Classroom as Complex Adaptive System and the Emergence of Learning

Complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory is offering new perspectives on the nature of learning in school classrooms. In CAS such as social networks, city traffic systems and insect colonies, innovation, and change are occasioned through non-linear, bottom-up emergence rather than linear, top-down control. There is a growing body of evidence and discourse suggesting that learning in school classrooms, particularly in the early years and primary phases, has non-linear, emergent qualities and that teachers, school leaders, and educational researchers can gain valuable insights about the nature of interactive group learning by analyzing classrooms through a CAS lens. This chapter discusses the usefulness of a CAS framing for conceptualizing learning in primary school classrooms. It will explore key arguments, discuss relevant objections and draw on my own research to make the case for a measured application of CAS theory to primary classroom teaching and learning, explaining how it can support the development of innovative pedagogies.

Guidelines for Analysing Coastal Flood Protection Systems after a Submersion

Storm Xynthia, which hit the French Atlantic coast on February 28th, 2010, flooded vast territories despite coastal defences. This disaster highlighted the need to further study the behaviour of the coastal flood protection systems at an adapted geographical scale by considering the kinematics of the events. This objective has been achieved through a combination of conceptual input on the definition of protection systems, significant breakthroughs in the knowledge of the mechanisms governing the flooding, and via the improvement of strategies and methods dedicated to flood analysis and representation. The developed methodology was successfully tested on four sites submerged during Xynthia (Loix, Les Boucholeurs, and Boyardville, located in Charente-Maritime, and Batz-sur-Mer, located in Loire-Atlantique). This work is intended to guide the diagnosis of sites prone to marine flooding from the first investigations until the delivery of study reports. Beyond the usual focus on hydraulic structures, it provides guidelines to better analyse the interactions with the natural environment (sea, soil, dune, wetlands, etc.) and with the built environment (roads and urban networks, ponds used for fish farming, buildings, etc.). This systemic approach, which is applied to a territory considered as a complex adaptive system, is fundamental to understanding the reaction of a territory during a marine submersion event and subsequently developing adaptation or transformation strategies.

Phase Transitions and Bifurcation Points in the Initiation Dynamics of Venture Emergence: A Conceptual Framework

Based on isomorphic considerations, this paper attempts to establish an entrepreneur as complex adaptive system, which is one of the concepts that appear prominently in the field of complexity sciences. The attempt to equate the notion of an entrepreneur with the idea of a complex adaptive system, presupposes recognition of the entrepreneur’s role in adaptive agency. Along with this recognition, comes the convenience of contextualizing the concepts of phase transitions and bifurcation points in terms of venture emergence. The dynamics of these concepts are however more commonly explored within the workings of complex or dynamic physical systems. Yet, the broad applicability of the underlying ideas offers the possibility of identifying similar concepts in biological systems and by extension, the field of entrepreneurial cognition and behavior. Thus, the paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach and employs retroductive reasoning in the assemblage of relevant ideas, sought from diverse literary sources. The outcome is a conceptual framework, which presents certain propositions that offer implication for action.

Collaborate as a flock in the organization: how selection and synthesis influence knowledge convergence within a complex adaptive system

Purpose This study aims to investigate how two collaborative methods – selection and synthesis – influence knowledge convergence when people articulate a new strategic direction driving transformation within the organization. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a longitudinal field experiment developed in four organizations involving 82 employees over a three-month process. Inspired by dynamics governing flocks as complex adaptive systems, selection and synthesis have been separately used in two sets of companies. Primary and secondary data have been largely collected and analyzed throughout the whole process. Findings This study describes how the two alternative methods differently influenced two kinds of knowledge convergence. While selection triggers a general and static knowledge convergence and the propagation of individual knowledge over time, synthesis fosters a local and dynamic knowledge convergence where individuals tend to propagate knowledge generated collectively. Research limitations/implications This research offers insights into understanding the influence of alternative collaborative methods on the creation and propagation of knowledge when people are converging toward a new strategic direction. From a theoretical perspective, it contributes to complex adaptive system theory, highlighting the role of knowledge convergence and emergence through collaboration. Practical implications This research offers insights to managers who deal with the complexity of the engagement of different stakeholders during collaborative processes, offering some actionable takeaways to foster knowledge convergence by alternatively employing selection and synthesis. Originality/value This paper contributes to the management and social information processing literature emphasizing the role of knowledge convergence emerging from the complex interactions among multiple stakeholders.

FARUL3S: a New Framework for Agile Regulated Ultra-Large-Scale Software Systems

<div>The Ultra-Large-Scale Software (ULSS) systems development challenges today’s software management and development approaches. Northrop et al. (2006) revealed three broad areas of challenges [1]. To deal with those challenges, they propose an interdisciplinary portfolio of research. In particular, we address the design and evolution challenge by focusing on the design area of research. In order to regulate the ULSS systems, the traditional software engineering tools face challenges as they are top-down so they deal with each domain model separately. To address the domain diversity like in the smart city systems, we propose the Framework for Agile Regulated Ultra Large Scale Software System (FARUL3S) to look at the ULSS system from bottom-up. The FARUL3S is a user-centered solution that aims at combining the complex adaptive system, the financial economics as well as the engineering systems design. Our contribution aims to regulate and constrain the ULSS systems by using architectural agreements and other rules. In this paper, we provide a detailed description of the FARUL3S steps. Our Framework generates a system Design Rule Hierarchy (DRH) so it can be used to constrain the entire system design. In the future, we will provide an illustration of the FARUL3S adoption on the management and design of different smart city services to ensure the efficiency of our solution.</div>

