About the outdated Newtonian paradigm in education and complexity and a complexity science of learning: How far are we from a paradigm shift?

Abstract

In their position paper entitled Towards a new, complexity science of learning and education, Jorg et al. (2007) argue that educational research is in crisis. In their opinion, the transdisciplinary and interdiscursive approach of complexity science with its orientation towards self-organization, emergence, and potentiality provides new modes of inquiry, a new lexicon and assessment practices that can be used to overcome the current crisis. In this contribution, I elaborate on how complexity science can further be developed for understanding the dynamics of intentions and the communication of meaning as these are central to the social-scientific enterprise.