Variety and Pedagogy Oleg Liber
May 17, 2015
Variety and PedagogyOleg Liber
Introduction
A virtue of cybernetics is that it offers a method for the scientific treatment of the system in which complexity is outstanding and too important to be ignored.
Cybernetics offers the hope of providing effective methods for the study, and control, of systems that are intrinsically extremely complex.
…it offers the hope of providing the essential methods by which to attack ills—psychological, social, economic—which at present are defeating us by their intrinsic complexity
Definitions
The number of possible states of a systemThe number of relevant (constrained) states of a
systemThe number of observed or observable states of
a system
W. Ross Ashby, (1956) An Introduction to Cybernetics, Chapman & Hall, London. Internet (1999): http://pcp.vub.ac.be/books/IntroCyb.pdf
Example 1: traffic lights
= 8
= 4
Example 2: Chess
Number of legal positions ≈ 1043
Claude Shannon (1950) "Programming a Computer for Playing Chess", Phil. Mag. 41 256-275
Number of options available to a player is much less.
What does this imply?
Example 3: Football
Number of possible states of a team of 11 players= ?
Number of possible states of a great team of 11 players=?
Number of possible states of a team of 11 great players=?
Law of Requisite Variety
If a system is to be stable the number of states of its control mechanism must be greater than or equal to the number of states in the system being controlled
"only variety can destroy variety“
Ashby, W.R. 1956, Introduction to Cybernetics, Chapman & Hall
Traffic lights
Stop
Prepare to go
Go
Prepare to stop
Variety (Traffic light) = Variety (Driver)
Variety and Games
Competitive games are design to balance variety
Skill and tactics tip the balance
Balancing variety
What if one football team has only 5 players, or is much better than the other?
What if one tennis player is much better than the other?
Amplifiers increase the variety of one side Attenuators limit the variety of one side
High variety Low variety
amplifier
attenuator
transducer
channel
Each system constrains its own varietyMessages are transducedChannels have capacity (bandwidth) to transmit varietyAmplifiers increase varietyAttenuators reduce variety
Expert Novice
Expert simplifiesConverts to appropriate formCommunicates simplified messageNovice interprets…
Rich domain model
Crude domain model
Ignorance is the lethal attenuator!
Pedagogy as variety management
Class Teacher
Explore how attenuation, amplification, and transduction take place within:1.Lecture based teaching2.Problem based learning (a problem is set with resources to help solution discovery)3.Resource based learning (learning content is matched to the learner)4.Inquiry based learning (learners are supported in identifying own problem and resources)5.Discovery learning (learners are put into designed environments to encourage the “discovery” of ideas and principles)
Elaborating the channels
Class Teacher
Communications involve:1.maintaining agreements on rules, responsibilities and resources2.managing the avoidance of conflict and achieving synergy3.monitoring the health of the system4.emergencies!
Rules, responsibilities and resources
Class Teacher
How are these typically implemented in different pedagogical scenarios?What is communicated?Are these amplifiers or attenuators?
Managing the avoidance of conflict and achieving synergy
Class Teacher
How is this achieved in different pedagogic scenarios?What methods are there for stopping learners from competing unreasonably for resources?How do these affect their learning?
Monitoring the health of the system
Class Teacher
What determines the “health” of an educational system?How can teachers find out the current state of health?
Elaborating the channels
Teacher
monitoring
resource negotiation
Self-organisation adaptation
Environment
Environment
co-ordination
The department/institution
Other courses
Research Actions
• Detailed models of variety management in different pedagogies
• How specific uses of particular technologies influence variety management
• Criteria for determining “better” variety management
Next seminars?
• Recursion and the Education System
• The full Viable System Model
Reading
W. Ross Ashby, (1956) An Introduction to Cybernetics, Chapman & Hall, London. Internet (1999): http://pcp.vub.ac.be/books/IntroCyb.pdfWalker, J. (2006) The Viable System Model Guide (Appendix 2) http://www.esrad.org.uk/resources/vsmg_3/screen.php?page=variety