Dissipative Structures: New Metaphors for Becoming in Education

Abstract

In today’s schools, turbulence is identified with disorder and disarray. A turbulent classroom would be seen as noisy, disorganized, and undesirable. Only recently in science has it been discovered that turbulence is also a source of order. New theories, based on the construct of “order through fluctuations,” have arisen and lead to new understanding of the emergence of creativity from turbulence both in the universe and in education. We capture this creativity in new metaphors for becoming in education.

The Role of Value Orientations in Curricular Decision Making: A Rationale for Teachers' Goals and Expectations

“…Dynamical systems or chaos theory (i.e., Crutchfield, Farmer, Packard, & Shaw, 1986) provides a framework for the definition and examination of critical components within complex, evolving environments, such as those associated with education (Cziko, 1989;Sawada & Caley, 1985). The theory offers rich models and metaphors to guide the conceptualization of components within highly interdependent ecosystems.…”

Competency, capability, complexity and computers: exploring a new model for conceptualising end‐user computer education

“…Complexity‐based educationalists (for example, Doll, 1989a, 1989b; Doll & Alcazar, 1998; Iannone, 1995; Sawada & Caley, 1985) see the contemporary focus on objectives and learning outcomes as representative of an obsession with domination, control and reductionism. When teachers and educational systems attempt to pre‐define and pre‐structure curriculum they are working against the very notions of emergence.…”

“…There is no notion of ‘being’ competent or ‘being’ capable, in a final sense. Rather, the concepts might be considered as matters of ‘becoming’ (Sawada & Caley, 1985). While it is possible to identify individuals who might be described as ‘capable’ or ‘competent’ (as occurred in our own research) such comments are not meant to imply that these individuals are in a ‘final’ or stagnant state of development, but rather, that they are moving along the path of growth.…”

Evolutionary Theory and the "New Sciences": Rekindling our imagination for transformation

“…She models this attitude of land-clearing. Only those teachers who have taken on the task of their own development can provide the guiding images and serve as the catalyst for the development for those who would go further (Sawada & Caley, 1985).…”