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Introduction
Hong Kong has embarked on a program of reform to curricula and their
associated pedagogy to break with modernist approaches and the
traditionalist, didactic, rote-learning and fact-based recitation practices of
learning in Chinese students (compare Biggs, 1996a, 1996b; Marton et al,
1996), installing multiple curricular reforms over a six-year period until
2006. A new curriculum has been developed, which covers aims and
values, curriculum framing, pedagogy, assessment and examinations,
social inclusion, organization of schools, collaborative planning and
teaching, school-based curriculum development, lifelong learning,
resources, implementation, and all sectors of education, from early
childhood to higher education. The curriculum is framed in terms of:
Five essential learning experiences through integrated learning;
Eight key learning areas, constructed in terms of basic learning
elements (knowledge, concepts, skills, attitudes and values);
Nine generic skills;
Five sets of values and attitudes.
A new culture in learning and teaching is envisaged (Education
Commission, 2000, p. 60), and reforms are proposed to assessment and
examinations. In connection with this, the Hong Kong Education
Commission (hereafter termed EC) and the Hong Kong Curriculum
Development Council (hereafter termed CDC) have produced three
influential reports since 2000 (EC, 2000; CDC, 2000, 2001). These
documents signal an ambitious and forward-looking shift in perspective
for Hong Kong curricula, away from a modernist paradigm and agenda.
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This article argues that the new paradigm in these documents embraces
significant features of complexity theory. The article outlines some key
elements of complexity theory, and suggests that it is a useful lens
through which to examine curriculum developments, and to guide
reformist curricular agendas.
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A Complex Society
It is a truism to state that society is changing, and that the paradigms for
understanding society are themselves changing. Change is ubiquitous,
and stability and certainty are things of the past. The compression of
time and space into a celebration of the ahistorical present has brought
with it a range of features which, it is argued here, are best characterized
by a complexity-driven paradigm of society, replacing positivism with
complexity theory (Lewin, 1993; Morrison, 2002). The elements of
complexity theory are set out in Figure 1.
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Figure 2 shows how the interaction of individuals feeds into the wider
environment which, in turn, exerts influence back into the individual
units of the network. Bar-Yam (1997) suggests that a complex system is
formed from its several elements, and that the behaviour of the complex
system as a whole is greater than the sum of the parts (see also Goodwin,
2000, p. 42).
Fixity in the environment and its components does not exist;
stability is the stability of the mortuary. Stable systems, as Stacey (1992,
p. 40) reminds us, ultimately fail. Indeed, April (1997, p. 26) suggests that
change and unpredictability are requirements if an organism is to survive:
a butterfly which flies in a straight line without zigzags will fall prey very
fast. A heartbeat is marked by regularity immediately prior to cardiac
arrest. Curricula must change to survive. Disequilibrium is vital for
survival. The caterpillar must cede to the butterfly if the species is to
survive.
Feedback must occur between the interacting elements of the
system (e.g. parts or elements of the curriculum or its subjects).
Complexity theorists (Waldrop, 1992; Cilliers, 1998) have turned to
Hebbs (1949) views on learning here, and, of course, curricula concern
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Complexity
Non-linear Chaos
Figure 3.
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Keith Morrison
Stacey (2000, pp. 395 and 399) suggests that a system can only evolve,
and evolve spontaneously, where there is diversity and deviance: a
salutary message for command-and-control teachers who exact
compliance from their pupils, and who are a significant problem in many
Hong Kong schools. Similarly Fullan (2001, p. 42) suggests listening
carefully to dissenters and resisters, as they may have important
messages to convey and may be critical to effective change, building in
difference.
The exact movement, reconfiguration and destruction of the sand
pile mentioned above are largely unpredictable. At the point of selforganized criticality the effects of a single event are likely to be very
large, breaking the linearity of Newtonian reasoning wherein small causes
produce small effects. The single straw breaks the camels back, and a
small cause has a massive effect; a single grain of sand destroys the
pyramid. Change implies, then, a move towards self-organized criticality,
and such self-organized criticality evolves without interference from any
outside agent (Bak, 1996, p. 31): it emerges. In the case of the sand pile,
Michaels (1995) and Bak (1996) suggest that it would be nothing if the
grains did not relate to each other and hold each other together: that is,
relationships and mutual support are keys to success, to successful
curriculum development and pedagogy. Recalling Hebbs account of
learning earlier, if association is to be strengthened then this requires
collaboration.
