The multidisciplinary study of complex systems in the physical and social sciences over the past quarter of a century has led to the articulation of important new conceptual perspectives and methodologies that are of value both to researchers in these fields as well as to professionals, policymakers, and citizens who must deal with challenging social and global problems in the 21st century. The main goals of this article are to (a) argue for the importance of learning these ideas at the precollege and college levels; (b) discuss the significant challenges inherent in learning complex systems knowledge from the standpoint of learning sciences theory and research; (c) discuss the "learnability issue" of complex systems conceptual perspectives and review a body of literature that has been exploring how learning sciences pedagogical approaches can lead to student learning of important dimensions of complex systems knowledge; (d) argue that the cognitive and sociocultural factors related to learning complex systems knowledge are relevant and challenging areas for learning sciences research; and (e) consider ways that concepts and methodologies from the study of complex systems raise important issues of theoretical and methodological centrality in the field of the learning sciences itself.
Although the use of hypertext systems for learning complex knowledge has been attracting recent attention, there have been few discussions in the hypertext literature on issues related to the cognitive prerequisites for learning conceptually demanding material. A study was conducted to investigate a theory-based hypertext learning environment that provided instruction in a complex and ill-structured domain. The experimental treatment incorporated several features derived from recent cognitive learning theory, in particular a hypertext procedure that presented the instructional material in multiple contexts to highlight different facets of the knowledge. The main results of the study revealed that although the control treatment led to higher performance on the measures of memory for factual knowledge, the more hypertext-like treatment promoted superior knowledge transfer. Overall, these findings suggest that hypertext learning environments that present the instructed knowledge by explicitly demonstrating critical interrelationships between abstract and case-specific knowledge components in multiple contexts would be better at preparing students to use knowledge in new ways and in new situations.An Empirical Investigation -2
HYPERTEXT LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS, COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY, AND THE TRANSFER OF COMPLEX KNOWLEDGE: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATIONThe application of hypertext systems to educational situations has been attracting considerable attention recently (e.g., Beeman et al
H ow does the immune system respond to constantly changing bacterial and viral invaders? How do birds achieve their flocking formations? Can a butterfly influence the weather? Why can cheetahs run as fast as a car? Why do traffic jams form and how can traffic flow be improved? How do galaxies form? Despite the diversity of these questions, each has been the focus of research at the frontiers of science, and each involves phenomena that may be regarded as complex systems. The central concepts of complex systems, including new ways of doing science involving explorations of agent-based computer models, have been found to apply in many different areas [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Yaneer Bar-Yam has written, "The study of the dynamics of complex systems creates a host of new interdisciplinary fields. It not only breaks down barriers between physics, chemistry, and biology, but also between these disciplines and the so-called soft sciences of psychology, sociology, economics, and anthropology" [9]. Thus the concepts related to complex systems may function as unifying cross-disciplinary scientific themes that are essential to understanding emerging interdisciplinary perspectives in the natural and social sciences.Unfortunately, considerable research has documented the difficulties that students have learning scientific ideas from the past 300 years (e.g., Newtonian physics, Darwinian evolution). Helping students to learn emerging scientific knowledge and the unifying cross-disciplinary themes related to complexity and complex systems will no doubt prove even more challenging. This challenge is important given the increasing centrality of these ideas in modern science and the need to help students (and adults) construct principled understandings of these ideas in order to understand and address problems in the new millennium.This article has four main goals. First, a general discussion of the concepts related to complex systems is provided, followed by an overview of the research into complex systems and problem solving. Third, an exploratory study of experts and novices solving a set of problems dealing with complex and dynamical systems is discussed. Finally, the article considers the findings of this study in terms of recent socio-cognitive theory and discusses the implications of this research for science, social science, and business education that involves knowledge about complex systems.
Functional decline of the medial olivocochlear efferent system with age precedes outer hair cell degeneration. Loss of medial olivocochlear suppressive function may play a role in the development of presbycusis in both clinical cases and animal models.
The C57BL/6J mouse has been a useful model of presbycusis, as it displays an accelerated age-related peripheral hearing loss. The medial olivocochlear efferent feedback (MOC) system plays a role in suppressing cochlear outer hair cell (OHC) responses, particularly for background noise. Neurons of the MOC system are located in the superior olivary complex, particularly in the dorsomedial periolivary nucleus (DMPO) and in the ventral nucleus of the trapezoid body (VNTB). We previously discovered that the function of the MOC system declines with age prior to OHC degeneration, as measured by contralateral suppression (CS) of distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) in humans and CBA mice. The present study aimed to determine the time course of age changes in MOC function in C57s. DPOAE amplitudes and CS of DPOAEs were collected for C57s from 6 to 40 weeks of age. MOC responses were observed at 6 weeks but were gone at middle (15-30 kHz) and high (30-45 kHz) frequencies by 8 weeks. Quantitative stereological analyses of Nissl sections revealed smaller neurons in the DMPO and VNTB of young adult C57s compared with CBAs. These findings suggest that reduced neuron size may underlie part of the noteworthy rapid decline of the C57 efferent system. In conclusion, the C57 mouse has MOC function at 6 weeks, but it declines quickly, preceding the progression of peripheral age-related sensitivity deficits and hearing loss in this mouse strain.
Education is a complex system, which has conceptual and methodological implications for education research and policy. In this article, an overview is first provided of the Complex Systems Conceptual Framework for Learning (CSCFL), which consists of a set of conceptual perspectives that are generally shared by educational complex systems, organized into two focus areas: collective behaviors of a system, and behaviors of individual agents in a system. Complexity and research methodologies for education are then considered, and it is observed that commonly used quantitative and qualitative techniques are generally appropriate for studying linear dynamics of educational systems. However, it is proposed that computational modeling approaches, being extensively used for studying nonlinear characteristics of complex systems in other fields, can provide a methodological complement to quantitative and qualitative education research approaches. Two research case studies of this approach are discussed. We conclude with a consideration of how viewing education as a complex system using complex systems’ conceptual and methodological tools can help advance education research and also inform policy.
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