The Art and Science of Impact: Unlocking Human Potential From a Dynamic Systems Perspective

• In Event: 81.026 - WITHDRAWN: Theories of Learning and Education Through the Looking Glass of Complexity

Abstract

We argue for a paradigm shift in the ways we think about unlocking human potential, one that sees content as fundamentally linked to practice, people as having rich potential, and technology as one component of an empowered ecosystem—all working in interaction to co-produce a learning occasion. Unfortunately, many approaches position learners as objects to be changed (problems to be solved) rather than as change agents (problem-solvers) themselves, treating learning as a deterministic act rather than a dynamic interaction with the emergence of motive being an essential catalytic event (Barab, Cherkes-Julkowski, Swenson et al., 1999).

Instead, we propose a perspective of learning that considers one’s motivation for learning as a key component of a complex learning ecosystem. While there are some problems that are amenable to “technological fixes” (Sarewitz & Nelson, 2008) in which the solution is bound up within the technology itself and the causal work it does on the human; for example, the use of antibiotics to fight an infection. However, even given the direct causal relationships of biochemistry, there is still wide variability in how individuals respond to the same treatment due to contextual factors and complex interactions involved in the successful administering of medication. These variations are even less predictable when designing interventions for complex issues like unlocking human potential where the interactions are complex and dynamic, often requiring the emergence of factors (e.g., ownership, motive, agency) not specified in the technology nor necessarily “active” unless triggered by the learning occasion.
It is here that complexity theory is essential to conceptualizing how one leverages innovation for impact. In this presentation, we draw from complexity theory to offer a complicated yet optimistic view of how we leverage innovation to help people grow. We start with a deep understanding of learner goals and the situations in which these are realized combined with an understanding of the dynamics of motive and the process of ecosystem integration for recruiting investment of self.

Our research focusses on platform solutions of empowered ecosystems (Barab & Arici, in press) that involve interpretive spaces where learners, technologies, and enabling resources synergistically produce solutions. These are complex systems in which components emerge through the dynamic interactions. We view complexity theory as essential to understanding how to focus innovation in order to connect consumers and producers who bring and create value—in contrast to linear cause-effect pipeline solutions that purport to disseminate value (Choudary, Van Alstyne, & Parker, 2016; Van Alstyne, Parker, & Choudary, 2016). A platform perspective, coupled with complexity theory, views “solutions” as emerging from multiple interacting components with the goal being to empower and catalyze dynamics (see Figure 1). In this way, we argue that innovations for impact should be conceptualized, designed, and researched as complex ecosystems—not isolated technologies. We close discussing data involving undergraduate learners using our latest platform designs to illuminate the challenges and success of establishing a system in which learner-owned motive can emerge.

Authors

• Sasha A. Barab, Arizona State University

• Anna Arici, Arizona State University

• Earl Aguilera, California State University - Fresno