Joint CRISTEME/CEEN Seminar: Using complexity theory to understand the primary classroom

The Centre for Research in STEM Education and the Creativity (CRISTEME) and Emergent Education Futures Network (CEEN) are hosting a research seminar on Thursday 23 March, 12-1 in Baring Court BC101, with Dr Ben Knight (UWE). Please do come along if you can - we will have some refreshments available. This is a face to face seminar but if you would like to attend online, please let us know and we will facilitate as best we can.   

Classrooms are complex, so is learning, so teaching cannot be scripted! 

In this seminar Ben will be drawing on findings from his doctoral research, which used a mixed methods approach to examine interactive small group learning through the lens of complex systems thinking. The presentation will illustrate examples of ways that classrooms share characteristics with complex systems and ways that learning is to some extent a complex, indeterminate and emergent phenomenon. With this in mind, Ben will argue that to successfully navigate the uneven topography of pupil learning and the self-organising tendencies of interactive group work, teachers must be both permitted to exercise flexible, responsive, in-situ judgement, and capable of doing so. Some common barriers to achieving this, from school and teacher education policy will be explored, along with recommendations for ways forward. 

Ben Knight Profile

Dr Lindsay Hetherington
Convenor, CRISTEME