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GLOSSARY INQUIRY: AUTONOMY
The extent to which an agent/system is distinguishable from its environment—a definition that implies not only an observed but also an observer.
The autonomy of complex systems is linked to their emergence as coherent wholes irreducible to the sum of their parts, and to the fact that their behaviour is as much a product of their own internal dynamic structure as external circumstances. The rules governing the behaviour of complex systems thus arise at the level of their emergence. Autonomy in this context does not mean that a complex system is separate from its environment; rather, it means that its own dynamic structure governs the nature of its interaction with the environment in which it is nested.
Both individual learners and classroom collectives can be seen as autonomous complex systems. The behaviours of each must be studied at the level of their emergence and not reduced or subsumed to rules governing other levels. Radical constructivism offers a useful account of the autonomous individual learner.
See related terms: Observer, Complex System, Emergence, Nestedness, Radical Theories of Learning, Classroom.
