This study investigated phase transitions in EFL students' speech fluency development using a complex dynamic systems perspective. Two students with different proficiency levels were selected from an intact speaking class. These students learned and practiced specific strategies to improve their speech fluency. Phase transitions were analyzed…

Reflection in action research is a complex matter, as is action research itself. In recent years, complexity science has regularly been called upon in order to more thoroughly understand the complexity of action research. The present article investigates the benefits that complexity science may yield for reflection in action research. This article…

James P. Lantolf is George and Jane Greer Professor Emeritus of Language Acquisition and Applied Linguistics and former director of the Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research at the Pennsylvania State University, USA. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Applied Linguistics in the same academic unit at Xi'an Jiaotong…

Professors bemoan the great difficulty students have understanding the complexity of their disciplines or functional specializations. Many non-traditional students have work and family commitments that limit the time needed to reflect professionally and to master these concepts. This disconnect has persisted despite decades of work developing more…

The notion of complexity--as in "education is a complex system"--has two different meanings. On the one hand, there is the epistemic connotation, with "Complex" meaning "difficult to understand, hard to control". On the other hand, complex has a technical meaning, referring to systems composed of many interacting…

Focusing directly on the development of instructional practice and its effects is not easy. One major shortcoming in the educational infrastructure has been the lack of a common curriculum. A second has been an impoverished approach to supporting teaching practice. These two are related, for any effort to develop and improve teaching is weakened…

In this article, we describe and model the language classroom as a complex adaptive system (see Logan & Schumann, 2005). We argue that linear, categorical descriptions of classroom processes and interactions do not sufficiently explain the complex nature of classrooms, and cannot account for how classroom change occurs (or does not occur), over…

The education of teachers in the United States needs to be turned upside down. Teacher education must shift away from emphasizing academic preparation and course work loosely linked to school-based experiences to programs fully grounded in clinical practice and interwoven with academic content and professional courses. This clinically based…

Knowledge translation (KT) interventions can facilitate the successful implementation of best practices by engaging and actively involving various stakeholders in the change process. However, for novices, the design of KT interventions can be overwhelming. In this article, we describe our experience as participants in a problem-based case study on…

This study reinvestigates the systems approach, which is, among educators, a well-recognized approach reflecting the fundamental discourses of the industrial order. The pervasive discourses of the industrial order that failed to invite a holistic view for students have led to a conceptual division. This systemic thinking has thus started viewing…

Learning participation only makes sense if it is purposeful. From our perspective its primary purpose is to achieve more effective managing in situations of complexity and change. We describe our evolving understandings and practices (a praxeology) for Systems Practice for managing complexity, built on 30 years of developing supported open…

This article explores instructionally useful assessment in the social studies. In the first section, the concept of usefulness is discussed as a function of the alignment between goals, instruction, and assessment. Next, three approaches to instructionally useful assessment are reported, followed by a case scenario suggesting how these disparate…

Confusion and concern about the use of the term "andragogy" generated the question, "Is there a generic set of principles that guide lifelong learning?" The term "anthrogogy" (anthro = human) was created to name the way out of the confusion. To identify the assumptions that constitute anthrogogy and illustrate their…

Carroll's (1963) model of school learning and Bloom's (1968) mastery learning both address theoretical and practical aspects of the time factor in school learning via an appeal to diagnostic-prescriptive teaching. The design of instructional environments and materials--particularly as advocated by Glaser (1976)--represents the mechanism to bring…

An approach to teaching geography and social studies in elementary schools that is based on integrating theories of learning into the classroom experience is presented. Specifically, the approach described utilizes essential thinking skills and Bloom's Taxonomy of Cognition in a question-asking framework to be used with literary selections.…