from a classroom equipped with an interactive whiteboard (IWB) is an incentive to decipher the equipment's instructions for use and adopt new approaches. Without this restriction, would it have been so easy to embrace the new?
It's impossible to conclude without mentioning the work of the Palo Alto School on the double constraint. At the same time, pupils and learners are asked to follow an imposed path, and to make this path the path of their own construction: "Be autumn", they are told, but within a completely organized framework.
The school's paradoxical injunction to learn how to become a man who thinks for himself, while everything is ordered, leads learners to make choices. It is precisely this tension between normative and creative constraints that compels the individual to make up his or her own mind.
In this hypothesis, school would not be the much-criticized mind-forming machine, but a place where personal equilibriums begin to take shape. Perrenoud reminds us that learning does not come without effort, and that this effort is sustained by the desire to learn, which must be nurtured and persevered. It's interesting, then, for educators, teachers and trainers to strike a balance between standards and creativity, so as to offer enough dilemmas for learners to grapple with and learn to discern.
Sources :
Center Georges Pompidou - Arte posera dossier pédagogique- https://www.centrepompidou.fr/fr/recherche?terms=arte%20povera
Alternatives économiques - L'innovation Jugaad - Redevenons ingénieux https://www.alternatives-economiques.fr/linnovation-jugaad-redevenons-ingenieux/00047157
Educavox - Le formateur subjectif un essai d' innovation Jugaad https://www.educavox.fr/innovation/pedagogie/le-formateur-subjectif-un-essai-d-innovation-jugaad
Smurtz courses http://blog.educpros.fr/jean-charles-cailliez/tag/cours-de-smurtz/
François Housset - L'éducation sous contraintes http://philovive.fr/?2008/06/02/124-l-education-sous-contrainte
Miller, A. (1984). C'est pour ton bien. Paris, Aubier, 2.
Bruno Hourst - Apprendre dois faire des efforts http://www.apprendreaapprendre.com/reussite_scolaire/bruno-hourst-apprendre/
Wikipedia - double bind - https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_contrainte
Radjou, N., Prabhu, J., Polman, P., & Mulliez, V. (2015). Frugal innovation: how to do better with less. Diateino.- http://coop-group.org/synergiser/wakka.php?wiki=BibliothequePorteurProjet/download&file=Linnovation_jugaad.pdf
What is learning? Perrenoud https://www.unige.ch/fapse/SSE/teachers/perrenoud/php_main/php_2004/2004_08.htmlde
Palo Alto School http://www.systemique.com/la-systemique/ecoles-de-pensee/les-sources/ecole-de-palo-alto-quels-apports.html
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