Complex Dynamical Systems in Education

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Introduction to Education as a Complex Dynamical System

   • Matthijs Koopmans, Dimitrios Stamovlasis

   Pages 1-7

3. Re-searching Methods in Educational Research: A Transdisciplinary Approach

   • M. Jayne Fleener

   Pages 9-21

4. A Batesonian Perspective on Qualitative Research and Complex Human Systems

   • Jeffrey W. Bloom

   Pages 23-37

5. Emergence, Self-Transcendence, and Education

   • Jeffrey Goldstein

   Pages 39-57

6. Opening the Wondrous World of the Possible for Education: A Generative Complexity Approach

   • Ton Jörg

   Pages 59-92

7. Towards the Teaching of Motor Skills as a System of Growing Complexity

   • Umberto Cesar Corrêa, Walter Roberto Correia, Go Tani

   Pages 93-103

8. The Fractal Dynamics of Early Childhood Play Development and Nonlinear Teaching and Learning

   • Doris Pronin Fromberg

   Pages 105-118

9. Ergodicity and the Merits of the Single Case

   • Matthijs Koopmans

   Pages 119-139

10. Catastrophe Theory: Methodology, Epistemology, and Applications in Learning Science

    • Dimitrios Stamovlasis

    Pages 141-175

11. Evaluating Complex Educational Systems with Quadratic Assignment Problem and Exponential Random Graph Model Methods

    • Russ Marion, Craig Schreiber

    Pages 177-201

12. “Looking at” Educational Interventions: Surplus Value of a Complex Dynamic Systems Approach to Study the Effectiveness of a Science and Technology Educational Intervention

    • Sabine van Vondel, Henderien Steenbeek, Marijn van Dijk, Paul van Geert

    Pages 203-232

13. Analyzing Teacher–Student Interactions with State Space Grids

    • Helena J. M. Pennings, Tim Mainhard

    Pages 233-271

14. Nonlinear Dynamical Interaction Patterns in Collaborative Groups: Discourse Analysis with Orbital Decomposition

    • Dimitrios Stamovlasis

    Pages 273-297

15. Investigating the Long Memory Process in Daily High School Attendance Data

    • Matthijs Koopmans

    Pages 299-321

16. Educational Systems and the Intergenerational Transmission of Inequality: A Complex Dynamical Systems Perspective

    • Porfirio Guevara, Emilio Porta

    Pages 323-343

17. The Symbolic Dynamics of Visual Attention During Learning: Exploring the Application of Orbital Decomposition

    • Joanna K. Garner, Daniel M. Russell

    Pages 345-378

18. A Catastrophe Model for Motivation and Emotions: Highlighting the Synergistic Role of Performance-Approach and Performance-Avoidance Goal Orientations

    • Georgios Sideridis, Dimitrios Stamovlasis

    Pages 379-394

19. Back Matter

    Pages 395-412

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This book capitalizes on the developments in dynamical systems and education by presenting some of the most recent advances in this area in seventeen non-overlapping chapters. The first half of the book discusses the conceptual framework of complex dynamical systems and its applicability to educational processes. The second half presents a set of empirical studies that 
that illustrate the use of various research methodologies to investigate complex dynamical processes in education, and help the reader appreciate what we learn about dynamical processes in education from using these approaches.

• complex dynamical systems
• complex dynamical systems and education
• education systems
• ideographic science of education
• school environments
• teaching processes
• learning and instruction

• School of Education, Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, USA

  Matthijs Koopmans

• Department of Philosophy and Education, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

  Dimitrios Stamovlasis

Matthijs Koopmans is Associate Professor and Assessment Coordinator at the School of Education at Mercy College. His professional interests include the application of complex dynamical systems approaches in education, cause and effect relationships and nonlinear time series. He published numerous research articles and book reviews in peer-reviewed journals including Evaluation and Program Planning; Nonlinear, Dynamics, Psychology and Life Sciences, and Complicity: An International Journal of Complexity in Education. He is one of the editors of Chaos and Complexity in Psychology: The Theory of Nonlinear Dynamics, published by Cambridge University Press in 2009. He earned his Doctorate in 1988 at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dimitrios Stamovlasis is Assistant Professor of Research Methodology and Applied Statistics in Social Science at the Aristotle University, Department of Philosophy and Education. His research interests are interdisciplinary and they focus: on methodological and epistemological issues of contemporary social sciences that improve theory building; on nonlinear dynamics (complexity, catastrophe theory, entropy, and related fields) and their application to social, behavioral and life sciences; on specific research endeavors in the area of educational research concerning neo-Piagetian theories, learning, science education, problem solving, creativity and group dynamics. He published numerous research articles in peer-reviewed journals, and he served as a guest editor in the Special Issue of Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology and Life Science (2014) focused on Nonlinear Dynamics in Education. He earned his PhD at the University of Ioannina (2001) and he also holds a M.Sc. in Physical Chemistry from University of Hawaii, an MBA, and a M. Sc. in Statistics from University of Athens.

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