Cognition, Complexity, and Teacher Education

Abstract

Drawing on recent developments in complexity theory, ecology, and hermeneutics, Brent Davis and Dennis Sumara present an "enactivist" model of cognition and contrast it to popular notions of what it means to learn and think that pervade formal education. They illustrate their model by drawing from their experiences during a year-long study in a small, inner-city elementary school. According to this model, cognition does not occur in individual minds or brains, but in the possibility for shared action. An enactivist theory of cognition, the authors suggest, requires teachers and teacher educators to reconceive the practice of teaching by blurring the lines between knower and known, teacher and student, school and community.

Cognition and Misrecognition: A Bourdieuian Analysis of Cognitive Strategy Instruction in a Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Classroom

“…They highlight a shift in think aloud research "away from attempts to capture the traces of processing in an individual's working memory and toward efforts to track the thinking revealed in the course of constructing meaning in social context" (p. 29, italics added). However, while this shift rejects mind-as-computer metaphors (Davis & Sumara, 2007) and views text processing as occurring across the domains of text, reader, and context, it continues to situate these domains as separate entities with the reader as an independent or fully autonomous cognizing agent (Davis & Sumara, 1997). Thinking is "revealed" and the reader is contained within a context rather than being an integral part of a complex network of social relations.…”

The coherence of enactivism and mathematics education research: A case study

“…Davis and colleagues (Davis & Sumara 1997Davis & Simmt 2003) use complexity theory to extend enactivism to social systems, as well as other complex systems.…”

Design patterns for complex learning

“…A learner encountering an unfamiliar topic or a new search engine will still recognise the problem description in 'Go Berrypicking', but their specific activity will be influenced by their lack of experience. Implementing the pattern requires the 'learner as designer' to 'engage' (Davis & Sumara, 1997a) with the pattern, and to interpret the pedagogic descriptions to their own needs in ways that are not predictable. As the learner retrieves search results and finds potential ideas and new directions, the nature of their query changes, as do subsequent searches.…”

“…A learner must concurrently attend to all levels at which it occurs: individually, in the school or workplace, the knowledge domain, the larger society, or the biosphere (Davis & Sumara, 1997a). Patterns reflect this organisation.…”