文档介绍：Chaos, Complexity and the study of munities
Rod Cunningham
Torfaen County Borough Council
Paper presented to the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, University of Leeds, 13-15 September 2001
Abstract
Theories of chaos plexity have achieved some ess in advancing the understanding of non-linear systems in the physical world. The three principal conditions for a chaotic system are; that it operates in a non-linear way, that it is iterative (the output of one cycle es the input of the next) and that small variations in initial conditions lead to large differences in es. Many systems within education appear to meet these conditions. This paper explores the possible usefulness of chaos plexity in an education context. It is hypothesised that some important events at pupil, class and school level may be understood within a chaos and plexity perspective. For example, cognitive dissonance at pupil level and the munity dealing with an adverse inspection report at school level. It is further hypothesised that chaos theory plexity may provide an alternative to the reductionist approach of some school effectiveness work on the one hand and the localism of qualitative case studies on the other. Complexity theory may provide a tool for tracing the emergence of anising principles from plexity of social interaction and have implications for the study of schools and munities.
Approaches to the study of munities
School Effectiveness Research is now a well-established discipline. The work is not without its critics. It is not the aim of this paper to engage in this debate. The paper does argue, however, that there are limits to the School Effectiveness Research [SER] paradigm due to the fact that insufficient account is taken of the dynamic nature of educational establishments. This is not to deny the importance of the work done within SER over the past 30 years but rather to point out that the underlying assumptions contained in much of this work may pla