Engaging Complexity

Complexity demands critical thinking. One way to urge our students to approach their studies more thoughtfully is to confront them with complexity.

Unfortunately, introducing students to greater complexity in the content may just lead to confusion. Consider, instead, how you might demonstrate complexity in the context. Without altering the kinds of terms and principles that already work in your lessons, you can engage your students' critical thinking skills by relating subject matter to real world settings — those fashioned by human culture and social life.

A teacher can create or close down the opportunities students have to link subject matter to the complex contexts of human action. He or she can denature knowledge, presenting it as bare bones facts, free from any cultural traditions, historical uses, or social consequences. On the other hand, this same teacher could opt to introduce precisely these contextual elements in order to challenge students to understand the subject matter more complexly.

This Teaching Tip offers suggestions for taking advantage of the teaching power inherent in complex contexts as you plan courses for the next semester.

Finding Complexity

Review your syllabus, readings, and assignments for the next semester. If your subject relies on a (presumably universal) social setting, introduce more complexity by trying the following:

Demystify. How might your materials be used to demystify stereotypes that naive students have about others? For example, Biology disproves the notion of race; Economics, the idea that lower class people are lazy. If can you startle students' simplistic assumptions, they may also learn the greater social significance of learning your material.

Contradictions. Your material may be used to introduce students to some of the contradictory dimensions of American life. "Democracies constrain freedom." "Gravity, speed, and time are related." Students must learn that we need our disciplines because some real life issues are too complex to be addressed with facile solutions. What contradictions might your course reveal?

Diversity Themes. Do your texts and materials approach the subject with the multiple perspectives that emerge from human pluralism? There are literatures, histories, sciences. Students who hear only one perspective will not have to struggle to understand your subject from the deeper vantage that can cross differences in human social lives. One useful approach to facilitating comparisons among approaches is to identify a theme that adequately opens up classroom discussion to these diverse perspectives. "Teaching for diversity" involves more than merely adding information about minorities to already existing course material. The strategies suggested here can offer teachers a way to bring the complexity that exists in our everyday lives into our lessons.

Complexity's Competencies

When engaging students in more complex ways of understanding a subject, it is essential that a teacher think through what students must actually be able to do, what level of cognitive and emotional development they must already demonstrate.

Clarify expected competence. What intellectual skills and insights are needed for students to respond productively to the complexity you introduce? Will they need to be open-minded? Must they identify different positions or compare them even- handedly? You can prepare students for success by making these (hidden) assumptions obvious. For an example of competencies you might consider foregrounding, contact the CIRT.

Consider competence level. The meta- skills required to address subjects within a diverse, complex context are sophisticated abilities that develop slowly. While, ideally, we want students to reach the most mature levels, to help them get there, we must consider the steps students will have to take to improve their abilities and transform their thinking. Milton Bennett, for example, outlines the steps student go through in learning to understand and relate to diverse others. Ask the CIRT for an outline of his model.

Define a target. Rarely can one course provide all the experiences a student needs to fully mature in terms of how they engage the cognitive and contextual demands of our subject matter. Instead of aiming for the impossible, each teacher should consider how his or her class can contribute to a student's overall development. It is best to target specific competencies and levels that can be accomplished in your course. Discuss with colleagues how your choices fit within the goals of the larger educational program that will guide students.

Clarifying competencies will help you establish evaluation criteria. As you design your course you can ask how students are learning to demonstrate that they can meet these criteria.

Preparing for Complex Classrooms

Because complex issues will give your lessons an added quality, you want to consider how you will prepare to be involved in a lively discourse. Consider the following questions:

Peter Frederick has written a classic essay on "The Dreaded Diversity Discussion" where he offers insights into how teachers can handle students who are deeply engaged in discussion (ask the CIRT for a copy).

Final Comments

Teachers can connect lessons to the complexities presented by the diverse social contexts within which our subject matter is embedded. Students who learn the necessary abilities will discover how our lessons can reveal the most practical of all education goals: how to succeed in the real world.

This Teaching Tip was prepared December 13, 1999 with the help of Dorothy Simpson Taylor, Academic Affairs.