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GLOSSARY INQUIRY: SELF-ORGANIZATION
Arising through the dynamic, adaptive interactions of its own component parts, rather than as a result of external causes or a central controller.
Self-organization is a key characteristic of complex systems. Examples of this ‘bottom-up’ form of organization include the way ants self-organize into ant hills, birds into flocks, and humans into social and political collectives. Although control of a complex system’s organization (or dynamic structure) is distributed (or decentralized), the system as a whole both adapts (or learns) and maintains a coherent identity.
The process or learning, whether at the level of the individual, classroom, school, or larger social collective, can be seen as a self-organizing process. What is learned is more function of the self-organizing activity of the learner than the result of external, top-down curriculum or instruction.
See related terms: Complex System, Parts, Adaptation, Dynamic Structure, Learning, Identity, Theories of Learning.
