Emergent Learning: The Power of Complex Adaptive Systems in the Classroom

1. Emergent Learning: The Power of Complex Adaptive Systems in the Classroom by John P. Sullivan Boston College Lynch School of Education

2. Emergent Learning: The Power of Complex Adaptive Systems in the Classroom Underlying World View • The world is not as simple as we wish it was • Poking a dog (Davis & Sumara, 2006) • Nature abhors simplicity • Dissection kills

3. Emergent Learning: The Power of Complex Adaptive Systems in the Classroom Underlying World View • School = students in groups • Few study the learning dynamics of groups • Why not consider the class as the unit of learning? • Is it possible that a class could sometimes • generate new knowledge in addition to receiving • it from experts?

4. Emergent Learning: The Power of Complex Adaptive Systems in the Classroom A CAS Definition for Classroom Studies • Well-networked collective of agents • Nonlinear dynamics • Bounded • Synergistic (Emergent)

5. Emergent Learning: The Power of Complex Adaptive Systems in the Classroom • Bottom-up emergent How was this definition derived? • Bifurcations / change • Ambiguously bounded • Organizationally closed Davis & Sumara (2006) Clarke & Collins (2007) • Self-regulating • Strange Attractors Carr-Chellman (2000) • Self-organized • Short-range relationships • Nested structure • Far from equilibrium • Feedback loops • Disequilibrium • Networked (not hierarchal) structures • Self-organizing • Fractal • Perturbation • Butterfly Effect • Entropy • Self-organization • Dissipation of hierarchies

6. Emergent Learning: The Power of Complex Adaptive Systems in the Classroom Synergistic Bounded Well-networked Nonlinear

7. Emergent Learning: The Power of Complex Adaptive Systems in the Classroom Purpose • Investigate the extent to which each of three • classes demonstrated the properties of complex • adaptive systems, most especially emergent • learning. • Determine if these properties could be found in • classes not designed with complexity theory in • mind

8. Emergent Learning: The Power of Complex Adaptive Systems in the Classroom Research Questions Were these classes complex adaptive systems? If so, what factors came into play? To what degree did each class manifest the properties of complex adaptive systems? Did this create a continuum of complexity? Could emergent learning be found in any of these classes? To what extent?

9. Emergent Learning: The Power of Complex Adaptive Systems in the Classroom Design of this study • Collaborative case study (Stake, 2000) • Cases chosen by self-declared pedagogical styles of teachers • and, in one case, the presumption of theorists that the • subject matter would encourage complexity. • Jazz-Rock Ensemble (a select group of musicians) • English I (taken by all freshmen) • Geometry (taken by all sophomores who didn’t take it as freshmen)

10. Emergent Learning: The Power of Complex Adaptive Systems in the Classroom About Metropolitan Catholic High School • Catholic Jesuit school • Privately owned by a board of trustees • Grades 7-12, but 7&8 operated as a separate division • All male student body • Academically selective • Located in a large Eastern US city, but draws students • from the surrounding suburbs in large numbers • Total student population about 1500

11. Emergent Learning: The Power of Complex Adaptive Systems in the Classroom Method

12. Emergent Learning: The Power of Complex Adaptive Systems in the Classroom Analysis • Combination of deductive (a priori) and inductive • (grounded) approaches • A priori codes were derived from my definition of complex • adaptive systems and its descriptors. • Repeated examination of the data revealed that the • a priori codes were sufficient to describe the phenomena • in these classes

13. Emergent Learning: The Power of Complex Adaptive Systems in the Classroom Analysis A priori codes Well Networked Agency Short-Range Relationships Nested / Fractal Networking Nonlinear Systems Far From Equilibrium (Edge of Chaos) Feedback Loops The Butterfly Effect Bounded Synergistic Emergent Learning

14. Emergent Learning: The Power of Complex Adaptive Systems in the Classroom Findings Boundaries . Networking . . Nonlinearity .Synergy

15. Emergent Learning: The Power of Complex Adaptive Systems in the Classroom Fostering Emergence Emergent Learning Learning Bounded Bounded Bounded Well-networked Well-networked Well-networked Nonlinear Nonlinear Nonlinear

16. Emergent Learning: The Power of Complex Adaptive Systems in the Classroom Amount and quality of time spent in the synergistic zone where cognitive dissonance is maintained. Emergence and Educational Goals

17. Emergent Learning: The Power of Complex Adaptive Systems in the Classroom Summary • Groups of students need NOT be restricted to receiving • knowledge • Under the right circumstances, they can generate new • knowledge • This acknowledgement is only useful if the goal of the class • is higher-level cognitive learning. • There is no prescription available for emergent learning, • only mindfulness of the balance among networking, • nonlinearity, and appropriate boundaries

18. Emergent Learning: The Power of Complex Adaptive Systems in the Classroom References Anderson, L.W. (2005). Objectives, evaluation and the improvement of education. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 31(1), 102-113. Carr-Chellman, A. (2000). The new sciences and systemic change in education. Educational Technology, 40(1), 28-37. Clarke, A., & Collins, S. (2007). Complexity science and student teacher supervision. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23(2), 160-172. Conn, C. (2008). Nirvana di novo. Accessed December 10, 2008 at http://www.fractalfactory.com/thumbnails/056.jpg Davis, B. & Sumara, D. (2006). Complexity and education: Inquiries into learning, teaching, and research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Stake, R. (2000). Case studies. In N.K. Denzin & Y.H. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd. ed., pp. 435-454). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.