Adaptation to change requires finding ones niche in ones
environment ones best fitness landscape for survival and
development (Kauffman, 1995) in order to take ones place in
competitive environments. The move to finding ones best situation
propels one toward the edge of chaos, the point of self-organized
criticality (Bak, 1996). A significant factor here is that the closer one
moves towards the edge of chaos, the more creative, open-ended,
imaginative, diverse, and rich are the behaviours, ideas and practices of
individuals and organizations, and the greater is the connectivity,
networking and information sharing (content and rate of flow) between
participants (Stacey et al, 2000, p. 146). The message is that if an
individual or organization wishes to become creative and imaginative in
order to survive, then it may have to expect to be pressed towards selforganized criticality. This is not a euphemism for unmitigated stress and
pressure the intensification thesis (Hargreaves, 1994) but rather a
suggestion that teachers and children need support and space to
develop, to change, and to be creative and imaginative. Simply
pressurising is ineffectual.
Linear, mechanistic models of curricula no longer apply, and
networks and dynamical, ever-changing curricula and turbulent
environments are the order of the day. Put simply, complex adaptive
systems (Waldrop, 1992, pp. 294-299) scan and sense the external
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Similarly, the ECs report mentions that the curriculum should include,
amongst other aims, a focus on developing the capability for
independent thinking, critical analysis and problem-solving and teamwork, as well as adaptability, creativity, organizational skills and
communication skills (p. 9). The resonances with key characteristics of
complexity theory are powerful. In this respect, too, the move from the
target-oriented curriculum in Hong Kong in the mid-1990s to a new
framing of the curriculum which is expressed in Learning for Life (EC,
2000) and Learning to Learn (CDC, 2001) represents a significant
departure from Tylerian sympathies.
Modernist curriculum
Complex curricula
Curricula are:
Objectives-driven
Standardized blueprint
Summatively assessed
Simple and straightforward
Prescribed/received/
reproductive/passive
Hierarchical
Bureaucratised
Closed systems
Mechanistic/inflexible
Predictable/linear
Determined
Standardized
Totalizing narratives
Absolutist
Controlling
Directives-driven
Fixed
Process-driven
Diverse/dissimilar
Formative
Complex and individualistic
Negotiated/student-driven/
transformative/adaptive
Collegial
Networked/connected
Open systems
Organic/fluid
Emergent/non-linear
Adaptive/evolving/developmental
Flexible/divergent
No meta-narratives
Shared values/relativism
Self-organized/empowering
Recursive through feedback
Developing through collaborative
learning
Premised on relationships/
communication
Based on order without control and
distributed decision-making
Dehumanized
Driven by powerful groups
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Values, attitudes
and moral
education
Chinese-language
education
English-language
education
Mathematics
education
Science education
Technology
education
Personal, social and
humanities education
Arts education
Physical education
Collaboration
Communication
Creativity
Critical thinking
Information
technology
Numeracy
Problem-solving
Self-management
Study
Core personal
values
Sustaining
personal values
Core social values
Sustaining social
values
Attitudes
Moral, emotional
and spiritual
education
The emphasis is on heterogeneity, multiplicity and difference, on studentcentred learning, and on school-based curriculum development as an
important complement to government guidelines. The CDC (2001,
pp. 69-73) advocates school-based curriculum development, with on-site
support (many action research projects are established in Hong Kong), a
feature like the the self-organization of complexity theory. The CDC (2000,
p. 13) states clearly that the curriculum requires school-based
autonomy, to facilitate learning within a government-set direction.
Content alone is insufficient to realize the complex curriculum, and
it is through pedagogy that much change is effected. Pedagogy implies
relationships, and relationships, communication, connectedness and
feedback lie at the heart of much of the curriculum. Pedagogy transforms
people, and, as Aronowitz & Giroux (1986) remark, teachers act as
transformative intellectuals, working on and with content, not simply
delivering predigested and prescribed curricula, to achieve a more
equitable society in which individual dignity and identity are fashioned
and refashioned. This is the role of critical pedagogy, which shortage of
space prevents this article from unpacking (but see Giroux, 1983, 1989,
1992; Aronowitz & Giroux, 1986). In the complex curriculum, with its
emphasis on interconnectedness and integration of learning, it is within
the learner herself or himself that such integration can be wrought
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issues. Similarly its document of 2001 (p. 85) includes clear advocacy of
moral and civic education and interactive learning.
