One of the thinking moves that we hope our students will confidently engage with is centred around the disposition of uncovering complexity. As we endeavour to shift our students towards a deeper understanding, the capacity to uncover complexity is a vital step. However, the ability to uncover complexity is itself complex and an excellent example of a skill that is best achieved when considered as a disposition.
The difference between a capability and a disposition is subtle but important. Capabilities are the things which we can do. They include our ability to perform a particular task, such as communicating our ideas in writing or solving a routine problem. Dispositions are something more; they are the habitualised approach that we apply in a range of circumstances. Dispositions are flexible to context, thus allowing us to adapt to new circumstances.
The triadic approach to dispositions defines three components of a disposition. There is the obvious capability to perform the disposition. In the specific instance of uncovering complexity, this requires that we have the skills necessary to do so. Perhaps we have a set of questions that we mentally work our way through as we approach a complex situation. Maybe we are deliberate in slowing down and looking closely. Perhaps we step back cognitively or physically so as to gather a broader image of what is going on or we zoom in to see details.
Having the capability to apply such strategies alone, however, does not make a disposition. Additionally, one must also be aware that the context requires the application of such strategies. We see the absence of this awareness when we reflect upon a situation and acknowledge that it was more complex than we suspected. Our students demonstrate that they are unaware of the complexity of a situation when their response barely scratch the surface of a topic. A good example of this is the student who has written a one-page report on a topical topic such as climate change and believes they have written all that might be written on the subject. It is perhaps not that they are lazy but that they fail to understand this is the time to utilise their disposition for uncovering complexity.
The third step in the process towards the formation of a disposition is the motivation to apply it. The student who has no desire to understand the complexity of a Shakespearean sonnet has little hope of doing so. Perhaps the same student demonstrates excellent capabilities for uncovering complexity in an art or science lesson, but this capacity will go unnoticed to their language teacher.
What we desire for then is to encourage our students to develop a dispositional approach to the act of uncovering complexity. In doing this, we provide them with opportunities which require them to uncover complexity, support them recognising the presence of complexity and scaffold them as they explore beneath the surface. As we support them in uncovering complexity, we also help them to recognise the importance of doing so. We help our students to value going beyond a superficial understanding.
The motivation towards and awareness of the need to uncover complexity is achieved through pedagogical moves which influence the learner’s mindset. Our students grow into the habits of the culture in which they are immersed. Thus we will aim to build a culture that values thinking in all its forms. Building such a culture requires careful attention to the forces which shape it and those looking to do so should begin with understanding the eight cultural forces which shape our classrooms. However, the capacity for effective thinking can be handled more directly. Our students can learn to apply strategies which enhance and target their thinking to the needs of a task. Thinking routines are one approach to the challenge of learning how to maximise the efficacy of our thinking, and there are several routines well suited to this. Some of these are described below.
By immersing our students in a culture of thinking and providing them with knowledge of strategies which enhance the quality of their thinking, we give them the best chance of developing robust dispositions for learning. The combination of thinking routines and culture of thinking ensure students leave school with the capacity to think, the awareness of when to think and the motivation to do so.
Here are some thinking routines which might be of use when we aim to uncover complexity with thanks to Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church and Karin Morrison for their efforts in developing pedagogies which promote thinking.
True for Who? - Discuss a given situation thinking about the circumstances of the decision, the people involved, what was at stake, what were the interests and goals of the people involved. Collect this information into a chart and group ideas by points of view. Now use that information to Dramatise the thinking that led to the original decision. Each person uses the chart to respond to three questions:
My point of view is . . .
I think this claim is true/false/uncertain because . . .
What would convince me to change my mind is . . .
Some group members should observe this dramatisation and then reflect on what they have seen and heard.
Think, Pair, Share - Begin by considering options or responses by yourself. Give this process some time and then share your ideas with a partner. Once you have explained your ideas to your partner and listened to their thinking, share your combined ideas with the larger group. This can maximise the options available to the group and increases the power of many minds working together.
Connect, Extend, Challenge -
How are the ideas presented Connected to what you already know? What is most important here? What else do you notice? How does this compare to other ideas? What is different here?
What new ideas are presented that Extend what you know? What was your Ah-Ha moment?
What is still Challenging you, and where does your learning journey go next? What are your known unknowns? What might you be missing here? What questions will you begin with?
I used to think. . . Now I think . . . - Use this routine to make visible how your thinking has changed over the course of a learning experience. What changes for you as you moved from seeing just the surface to noticing the complexity? Then go beyond by describing What made you change your thinking? How did this change occur? What new learning have you achieved?
Parts, Purposes Complexity - The Agency By Design project has also produced some wonderful resources, and as design thinking is often about managing complexity, they are particularly useful for this task. I like “Parts, Purpose, Complexities”. Students are asked to begin by identifying and describing the parts which combine to make an object, system or idea. They then consider the purpose of each part to the whole. Lastly, they reflect on how the part is complex, how its role in the whole is complex, and what complexity results from its interactions with other parts. Like all of the ideas from Agency By Design, they can be applied well to many circumstances and certainly should not be limited to those involving design in a traditional sense. For example, Parts, Purposes, Complexity might be applied to the analysis of a poem using questions such as:
What are the parts of this poem?
What is the purpose of each part?
What complexity is seen in how the parts interact?
or in mathematics by asking:
What are the parts of this formula or proposed solution?
What purpose does each part play?
What complexity can we see here that we might reduce?
By Nigel Coutts