SUSTAINING TEACHABLE MOMENTS

ON THE COMPLEX EDGE OF CHAOS

Dan Rea

Georgia Southern University

danrea@gasou.edu

American Educational Research Association Conference

Chicago, Illinois: April 21–25, 2003

WHAT IS A TEACHABLE MOMENT?

According to science teacher educator, Michael Bentley (1995), seizing teachable moments "means producing a lesson on the spot in response to a question, an expressed student interest, or a news story about a science-related event in the outside world." He further states, "Many times, without advance notice to the teacher, a child may bring to class his or her special rock specimen, or a snake skin he or she has found, or an unusual looking beetle, or an injured animal…These are valuable ‘teachable moments’ that often can be connected to important science concepts. By ‘seizing the day’ when such events present themselves in the classroom, the teacher has the chance to model curiosity and other scientific attitudes"(p. 23).

Language arts teacher, Shiela Siegfried (1992) writes, "…teachers must be ready at the drop of a hat to leap into curriculum development. The teachable moment is also the curriculum-design moment. The children are letting us know what sparks their interest all the time." She further states, "Spur-of-the moment curriculum development should be occurring regularly in our classrooms. Opportunities arise daily that lend themselves to further exploration. Unfortunately, many educators are locked into tight schedules and curriculums dictated by the almighty syllabus" (p. 285).

THOUGHT-PROVOKING QUESTIONS

A teachable moment takes place when _________________________

and the teacher______________________________________________?

What provokes or evokes teachable moments? What are some of the benefits of a teachable moment? What is the difference between the teacher personally deciding what is important for students to learn during a teachable moment versus the teacher taking the students’ perspectives during a teachable moment and trying to understand what the students want to learn? What is the difference between the teacher guiding a teachable moment so students can learn an important lesson versus the teacher and students co-discovering or co-creating something new during a teachable moment? Who has the power or control during a teachable moment?

DESCRIPTIVE TAXONOMY OF

TEACHER RESPONSES TO TEACHABLE MOMENTS

I. ACTIVELY IGNORE OR SUPPRESS

TEACHABLE MOMENTS (Required Curriculum).

• Students’ learning moments are censored by teacher.

• Student readiness is ignored or suppressed by the teacher.

• Stick to planned learning objectives.

• Teach state-mandated explicit curriculum.

• Teacher-centered and controlled.

• Teacher is authoritarian.

II. OPPORTUNELY USE

TEACHABLE MOMENTS (Hidden Curriculum).

• Students’ learning moments captured by the teacher and redirected

toward learning a lesson valued by the teacher.

• Student readiness is responded to & directed by the teacher.

• Opportune transmission of teacher’s informal lesson.

• Teach what the teacher personally thinks is important (hidden

curriculum).

• Teacher responsive and directive.

• Teacher is authoritative.

III. SUSTAINABLY POISED FOR

TEACHABLE MOMENTS (Transformative Curriculum).

• Both students and teacher are captured

by shared learning moments (magnificent obsession).

• Both students and teacher are ready to learn together.

• Teach what is personally, socially, & culturally meaningful.

• Invitation to co-discover or co-create curriculum.

• Mutually empowering experience.

• Teacher is a participatory and empathetic leader.

IV. OVER-RESPOND TO

TEACHABLE MOMENTS (Unrestricted Curriculum).

• Students’ learning moments are indulged by teacher.

• Student readiness for fun seeking is encouraged by teacher.

• Superficially explore students’ interests and socialize.

• Curriculum of digressions and diversions.

• Student-centered and fun.

• Teacher is permissive.

EXAMPLES OF TYPE III TEACHER RESPONSES (SUSTAINABLY POISED)

What Happened When a Simple Reflective Exercise Turned into a Community Generated Matrix of Possibilities: An Experience of Complex Pedagogy in a Professional Development Seminar (Shelley Wells, 2003)

A university professor facilitated a yearlong professional development seminar for teaching assistants. Initially, utilizing the teacher prompt--"What stood out for you during this last week of teaching?"--the teacher’s role gradually evolved from type II, opportune teacher responses, to type III, sustainable open interactions between teachers and students.

Anh Linh’s Shapes (Friesen, Clifford, & Jardine, 2002)

Eighth grade students’ began with an exploration of congruent right triangles with the following teacher instructions: "Draw a right angle triangle. Any sized right triangle. Using only triangles that are similar to and/or congruent with your original, I want you to explore the properties of right angle triangles." Over the school year, this exploration led to extended discoveries of spiraling right triangles, 2-dimensional tessellations, and 3-dimensional tessellations. Initially, the teachers opportunely facilitated, type II, the discoveries of the students but eventually the teachers were so captivated by the beauty of Ann Lind’s shapes that they became co-participants in the discoveries (type III).

