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GLOSSARY INQUIRY: EMERGENCE
A process by which a number of lower level systems (considered as parts) self-organize into a higher lever autonomous complex system (a whole) with transcendent macro behaviours.
Emergence at one level occurs in and through the dynamic local interactions of lower level systems; it is a “bottom up” phenomenon that occurs without central planners or general instructions. The collective system is a dynamic structure that embodies possibilities not present in its lower level systems, or any simple aggregate of them (e.g. a pile of 100 billion neurons does not in itself constitute a brain). Making sense of the dynamic processes that give rise to and sustain complex systems requires an expanded notion of causation.
An understanding of emergence is crucial for educators, since language, consciousness, learning and life itself are all emergent processes. Individuals, classrooms and schools, for instance, cannot be understood simply by isolating them or cutting them up into their component parts; this amounts to ignoring their most important, emergent qualities.
See related terms: Parts, Self-Organization, Embodiment, Learning, Conditions for Emergence, Teachable Moment, Classrooms.