A integração conceptual como uma máquina de Carnot no processamento de informações com finalidade à comunicação | Conceptual integration as a Carnot machine in the processing of information for the purpose of communication

Neste artigo, temos como objetivo um paralelismo epistemológico entre a integração de conceitos (FAUCONNIER; TURNER, 2002) e a eficiência de uma máquina termodinâmica (CARNOT, 1824). Nossa hipótese é a de que o comportamento linguístico equivalha a um sistema adaptativo complexo (DUQUE, 2016),com eficiência máxima em seus processos comunicativos,tal qual uma máquina termodinâmica. Com base em nosso objeto,a saber, as redes de integração conceptual (SILVA, 2019), percebemos que o ser humano mistura conceitos a partir de muitas frentes de informação (frames) e compõe uma estrutura conceptual nova, fruto da amálgama de informações desses frames. Assim, baseando-nos emum método qualitativo, apoiado na visão de Silverman (2000), concluímos que a rede de integração conceptual funciona de forma semelhante a uma máquina térmica de Carnot, na qual elementos são processados de forma a garantir a máxima eficiência.Palavras-chave: Integração conceptual. Máquina de Carnot. Sistemas adaptativos complexos. Comunicação. AbstractIn this article, we aim at an epistemological parallelism between the conceptual blending (FAUCONNIER; TURNER, 2002) and the efficiency of a thermodynamic machine (CARNOT, 1824). Our hypothesis is that linguistic behavior amounts to a complex adaptive system (DUQUE, 2016) with maximum efficiency in its communicative processes in the same way as a thermodynamic machine. Supported by our object, namely the conceptual integration networks (SILVA, 2019), we perceive that the human being mixes concepts from many information fronts (frames) and composes a new conceptual structure, resulting from the amalgamation of information from these frames. Thus, based on the qualitative method supported by Silverman's (2000) vision, we conclude that the conceptual integration network works similarly to a Carnot thermal machine, in which elements are processed in order to ensure maximum efficiency.Keywords: Conceptual blending. Carnot machine.Complex adaptative systems. Communication. ORCIDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-7626-1504https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5263-8979

National polarization and international agreements

The network of international environmental agreements (IEAs) has been characterized as a complex adaptive system (CAS) in which the uncoordinated responses of nation states to changes in the conditions addressed by particular agreements may generate seemingly coordinated patterns of behavior at the level of the system. Unfortunately, since the rules governing national responses are ill understood, it is not currently possible to implement a CAS approach. Polarization of both political parties and the electorate has been implicated in a secular decline in national commitment to some IEAs, but the causal mechanisms are not clear. In this paper, we explore the impact of polarization on the rules underpinning national responses. We identify the degree to which responsibility for national decisions is shared across political parties and calculate the electoral cost of party positions as national obligations under an agreement change. We find that polarization typically affects the degree but not the direction of national responses. Whether national commitment to IEAs strengthens or weakens as national obligations increase depends more on the change in national obligations than on polarization per se. Where the rules governing national responses are conditioned by the current political environment, so are the dynamic consequences both for the agreement itself and for the network to which it belongs. Any CAS analysis requires an understanding of such conditioning effects on the rules governing national responses.

Organisational networks, organisational learning, organisational adaptability and role clarity among humanitarian organisations during relief delivery

PurposeOrganisations involved in relief delivery tend to have cross-boundary mandates, which cause ambiguity of roles during delivery of relief services to the targeted victims. Having no clear role, specialisation affects service timeliness and increases resource duplication among the relief organisations. The objective of this study is to understand how organisational networks and organisational learning as complex adaptive system metaphors improve both organisational adaptability and role clarity in humanitarian logistics.Design/methodology/approachUsing ordinary partial least squares regression through SmartPLS version 3.3.3, the authors tested the study hypotheses basing on survey data collected from 315 respondents who were selected randomly to complete a self-administered questionnaire from 101 humanitarian organisations. Common method bias (CMB) associated with surveys was minimised by implementing both procedural and post statistics methods.FindingsThe results indicate that organisational networks and organisational learning have a significant influence on organisational adaptability and role clarity. The results also show that organisational adaptability partially mediates in the relationship between organisational networks, organisational learning and role clarity.Research limitations/implicationsThe major limitation of the study is that the authors have used cross-sectional data to test this research hypotheses. However, this was minimised following Guide and Ketokivi's (2015) recommendation on how to address the limitations of cross-sectional data or the use of longitudinal data that can address CMB and endogeneity problems.Practical implicationsManagers in humanitarian organisations can use the authors’ framework to understand, first, how complex adaptive system competence can be used to create organisational adaptability and, second, how organisational adaptability can help organisational networks and organisational learning in improving role clarity among humanitarian organisations by collaboratively working together.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the existing body of knowledge in humanitarian logistics and supply chain management by empirically testing the anecdotal and conceptual evidence. The findings may be useful to managers who are contemplating the use of organisational networks, organisational learning and organisational adaptability to improve role clarity in disaster relief-related activities.