VIRTUAL: Applying Education
Abstract
Complexity theory has been increasingly applied to the study of teaching and learning. In particular, the application of complexity theory to education has provided a rich conceptualization to help make sense of the interactions and behaviors of both teachers and students in classrooms. Bill Doll, a curriculum theorist, proposed complexity as one of the perspectives to engage in educational discourse. His 5 C’s framework (complexity, currere, cosmology conversation, and community) present a pedagogical experimentalism through dialogical encounter with one another. I adopt Doll’s framework and his proposed posture of inquiry, to reflect an orientation towards curiosity, openness, and the willingness to take risks in teaching and learning. Given the complexity of the educational landscape and the evidence that many teachers do not have a praxis of inquiry, how might we go about fostering this pedagogical approach? In this paper, I explore how complexity thinking may open up new ways of viewing and analyzing complex educational issues. In particular, I share how a network of interdisciplinary actants within design, architecture, science and technology, have informed the complexification of my own teaching.
Yu-Ling Lee is Director of the School of Education Graduate Programs and Assistant Professor of Education at Trinity Western University in Langley, Canada.