Chase Young, Ph.D.

Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi

Chaos Theory in Education: Assuming an Epistemology of Emergence

Turn Back Now, DeterministsLearning is dependent on teaching, but what the students learn is unpredictable (Davis & Sumara, 2007).

Theoretical Framework

Holland, J. (1992). Complex adaptive systems. Daedalus 121 (1), 17-30.

Trygestad, J. (1997). Chaos in the classroom: An application of chaos theory. Chicago, IL.

Cziko, G. (1989). Unpredictability and indeterminism in human behavior: Arguments and implications for educational research. Educational Researcher, 18(3), 17-25.

Politically Speaking,PostmodernistsDespite complexivists’ warnings, empirical research is still being conducted linearly and some teachers still employ linear models of teaching. The hierarchy still exalts linear thinking.

Caine, R., & Geoffrey Caine. (1997.) Education on the edge of possibility. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (2006). Complexity and education: Inquiries into learning, teaching, and research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Conceptual FrameworkOsberg, Deborah, Gert Biesta, and Paul Cilliers. 2008. From representation to emergence: Complexity's challenge to the epistemology of schooling. Educational Philosophy and Theory 40, (1) (02/01): 213-27.

Shift in Thinking

“Teachers should strive to inhabit the zone between order and chaos—this is where the intense learning occurs (Caine & Caine, 1997; Oekerman, 1997)

APPLICATION OF COMPLEXITY AND READING

Francis, N. (2004). Nonlinear processing as a comprehension strategy: A proposed typology for the study of bilingual children's self-corrections of oral reading miscues. Language Awareness 13(1), 17-33.

Robinson, R., & Yaden, D. (1993). Chaos or nonlinear dynamics: Implications for reading research. Reading Research and Instruction 32(4), 15-23.

Roehler, L. (1991). Embracing the instructional complexities of reading instruction. research series no. 208. Michigan State University: MI.: East Lansing Inst for Research on Teaching.

Southerland, C. 2008. Capturing complexity: A complementary methods study of early readers' fluency and comprehension development. Ph.D., Texas Woman's University.

Emergence New epistemology that can be applied to unlock the mystery of the teachable moment.

Perfectly disorganized information reorganizes to create a new thought (Eoyang, 1997).

M.I.E.Derived from nonlinear dynamics?

chase.young@tamucc.edu - www.thebestclass.org

Thank you.