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