Emerging Learning EnvironmentsComplex Adaptive Systems andScales of Resilience

Transitions 19: One journey, many pathwaysILETC03 October 2019

Qusai AnteetBArch & Bldg. Sc., MArch.

PhD CandidateFaculty of Architecture, Building & PlanningThe University of MelbourneSupervised by Dr Ben Cleveland and Prof Kim Dovey

Research framework

CLASSROOM

OLD?Image by author

CLASSROOM

https://www.tbc.sa/en/Gallery.aspx

NEW?Tatweer (2018)

Dewey’s laboratory school - Late 19th century

LARGE SCALE MOVEMENTS IN SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE

Source: Tanner & Lackney (2006)

Open plan concept by C. William BrubakerDisney School (1960s)

What can be learned?

COMPLEX ALIGNMENT

Do ‘we shape our buildings and afterwards they shape us’?(Churchill, 1944)

EducationPolicy

LearningEnvironments

?

Des

ign

proc

ess

COMPLEXITY THEORY

Complex Systems

EducationPolicy

LearningEnvironments

System System

COMPLEXITY THEORY

- Comprehensive and a non-linear (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2018).

- System components are dynamic actors - emergent behaviour (Heylighen, 2008).

- Relationships between humans and non-humans (Fenwick, Edwards, & Sawchuk, 2011).

- A transdisciplinary approach (Davis & Sumara, 2006).

How actors interact?

EducationPolicy

LearningEnvironments

System System

COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS

- Self-adaptive systems (Heylighen, 2008).

- Adapt to internal and external changes (Heylighen, 2008).

- Positive and negative feedback loops (Law & Urry, 2004).

EducationPolicy

LearningEnvironments

Independent systems

Different scales

How do multi-scalar complex adaptive systems interact?

?

System System

- Complex systems inform each other.

- Complex adaptive systems need to be analysed concurrently rather than separately to

understand system changes (Walker & Salt, 2006).

EducationPolicy

LearningEnvironments

RESILIENCE THINKING

Internal changes

RESILIENCE THINKING

Actors:Physical environment.Classroom structure (organisation).Culture.Milieu.

Internal changes - crossing a threshold

Based on Owens & Valesky (2007) and the adaptation of Gislason (2010)

Learning Environment

(Based on Gunderson & Holling, 2002; Walker & Salt, 2006)

Complex Adaptive System

How does the system change externally?

Teacher-centred

Student-centred

The ability to resist before crossing a threshold (Walker & Salt, 2006).

RESILIENCE THINKING

(Based on Gunderson, 2000; Laboy & Fannon, 2016; Scheffer, Hosper, Meijer, Moss, & Jeppesen, 1993)

Complex Adaptive System

Disturbances (key slow variables)

System movement

Context (Domain)

‘Engineering resilience’

Time

The solution for the large-scale educational changes is not immediate, but it is through

improving the structures surrounding the issue and observing the outcomes (Elmore, 1996).

‘Ecological resilience’

Time

‘Adaptive resilience’

Time

External changes – crossing a threshold

How does the system change as part of other complex systems?

RESILIENCE THINKINGPanarchy (Scales)

Long/slow cyclesShort/rapid cycles

Local Education

RG

C

R

Re

School

RG

C

R

Re

Learning Environment

RG

C

R

Re

Remember

Revolt

Remember

Revolt

Remember

Revolt

Large scale

Small scale

Global Education

Decision-making &

educational change context

Spatial and sociomaterial

context

Anteet (2019) - (Based on Gunderson & Holling, 2002; Walker & Salt, 2006)

Long/slow cyclesShort/rapid cycles

Local Education

RG

C

R

Re

School

RG

C

R

Re

Learning Environment

RG

C

R

Re

Remember

Revolt

Remember

Revolt

Remember

Revolt

Large scale

Small scale

School Learning

Environments

Semiotics and meanings

Architectural Program

Text

Architectural

Programming

Design process

Policy

Drivers for change

Anteet (2019) - (Based on Gunderson & Holling, 2002; Walker & Salt, 2006)

Global Education

Global Educational

Context

RESILIENCE THINKINGResearch framework

https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/articles/classroom-layout-what-does-the-research-say

“Kitchen of meaning” (Barthes, 1988)Image by author

DISCOURSE ANALYSISMeanings

CONCLUSION

- Learning environments can be

discussed as part of larger complex

systems.

- Complexity expands the discourse of

educational architecture.

- Complex adaptive systems value

multiple actors. Resilience thinking

highlights cross-scale dynamics.

- Discourse analysis unfolds meanings

between the aspired educational

change and school architecture.

Long/slow cyclesShort/rapid cycles

Local Education

RG

C

R

Re

School

RG

C

R

Re

Learning Environment

RG

C

R

Re

Remember

Revolt

Remember

Revolt

Remember

Revolt

Large scale

Small scale

Anteet (2019) - (Based on Gunderson & Holling, 2002; Walker & Salt, 2006)

Global Education

The “connection between the big ideas

and the fine grain of practice in the core

of schooling is a fundamental

precondition for any change in practice”

(Elmore, 1996, p. 18)

Qusai Anteet

Emerging Learning Environments: Complex Adaptive Systems and Scales of Resilience

Anteet, Q. (2019). Panarchy diagram in an educational architecture context. https://doi.org/10.26188/5d6b669431739

Barthes, R. (1988). The semiotic challenge (1st ed). New York: Hill and Wang.

Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2018). Research methods in education (8th ed.). London, England; New York, NY: Routledge.

Davis, B., & Sumara, D. J. (2006). Complexity and education: Inquiries into learning, teaching, and research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Elmore, R. (1996). Getting to scale with good educational practice. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.66.1.g73266758j348t33

Fenwick, T., Edwards, R., & Sawchuk, P. (2011). Emerging approaches to educational research: Tracing the socio-material. Florence, United States: Routledge.

Gunderson, L. H. (2008). Panarchy. In S. E. Jørgensen & B. D. Fath (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Ecology (pp. 2634–2638). https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-008045405-

4.00695-9

Gunderson, L. H., & Holling, C. S. (Eds.). (2002). Panarchy: Understanding transformations in human and natural systems. Washington, DC: Island Press.

Gunderson, L. H. (2000). Ecological resilience—In theory and application. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 31(1), 425–439.

https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.31.1.425

Heylighen, F. (2008). Complexity and self-organisation. In M. J. Bates & M. N. Maack (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences. New York, NY: Taylor

& Francis Group.

Laboy, M., & Fannon, D. (2016). Resilience theory and praxis: A critical framework for architecture. Enquiry: A Journal for Architectural Research, 13(1), 39–53.

https://doi.org/10.17831/enq:arcc.v13i2.405

Law, J., & Urry, J. (2004). Enacting the social. Economy and Society, 33(3), 390–410.

Scheffer, M., Hosper, S. H., Meijer, M.-L., Moss, B., & Jeppesen, E. (1993). Alternative equilibria in shallow lakes. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 8(8), 275–279.

https://doi.org/10.1016/0169-5347(93)90254-M

Tanner, C. K., & Lackney, J. A. (2006). Educational facilities planning: Leadership, architecture, and management. Boston: Pearson Allyn and Bacon.

Walker, B., & Salt, D. (2006). Resilience thinking: Sustaining ecosystems and people in a changing world. Washington, DC: Island Press.

REFERENCES