Complex Systems in Education:

Conceptual Principles, Methodologies, and Implications for Research in the Learning Sciences Complex individual agents in system look at rules that define interaction with each other and at the environment they are in, sometimes those rules are very simple, what seems to make it complex at macro level (emergent properties)... Michael Jacobson Challenge: Updating Education, 2nd Revolution in Education Before Education Cognition and Learnability -can students learn complex systems Just Plain Folks & Experts notes: Pushing the theoretical and research how people learn... fostering far transfer of knowledge Paolo NorthWestern http://ccl.northwestern.edu Argument for widespread adoption of complex0-systems perspectives and methods in the field of education - to reformulate ed experience/content agent-based modeling James provided me following definition via Skype "In agent-based modeling (ABM), a system is modeled as a collection of autonomous decision-making entities called agents. Each agent individually assesses its situation and makes decisions on the basis of a set of rules. Agents may execute various behaviors appropriate for the system they represent—for example, producing, consuming, or selling. Repetitive competitive interactions between agents are a feature of agent-based modeling, which relies on the power of computers to explore dynamics out of the reach of pure mathematical methods (1, 2). At the simplest level, an agent-based model consists of a system of agents and the relationships between them. Even a simple agent-based model can exhibit complex behavior patterns (3) and provide valuable information about the dynamics of the real-world system that it emulates. In addition, agents may be capable of evolving, allowing unanticipated behaviors to emerge. Sophisticated ABM sometimes incorporates neural networks, evolutionary algorithms, or other learning techniques to allow realistic learning and adaptation. agent as entity variables ... Affordances of agent-based modeling modeling vs. equational modeling 4 areas ripe for picking School Content -each model has list of agents and emergent ? NetLogo Connected Chemistry EconLab ProbLab MaterialSim BEAGLE NIELS Educational Policyschool change/choice Cocial Learning Cognition Grounded Idealization..Goldstone Systems that look different may instantiate the same deep principle if cognition is tied to perceiving and interacting with particular scenarios, then how can we hoepe to have transfer from one scenario to another that looks so different from another? i.e. different systems, same diffusion-limited aggregation How can transfer be fostered across simulation Formalism-based Transfer Interpretation of grounded situations -case studies -online interpretation of simulation elements -perception+interpretation -perceptual learning Figurative descriptions of similarity using space vs. literal and concrete use of space...Pattern Learn When does transfer occur and not occur? Conclusion -Just because something is perceptual does not make it superficial -Grounding principles and education