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GLOSSARY INQUIRY: RECURSION
A process in which each new step is a function or elaboration of the structure produced through previous steps, as in the production of a fractal image.
Recursion is a repetitive process that is defined in terms of loops rather than linear pathways. In biological terms, an organism interacts recursively with its environment, both as an individual and as a species; each new interaction is a function of a previous history of interactions (as embedded in its dynamic structure) and in turn becomes part of that history, thus influencing future interactions. In the context of human knowledge, each new understanding is a recursive elaboration of previous understandings: Possible knowledge in the present “feeds off” of what we knew before and, conversely, what we knew before is re-interpreted in light of new experiences, or feedback.
Education and learning are recursive, elaborative processes. Students’ and teachers’ interactions always carry traces of previous interactions, as well as traces of the history of their culture and species. And those previous interactions are re-interpreted in light of present engagements.
See related terms: Dynamic Structure, Feedback, Learning, Knowledge.