The Pleasure of Thinking (Sumara, Davis, van der Wey, 1998)

Over a one-year period, university researchers facilitated shared readings in the community with teachers, parents, and 5^th- and 6^th- grade children of a novel, The Giver. Participants were instructed to mark and share their on-going responses to the novel. Based on open sharing of their responses, a sense of community and collective knowledge eventually emerged.

TABLE 1: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK BASED ON CHAOS THEORY

FOR ORGANIZING TEACHER RESPONSES TO TEACHABLE MOMENTS

	ORDER	NEAR EDGE	COMPLEX EDGE	CHAOS
TEACHER RESPONSES	Suppressive	Opportune	Sustainably Poised	Over-Responsive
TEACHING OBJECTIVE	Teach Lesson	Teach Children	Teach Each Other	Teach Self
LEARNING	Imposed	Redirected	Co-created	Incidental
MOTIVATION	Extrinsic	Relevant	Flow	Amusement
LESSON	Planned	Adjusted	Emergent	Unintentional
CURRICULM	Required	Hidden	Transformative	Unrestricted
LEADERSHIP	Authoritarian	Authoritative	Participatory	Permissive
TEACHER POWER	Dominant Power	Reasonable Power	Shared Power	Recessive Power
STUDENT PLEASURE	Restricted Pleasure	Conditional Pleasure	Unconditional Pleasure	Unrestricted Pleasure
LEARNING COMMUNITY	Power-Based	Reason-Based	Unity-Based	Pleasure-Based

EXPLANATORY CONCEPTS BASED ON CHAOS THEORY

EDGE OF CHAOS AND COMPLEXITY. The "edge of chaos" is a critical state between order and chaos in which nonlinear systems (e.g., interacting teacher and students) are at their optimum performance potential or maximum adaptability (Kauffman, 1993, pp. 181-218). Systems poised at the edge of chaos are maximally adaptive because of the complex connections and distinctions of their interacting agents. This complexity implies that the interacting agents are distinct enough to permit flexibility and yet connected enough to establish stability. Highly ordered assemblages such as crystals lack complexity because they have rigidly connected molecules without flexibly distinct movement. On the other extreme, highly chaotic assemblages such as gases also lack complexity because they have flexibly distinct molecules without structured connections. However, interacting agents on the edge of chaos such as students and a teacher are complex because they are distinct enough to permit flexible change and yet connected enough to establish stability. Furthermore, they can generate a holistic system of interaction that is emergent and not reducible to the individual agents. In other words, the whole is more than the sum of the parts.

Complexity may be further defined as "the ability to switch between different modes of behavior as the environmental conditions are varied" (Prigogine & Nicolis, 1998, p.218). Complex systems on the edge of chaos permit a flexible openness and sensitivity to varied options, which enable these systems to continually find and select the most attractive options of adjusting, replacing, or reorganizing at a higher level of fitness. However complex systems, which are either rigidly bound by ordered conditions (fused connections) or indiscriminately scattered by chaotic conditions (confused distinctions), are not able to continually adapt to higher levels of fitness (complexity).

POWER LAW DISTRIBUTION AT THE EDGE OF CHAOS. According to the power law, the frequency of adaptive changes at the edge of chaos varies inversely according to an exponential power of the size of the changes. In other words, very often adaptive changes require minor adjustments, replacements, or reorganizations; somewhat often they require moderate adjustments, replacements, or reorganizations; and occasionally they require major adjustments, replacements, or reorganizations. Hence, the evolution of adaptive changes on the edge of chaos is characterized by "punctuated equilibrium." In other words, most frequently minor or moderate changes occur but occasionally major changes occur such as mass extinctions, which pave the way for new periods of evolution.

EDGE OF CHAOS, COMPLEXITY, AND POWER LAW APPLIED TO TEACHABLE MOMENTS. The edge of chaos is an explanatory concept that can be used to systemically understand teachable moments. Learning systems under "ordered" conditions are characterized by authoritarian teachers, planned lessons, and a required curriculum. These teachers tend to suppress teachable moments to prevent deviations from ordered learning, and students are rigidly bound by a strict code of conduct and procedures (see Table 1, Conceptual Framework). On the other hand, learning systems under "chaotic" conditions are characterized by permissive teachers, incidental learning, and an unrestricted curriculum. These teachers tend to over-respond to teachable moments and cater to students’ pleasure-seeking interests, and students are liberally permitted individualistic freedom and the pursuit of personal diversions (see Table 1, Conceptual Framework). Between the authoritarian and permissive extremes near the edge of chaos, authoritative teachers are willing to temporarily adjust the required curriculum during teachable moments to opportunely teach important informal lessons. Authoritative teachers are reasonable and are willing to listen to the input of novice students but make final decisions based on their expert knowledge (see Conceptual Framework). Also between the extremes at the edge of chaos, participatory teachers are willing to revise planned lessons and reorganize the curriculum to enjoy empowering experiences of co-discovery and co-creation in which teachers and students mutually participate in sustained teachable moments (see Table 1, Conceptual Framework).

