Exploring chaos: Can chaos theory inform the curriculum?

• Main Author: Kahn, Robert Emanuel
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Subjects: bilingual education; curriculum development; science history
• ISBN: 9780591972252; 0591972255

This dissertation develops a theory of practice for nonlinear learning, linking four narratives with curriculum studies and interdisciplinary research. The initial personal narrative distinguishes chaos from chaos theory, clarifying the processes by which order emerges from disorder or is hidden within disorder. Chapter 1 proposes a distinction between uncontrolled chaos and deterministic chaos to establish an accurate vocabulary. The research question is: If learning is a "chaotic process," (1) can understanding this process help to develop an instructional strategy for the improvement of teaching; and (2) can this "chaotic process" influence both the planning and implementation of educational research?
The second historical and philosophical narrative sets out pre-modern (i.e., Taoist, Babylonian, Hebraic and Greek) understandings of chaos, modern understandings of chaos, and the post-modern development of chaos theory beginning with the work of Poincare. Chapter 2 considers how chaos theory was applied by Lorenz to weather forecasting, and by May to population biology. The chapter then focuses on the popularization of chaos theory, its limitations, and the limits of science itself, in the light of mathematical uncertainty as expressed in the debate between Born and Einstein about the significance of determinism.
The third contemporary narrative presents an illustrative case study in an English Second Language classroom conceived as an educational open system. Chapter 3 identifies five characteristics of chaos theory as an explanatory pattern: in the midst of (1) indeterminacy, (2) a recursive pattern often develops, in which (3) initial conditions are highly significant, (4) attractors are identified, and (5) emergence to new far-from-equilibrium states (or transformation) occurs. The chapter concludes with an educational matrix that applies Doll's understanding of the curriculum.
The final narrative searches for patterns, drawing together the implications of chaos theory for learning, teaching and educational research. Chapter 4 develops a topology of learning, links Hamiltonian phase space to learning, and extends Piaget's research on three implications of meaning: (1) local, (2) systemic, and (3) structural. Active teachers as reflective agents should take risks to permit learning alternatives to emerge. Exploring chaos changes instructional strategies and educational research.