GLOSSARY INQUIRY: LEARNER

Any truly complex system can be considered a learner, whether it is an individual human being, a microscopic organism, or a social collective.

Indeed, it is the complexity of a system—its adaptive and self-organizing processes—that distinguishes it from more mechanical systems and allows it to learn. What a system learns or knows is embodied by its dynamic structure, as well as in the other systems in which it is nested. For instance, a person’s knowledge of the English language is embodied both in her brain and body, and in the larger communicational practices in which she participates.

In education, this notion of the learner prompts us to attend to the all the different levels at which learning is occurring, including collective levels such as the classroom. This does not mean neglecting the individual learner; indeed, creating the conditions for rich collective learning, and the emergent possibilities that that brings, greatly enriches individual learning.

See related terms: Complex System, Adaptation, Self-Organization, Embodiment, Knowledge, Dynamic Structure, Classroom, Conditions for Emergence, Identity.

GLOSSARY