LEARNING AND THE MIND BRAIN: PRIGOGINE IN THE CLASSROOM By RHONDA L. WHITE Bachelor of Arts in English Oklahoma City University Oklahoma City, Oklahoma May, 1969 Master of Arts in Education Oklahoma City University Oklahoma City, Oklahoma May, 1974 Master of Arts in Education University of Central Oklahoma Edmond, Oklahoma July, 1978 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION July, 1998 COPYRIGHT By Rhonda L. White July, 1998 LEARNING AND THE MIND BRAIN: PRIGOGINE IN THE CLASSROOM Thesis Approved: Thesis Adviser I I De~fthe Graduate College 11 PREFACE The real cycle you're working on is a cycle called ''yourself" + Robert Pirsig, 1974, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance One spring morning, a very special student caringly gave me a funny-shaded purple book about Zen and motorcycles. I didn't think I liked either one-Zen or motorcycles! In fact, motorcycles were the only things my boys, now grown, were not allowed to ride. And Zen, what can I say? After enrolling in a doctoral program and looking over the books and assignments to be read for that semester, what I did not need was another book! I carefully placed the gift on the shelf to be discovered another day. However, for some reason, I picked it up again and began reading. I wondered who "Phaedrus" was. I began reading to my husband (who is a real mechanic). On hearing the words aloud, I saw the scientist, English teacher, parent, journey-taker me riding on that famous mythological journey. This gift of self-knowledge began: with one of my students who understood me better than I understood myself I read Pirsig's (1974) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and then read Einstein's Space and Van Gogh's Sky (Leshan & Margenau, 1982) as a class assignment. It became apparent while both books had similar goals but different formats; they were in fact the complementary spirit. Leshan and Margenau defined principles, graphed results, 111 reviewed scientific constructs; Pirsig's made a literary pilgrimage of the mind and spirit. One was the chariot of rationality; the other was the black steed of emotion. I had discovered "Phaedrus" - the conflicting spirit within me - one, the rational intellectual and one, the reader of books searching for freedom. Not only my students but also two very different professors, Dr. Russell Dobson and Dr. Judith Lepushitz, introduced me to a whole range of literature and puzzling scientific discoveries. They forced me to ask a different style of question about myself, my teaching practices, and learning in general. I continued to read about quantum paradoxes and elegant fractal images, of uncertainty and complementarity. No longer did I define myself as a knowledgeable scholar. I became the participant observer and stepped into the world of high school students and into the middle of an advanced trigonometry class. I listened to students, and I learned-not much about mathematics~ but a lot about learning and life. And then, .. .I stopped. For five years my professional career took me out of the classroom and into the role of administrator. For multiple reasons, I packed my thesis into a file cabinet and put away my interest in quantum physics and bifurcations. This year I have begun again that arduous journey and returned to that "dog-eared" book of Zen and motorcycles--of learning and writing and thinking and studying. For this return I thank my husband, Jesse, who quietly encouraged when I was most discouraged. Now I write "Learning and the Mind Brain: Prigogine in the Classroom." The purpose of this epistemic inquiry is to discover the relationship of learning with discoveries in the physical sciences of chaos and complexity and in the biological sciences of evolution and neurophysiology. Perhaps, most importantly, I looked closely at how the student IV learner describes learning, and how we travel together on the mythical journey of learning. As a result, I examined my own personal pedagogy. As a special note, the quotations used at the beginning of each subsection are the results of years of my personally collecting quotes. Most of authors can be referenced directly in the selected bibliography; however, some of the authors are annotated only by brief notes of past readings. Did I create a revolutionary theory? No, but I found new questions educators should ask about how children learn. I discovered students have much to offer if only I took the time to listen. I questioned my old teaching methodologies and found new dialogues. Hopefully through reading this epistemic inquiry, others can discover even more definitive answers that lead from the chariot of Phaedrus into the workings of the minds' of children. Every once upon a lifetime the web of ideas interconnect, and the mind begins to jump in randomness reaching with the depths of neuron tendrils to exclaim, "I understand." V ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you, Dr. Russell Dodson, for forcing me to question my educational practices. Thank you, Dr. Judith Lepushitz, for saying the right things to me at the right time and for encouraging my writing style. A very special thanks to my new committee members: Drs. Kathryn Castle, Natalie Adams, Martin Burlingame, Wen-song Hwu, and Pamela Bettis. Special recognition goes to my new thesis advisor, Dr. Adams and my chairperson, Dr. Castle. To you, Dr. Adams, your encouragement, phone calls and e-mails kept me working. I know you worked me into your filled schedule because you cared. Thank you for believing that the whole process was possible. To you, Dr. Castle, thank you for helping me and my cause. I have a deep respect and admiration for you. Finally, thank you, Jesse, my husband, for always loving me, for always supporting me and for reminding me this degree has been a life-long quest. VI TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. THE JOURNEY OF THE LEARNER. ............................................... 1 Introduction................................................................................... 1 The Metaphoric Search.................................................................. 4 The Paradox of Order and Disorder............................................... 7 Emergent Relationships . .. .. .. .. .. .. 10 Journeys to the Systems View ........................................................ 12 The Physicist, the Psychologist, and the Educator . 16 Methodology Rationale .................................................................. 19 Planned Ambiguity as Pedagogy .................................................... 20 INTERLUDE 1 .................................................................................. 23 The Empty Toilet Paper Roll, the Boa Constrictor and the Hat ...... 23 II. ADRIANNE'S STRING: EPISTEMIC INQUIRY AS AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH ............................................ 26 Post Suppositions .......................................................................... 26 Patterns and Homologies ............................................................... 32 Philosophical Framework and Research Sensitivity ......................... 33 Chronology of the Research ........................................................... 34 The Participant Observer ............................................................... 38 Indepth Interviews ..................................................................... ~ ... 41 Coding ........................................................................................... 43 Multivocal Literature ..................................................................... 45 Theoretical Saturation.................................................................... 4 7 Ethical Considerations ................................................................... 48 Limitations .................................................................................... 49, INTERLUDE 2 ................................................................................... 51 The Mythic Hero: Prigogine in the Classroom............................... 51 The Sampling of the Fifteen ........................................................... 54 The Individual Fifteen .................................................................... 56 Recurring Patterns ... Emergent Properties ...................................... 57 The Journey within the Classroom ................................................. 60 III. THE JOURNEYS OF THESEUS ...................................................... 64 Contemporary Complexity and the Mind Brain .............................. 64 Vll Chapter Page The Language of Complexity ......................................................... 67 Maps of the Mind .......................................................................... 70 Psychoanalysis and Myths .............................................................. 75 Hebb's Structural Contribution ...................................................... 77 The Bisociating Mind..................................................................... 80 The Holographic Mind ................................................................... 84 INTERLUDE 3 .................................................................................. 89 Buzzing, Blooming Confusion ........................................................ 89 The Definition of Learning .............................................................. 91 CHAPTER3 (CONTINUED) ............................................................. 98 Chaos