A Pedagogical Approach to Complex Curricula

• In Event: Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: Praxising Complexity

Abstract

While the construction, or adoption, of a curriculum that lends itself to statistically producing "success" in data driven educational systems may have become a priority, the lack of attention to the "complexity in a particular environment ...[where] new properties and behaviours emerge that are not contained" can be problematic (Mason, 2008, p. 2). The purpose of this paper is to explore the intersections of knowledge-producing systems and the systems of knowledge produced , through the use of a pedagogical approach influenced by theories of Chaos and Complexity. Before an educator can understand how to influence the direction their students take in a curriculum, they must first realize that they have no real control in the path the students take. Complexity theory "argues against the linear, deterministic, predictable, positivist, universalizable, stable, atomized, objective, mechanistic, controlled, measurable, closed systems of law-like behaviour and simple causality." (Mason, 2008, p. 24). Therefore, the establishment of a curriculum that reduces the statistical deviation in content learned from the curriculum defies complex principles. However, a closer look at a pedagogical approach created from those same principles may provoke complexity. In an attempt to create structure in an unstructured mind, the "student content-predication" approach that this paper deals with creates convergence on curricular success.
In this paper, I draw broadly from Mason (2008); Morrison (2008); Warren, Franklin, & Streeter (1998); and Zadeh (1965) in order to think more deeply about complexity and chaos theories. In order to apply these theories to my own pedagogical model, I draw from Chowning (2009); Dewey (1938); Jacobson, Kapur, So, & Lee (2011); Mosely & Dustin (2008); Murphy (2011); and Sanger & Giddings (2012). More specifically, this paper draws from Vygotsky's notion of the zone of proximal development as a pedagogical approach as well as the Socratic Seminars approach described by Chowning (2009).
Curriculum, despite its multiplicity of intentions, is at least in some part dependent on the pedagogy designed in order to realize its aims. Yet, often pedagogical approaches fail to tend to the phenomenological occurrences that inevitably alter the planned curriculum. This paper suggests that certain aspects of chaos and complexity theory can be a useful tool for considering ongoing student experiences, along with shifting academic ability, in order to foster a strong positive correlation toward curriculum's academic goal. The challenges one faces in designing such a curriculum and fostering the necessary pedagogical relationship to attain it are difficult, yet the reward is significant.

Author

• Justin Joel Esparza