The Problem of Linear Thinking in Research on Teacher Learning: Can Complexity Theories Help?

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Some scholars who study teachers’ professional learning and/or teacher education have concluded that what is needed is research that eschews process-product type, linear logic and methods and instead conceptualizes teachers’ learning in terms of intersecting complex systems that are more than the sum of their parts (Davis & Sumara, 2006; Opfer & Pedder, 2011). Along these lines, some researchers have taken up complexity theories and/or have integrated complexity theories with other theoretical perspectives that preserve complexity in order to generate new research frameworks for teachers’ professional learning. Drawing on empirical studies, data simulations, and/or conceptual analyses, the papers in this session examine the promises and pitfalls involved in working with complexity theory and/or linking complexity theory to other theoretical perspectives.

Sub Unit

• Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education / Section 8: Teacher Professional Development: Impact on Teacher Practices and Student Learning

Chair

• Alan J. Daly, University of California - San Diego

Papers

• Complexity Theory and Critical Realism: A New Framework for Teacher Education Research - Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Boston College; Fiona Ruth Ell, University of Auckland; Lexie Barbara Grudnoff, The University of Auckland; Larry H. Ludlow, Boston College; Mavis Haigh, The University of Auckland; Mary F. Hill, University of Auckland

• Combining Complexity Theory, Ecological Systems Design, and Teacher Identity to Study Teacher Learning - Brad Olsen, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Using an Agent-Based Model to Understand Complex Patterns of Teacher Professional Development - V. Darleen Opfer, RAND Education

• Teaching as Rhizomatic Activity: Negotiating Learning and Practice in the First Year of Teaching - Kathryn Jill Strom, WestEd

Discussant

• Alan J. Daly, University of California - San Diego