The purpose of this paper is to explore the significance of recursive processes in the evolution of learning in both individuals and organisations, beginning with a clarification…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the significance of recursive processes in the evolution of learning in both individuals and organisations, beginning with a clarification of the distinction between recursion and other types of feedback, drawing on insights from Humberto Maturana and George Richardson.
Design/methodology/approach
Further work informing this inquiry includes Gregory Bateson on learning levels, Chris Argyris and Donald Schon on double loop learning, Peter Senge on organizational learning, and James G. Miller on the processing of matter/energy and information in living systems, at different levels of organization.
Findings
The paper provides an original synthesis of insights from Miller's living systems theory, in exploring the implications of Bateson's learning levels, as well as further insights from the work of Argyris, Schon and Senge, at cellular, individual, organisational, and global levels, to reinforce the need for a higher order, global level of learning.
Originality/value
Value in findings outlined above.
Details
Keywords
Cheryl J. Craig, Paige K. Evans, Rakesh Verma, Donna W. Stokes and Jing Li
This narrative inquiry examines teachers' influences on undergraduate/graduate students who enrolled in STEM programs and intended to enter STEM careers. Three National Science…
Abstract
This narrative inquiry examines teachers' influences on undergraduate/graduate students who enrolled in STEM programs and intended to enter STEM careers. Three National Science Foundation (NSF) scholarship grants sat in the backdrop. Narrative exemplars were crafted using the interpretative tools of broadening, burrowing, storying and restorying, fictionalization, and serial interpretation. Three diverse students' narratives constituted the science education cases: one from teacher education, another about cybertechnology, and a third involving cybersecurity. The influence of the university students' former teachers cohered around five themes: (1) same program-different narratives, (2) in loco parentis, (3) counterstories, (4) learning in small moments, and (5) the importance of the liberal arts in STEM education. The students' narratives form instructive models for their siblings and other students pursuing STEM degrees/careers. Most importantly, the multiperspectival stories of experiences capture the far-reaching impact of “unsung teachers” whose long-term influence is greatly underestimated by the public.