The Matrix in the Physics classroom: Complexity and the hidden
curriculum.
David Brookes
Assistant Professor, Physics Department
Florida International University
Education is a true complex dynamical system. On the one hand it is
stubbornly stable, resistant to all efforts to change it. On the other
hand, it can be fundamentally altered by the simplest unconscious
gestures and actions. The glue that binds an educational system
together is the shared epistemic beliefs of those engaged in the
enterprise. I want to present an argument that epistemology is more
than something esoteric that Physics Education researchers worry about
but rather something that we all worry about every minute of the day.
It is inseparable from cognition itself. Like The Matrix it is
everywhere around us in every part of our lives. Every act in the
classroom sends an epistemic message about what it means to know
something in that context. These epistemic messages are
encoded in our assessments, the textbook, the way we talk, the
structure of the physical classroom and so on. These
messages form the fundamental backbone of what we call the hidden
curriculum.. It is the hidden epistemic feedback between
the elements of the educational system that make it both easy to
manipulate, and resistant to change.
Last modified: Mon Oct 4 13:07:14 2010