In terms of pedagogy, several principles flow from a complexitybased conception of curriculum, for example (compare Morrison, 1996):
A process curriculum;
Higher-order thinking; the ECs report emphasizes the need for
independent, creative thinkers (2000, p. 38);
Discussion-based activities and increased pupil talk;
Critical pedagogy (Giroux, 1983);
Ideology critique and the call for collaborative action research in
schools (compare Carr & Kemmis, 1986), a feature which is being
enacted in Hong Kong as several action research projects are being
sponsored by the governments Quality Education Fund
(http://www.info.gov.hk/qef/index1.htm);
Autonomous, experiential learning; this is evident in the ECs advocacy
of a new culture in learning and teaching (2000, pp. 60-62);
Weak classification and framing, and integrated curricula (Bernstein,
1971); the EC report of 2000 (p. 61) and CDC report of 2000 place
emphasis on integration;
Community-related learning; the EC report of 2000 and CDC report of
2000 place emphasis on community learning (pp. 61 and 40
respectively);
Collaborative/cooperative work; this finds voice in the generic skills
of the CDCs 2001 report and the repeated emphasis on cooperative
learning in its 2000 document;
Problem-posing and problem-solving;
Flexible learning, made possible in part through developments in
information communication and technology;
Negotiated learning and student-centred learning.
These are touchstones for pedagogy, and are at a far remove from the
transmissive, didactic, traditionalist, rote-learning and repetition-based
views of learning which characterize some models of the Chinese learner
and teacher. It is interesting to note that the EC report of 2000
emphasises a movement away from transmission to learning how to
learn: the development of metacognition (p. 60).[4]
In terms of assessment, several key principles flow from a complexity
perspective. For example, assessment is to be: formative; authentic;
negotiated; participatory; portfolio-based (the EC report of 2000
specifically mentions this on p. 101); connoisseurship-based (compare
Eisner, 1985); emancipatory and empowering. Indeed the CDC document
(2000, pp. 54-55) is explicit in its advocacy of formative assessment, a
diversity of modes of assessment, target-setting with students, student
self-assessment, diagnostic assessment, and negotiated assessments.
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Notes
[1] Even though one can replace the role of education as another service
industry with all the panoply of the Tylerian mentality and its link to
accountability, one ought not to overlook the fact that Tyler was asked,
qua manager, to devise a curriculum that met managerialist concerns of
the time, which was largely characterized by scientific management and
Taylorism. Tylerism, it must be said, is useful for managers and
management, but, like much management, is positivist and even
manipulative (compare Everard & Morris, 1991) .
[2] Of course, this is not new; for example the Core Curriculum for Australian
Schools (Curriculum Development Centre, 1980, p. 20) discusses learning
processes (ways of organizing knowledge; dispositions and values;
interpersonal and group relationships; learning and thinking techniques;
skills or abilities; forms of expression; practical performances); areas of
knowledge and experience (arts and crafts; environmental studies;
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[3] It is little wonder that these areas of the curriculum had little statutory
status in the National Curriculum of England and Wales, and were
unexamined, both key ways of according status to a subject.
[4] Of course one has to be cautious in being too dismissive of rote learning,
memorization, putative low-level cognitive strategies, large classes and
putative teacher-centred teaching in considering the Chinese, or indeed
other learners. Research by Biggs (1996a; 1996b), Marton et al (1996),
Dahlin & Watkins (2000), Biggs & Watkins (2001), Watkins & Biggs (2001),
Cortazzi & Jin (2001) and Mok et al (2001) suggests that it may be a
Western misperception to regard such practices negatively, as problems.
Asian students achieve highly on international measures of performance.
Repetition and memorization do not preclude, and indeed can lead to,
understanding, deep rather than superficial learning, high-level cognitive
strategies and the creation of a deep impression of material on the
Chinese learners mind. Many Chinese teachers handle large classes in
cognitively sophisticated, high-level, involved and engaging ways (i.e. the
separation of teacher-centred teaching from learner-centred learning is
untenable; Cortazzi & Jin, 2001). However, one has to note that these
studies report on understanding, and suggest that understanding may not
be a casualty of traditionalist teaching. That may not be in question; more
to the point is whether these approaches are sufficiently transformative,
sufficiently empowering, and sufficient in promoting student voice,
creativity, self-organization, critique and societal emancipation. As Marx
said in his Theses on Feuerbach: The philosophers have only interpreted
the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.
Correspondence
Keith Morrison, School of Education, Inter-University Institute of Macau,
Rua de Londres P, Edf. Tak Ip Plaza, R/C 3 andar, Macau, via Hong
Kong (kmorrison@iium.edu.mo).
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