Prediction, control and the challenge to complexity

Radford, Mike

doi:10.1080/03054980701772636

Cited by 36 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…They create discrepancies between what is and what could or will be, which represent gradients and gaps in information and understanding among learners that result in a need to know, to act. Feedback and reflection function as non‐linear recursive loops that promote conditions favourable to self‐organisation 7,13,26,29 …”

Section: Self‐organisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Complicated systems tend to be understood in terms of measurable variables that remain relatively stable in terms of strength and patterns of interaction. In complex systems, the influence of the particular factors is variable according to the relationships that they enjoy with others at any moment in time… Within the context of interaction between the elements new variables or characteristics may emerge that cannot be accounted for within the context of the interacting components but only in that of the interactive process itself.’ 13 Research in medical education often seeks unsuccessfully to reduce complex systems to their component parts, searching for regular and predictable patterns of interaction. The study and comparison of curriculum interventions such as PBL has ‘invariably confounded attempts to seek cause–effect relationships, and simple experimental strategies like randomisation will hardly remedy the situation’ 68 .…”

Section: Complexity and Research In Medical Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…How we respond to and frame the issues of learning and understanding that challenge contemporary medicine 19 and, by extension, medical education, in a complex and rapidly changing world will have profound effects on the preparedness of tomorrow’s health professionals and their impact on society. Complexity science contributes to an explanation of and insight into the process of adaptation to changing circumstances at the macro level of medical school curricula and at the meso and micro levels of teaching and learning 13,20–23 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Self-organisation, integration and curriculum in the complex world of medical education

2010

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The core process of complexity, self-organisation, requires a system that is open and far from equilibrium, with ill-defined boundaries and a large number of non-linear interactions involving short-loop feedback. In such a system, knowledge does not exist objectively 'out there'; rather, it exists as a result of the exchange between participants, an action that becomes knowing. Understanding is placed between participants rather than being contained in one or the other. Knowledge is not constructed separately in the mind of the knower, but, rather, it emerges; it is co-created during the exchange in an authentic recursive transactive process. Learning and knowing become adaptive responses to continuously evolving circumstances. An approach to curriculum based on self-organisation is characterised as rich, recursive, relational and rigorous and it illuminates how a curriculum can be understood as a complex adaptive system. The perspective of complexity applied to medical education broadens and enriches research questions relevant to health professions education. It focuses our attention onto how we are together as human beings. How we respond to and frame the issues of learning and understanding that challenge contemporary medicine and, by extension, medical education, in a complex and rapidly changing world can have profound effects on the preparedness of tomorrow's health professionals and their impact on society.

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Section: Self‐organisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Complexity and Research In Medical Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Self-organisation, integration and curriculum in the complex world of medical education

2010

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“…We argue that this is only problematic if viewed from a realist stance, as if in some way masking the 'truth'. Countering from a constructivist stance, we argue that multiple truths exist in individual school contexts, and that these are both unique and, potentially, complex (Radford, 2008) or chaotic (Ouston, 1999). The apparent 'logical chain' between institutional goals and outcomes (Ofsted, 2006) perhaps also has to embrace the challenge of more sustained and individualistic development where the gains cannot always be predicted.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

School culture and postgraduate professional development: delineating the ‘Enabling School’

Arthur

Marland

Pill

et al. 2010

Professional Development in Education

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The culture of the 'enabling school' is investigated within the context of the government's policy of continuing professional development and postgraduate professional development for teachers in England. This context is problematised by considering teachers' conceptualisations of their professional autonomy, status and personal expertise. A small purposive sample of schools and colleges provided the case studies for this research. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers and continuing professional development leaders in each of four institutions. Cultures that delineate the enabling school-the leader/led culture, the mentoring/coaching culture, the collegial culture and the practical imperative culture-are identified and discussed. The research was made possible by a grant from ESCalate.

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“…This is apparent in a range of positions that otherwise have different commitments, including complexity and chaos theory, post‐structuralism and ethnomethodology. For example, complexity and chaos theorists argue that many, perhaps all, outcomes in the social world are the product of contingent causal interplays, and are so sensitive to subtle changes that social scientific accounts cannot plausibly move beyond particular, local accounts (cf Cilliers, 1998; Radford, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Questioning Contingency in Social Life: Roles, Agreement and Agency

Kemp

Holmwood

2012

J Theory Soc Behav

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Structure/agency theories presuppose that there is a unity to structure that distinguishes it from the (potential) diversity of agents' responses. In doing so they formally divide the robust social processes shaping the social world (structure) from contingent agential variation (agency). In this article we question this division by critically evaluating its application to the concept of role in critical realism and structural functionalism. We argue that Archer, Elder‐Vass and Parsons all mistakenly understand a role to have a singular structural definition which agents may then diverge from. Drawing on the work of Gross, Mason and McEachern we argue instead that if agents diverge in their conceptions of what role incumbents should do, there is no single role definition, but rather a range of diverse role‐expectations. Acknowledging this can help us to understand variation in role behaviour, with different incumbents potentially being more exposed to some expectations than others. We argue that considering roles in this way can extend the ability of social scientists to identify robust social processes shaping role behaviour and decrease the extent to which they need to call on contingent factors in such explanations.

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Prediction, control and the challenge to complexity

Cited by 36 publications

References 14 publications

Self-organisation, integration and curriculum in the complex world of medical education

Self-organisation, integration and curriculum in the complex world of medical education

School culture and postgraduate professional development: delineating the ‘Enabling School’

Questioning Contingency in Social Life: Roles, Agreement and Agency

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