Complexity Theory and Learning

This chapter completes the network model of individual learning processes by adding physical theories from thermodynamics and biology to the concepts of Keller and Piaget, to discuss the causal learning cycle as an imperative of the evolution of intelligence. The chapter incorporates the principles of dissipative structure theory and autocatalysis to explain how learning processes evolve and self-organize, suggesting a paradigm shift in understanding complex educational system behavior and evolution. The chapter analogizes the evolutionary imperative of learning with the features of an autopoietic, autocatalytic control system that integrates flows of energy and information during dissipative processes, to describe the irreversible process of creating and freezing the structure of experience over time.