Participatory teachers are continually open and sensitive to the changing conditions of the learning environment such as teachable moments. They are sustainably poised to respond to and continuously mindful of the concerns and interests of their students. However, this does not necessarily mean that they are constantly making major reorganizations or replacements of the curriculum around the ever-changing concerns and interests of the students; this would lead to teacher burnout. The Power Law implies that very often adaptive changes require minor adjustments, replacements, or reorganizations of the curriculum; somewhat often they require moderate adjustments, replacements, or reorganizations of the curriculum; and occasionally they require major adjustments, replacements, or reorganizations of the curriculum. Hence, the evolution of the curriculum is characterized by punctuated equilibrium. Most frequently, minor or moderate changes in the curriculum are needed but occasionally major changes in the curriculum are needed to open the way for creative development. Participatory teachers need to be constantly mindful and sensitively poised to appropriately respond to teachable moments.

The Power Law appears to be consistent with the 20/80 rule. According to this rule, approximately 20% of the learning activities provide opportunities for approximately 80% of the actual learning. In other words, a vital minority of the learning activities provide wonderful opportunities for a majority of the actual learning. However, most of the learning activities provide minor and moderate learning opportunities such as the mundane practicing of skills and the everyday consolidation of knowledge. On the other hand, teachable moments appear to qualify for the generative minority because they are very memorable and are magnified by the butterfly effect (see next paragraph). Participatory teachers make the most the 20/80 rule applied to learning. However, authoritarian teachers suppress this generative minority of learning opportunities and spend all their time on nonproductive repetitive learning tasks and routines. On the other extreme, permissive teachers try to turn everything into a fun game of trivia pursuit and fail to discriminate genuine learning opportunities.

SENSITIVE DEPENDENCE ON INITIAL CONDITIONS (BUTTERFLY EFFECT).

The butterfly effect may start as a small incident that precipitates an unexpected big event (or metaphorically defined as a small flutter that leads to a big flap). The small incident quickly develops into a big event because self-referential feedback exponentially amplifies the instability of the initially small incident (similar to snowball effects or ripple effects). This effect is nonlinear because the initially small incident is disproportionate to the resulting big event. Also, the extended outcome of this incident is unpredictable because its initial conditions are ambiguous and not precisely definable. Furthermore, subtle changes in the initial conditions may appear to the naïve observer to be innocent diversions or distractions, which are momentary and insignificant, but with the butterfly effect they can rapidly escalate into major classroom concerns. For example, depending on how teachers initially perceive and respond to classroom incidents, these incidents can diverge into full-blown crises that negatively obstruct the curriculum or extended discoveries that positively reorganize the curriculum.

Chaos theory may be used to conceptualize teachable moments and to provide a deeper understanding of their educational implications for the classroom. According to Iannone (1995), "Every day a teacher faces disruptions and if he or she develops through self-organization and reintegration a new dynamic equilibrium will come into play…An example of this could be as simple as a student asking a question that sends the teacher and the lesson into an entirely new area of study… if the teacher refuses to recognize the diverting question or dismisses it as not relevant, the student or students may reject this teacher for the rest of the year" (p. 544). In this example, a chaotic "butterfly effect" is at play in the action of a student asking the teacher a simple question that piques the curiosity of the entire class and precipitates a flood of unexpected student questions that sends the class into an entirely new area of study.

In rigidly ordered classrooms, teachers are insensitive to the butterfly effects of teachable moments and hence they try to squash butterflies before they get started. However, authoritarian teachers’ attempts to squash butterflies can result in lingering student resentment that overtly or covertly erupts as vengeful butterflies when least expected. On the other extreme, teachers in the chaotic classroom are over-sensitive to the butterfly effects of teachable moments and hence spend most of their day helping students to indiscriminately chase after short-lived butterflies. In these classrooms, students superficially dabble and play around pursuing a wide variety of personal interests but do not sustain an in-depth study or integration of curriculum topics. In between these classroom extremes, authoritative teachers’ sensitivity is contingent on turning teachable moments into important informal lessons. This conditional sensitivity results in short-term minor adjustments and does not usually lead to a significant reorganization of the curriculum. Occasionally, the opportune responses of authoritative teachers may lead to more open responses and a reorganization of the curriculum when they are willing to become participatory teachers. Beyond the calculated sensitivity of authoritative teachers, participatory teachers are genuinely and unconditionally sensitive to the butterfly effects of teachable moments. These teachers are willing to reorganize the curriculum around the empowering joy of authentic intellectual adventures, which captivate both teachers and students. These teachers and students create a community of learners open to the co-discovery and co-creation of an emergent curriculum.

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