Teaching As Chaos

Moseley, Bryan and Daniel Dustin.

College Teaching Summer 2008
140-142

General: More specific manifestations of chaos in academia; mentoring

140
dichotomy of teaching as art of science is false
“Consequently, the key to better understanding the teaching-learning process lies
not in selecting between these two incomplete views of higher education, but
rather in providing a metaphor that incorporates the essence of both within a
more nuanced perspective on the art and science of teaching.”

discussion on the value of metaphor in understanding overwhlemingly complex

systems; cites Lakoff and Nunez 2000

“One of the biggest problems professors have in gauging their own

teaching effectiveness lies in differentiating between these metaphors
of excellence, accountability, objectivity and personal connection that
make learning possible. We argue that chaos theory provides the
metaphor of choice, because it offers a better way for professors to
understand their teaching effectiveness without dismissing the inherent
complexity of teaching or learning. Chaos theory suggests that the
teaching-learning process is inherently fluid with unpredictable results
occurring along the way” (Moseley and Dustin140-141).

141
systems are complex, and order emerges, but when and how the order emerges is
not predictable

“In the context of university classrooms, the chaos metaphor is a way of

understanding the volumes of information we are faced with in our
courses with so many individuals, so many complicated interactions, and
so many differences in background, knowledge, and experience.”

“The paradox of learning is that a student may not realize the utility of
an idea until she or e fully understands the idea. This may take years
with highly complex content that can require experiences far beyond the
score of a single course to provide the conceptual foundation for
understanding.”

142
Mentorship may be a means to deal with issues raised by the chaos of learning

Ss rarely look for/at underlying concepts of problems

Using chaos as metaphor for teaching:

keeps study of learning in scientific realm
suggest small difference in teachers, learners, place, etc. can create large
differences in learning
third, study of recursive patterns may reveal insights in interactions between Ss
an Ts
fourth, if this chaos really exists, what is the meaningful unit of analysis

“Chaos theory teaches us that if patterns of learning are recursive, then

the same issues must play out at differing levels of importance to the
class. Smaller to larger thoughts develop into comments, and comments
are then applied to exercises that in turn are built into more in-depth
projects. A misconception or wonderful insight that exists at one level
of specificity is likely to appear at another level and another, leading to a
much larger misconception or wonderful insight.”