Dr. Eric Brewe
Florida International University
Department of Science Education and Physics
Modeling Physics Education Transformation as an Educational Ecosystem
102 Cardwell Hall
December 3, 2012
4:30 p.m.
In an effort to describe the successful on-going
educational outreach and reform efforts in physics at Florida International
University we consider the complex context of the educational ecosystem (Aubusson
2002, 2006). Through the application of this theoretical perspective we
identify elements of the reform effort and propose a research driven model
for sustainable educational reform. Aubusson (2006, 2002) utilized
analogical mapping to establish an analogy between an ecosystem and a school
reform effort in science. Educational reform is a complex process that
requires overall systemic change which accounts for local contexts in order
to be sustainable (Finkelstein, 2005; Stoll and Fink, 2003). Exploiting the
analogy to reason about educational reform points out that reform depends on
a complex web of interconnected subsystems. Each of these subsystems are
critical to the overall health of the ecosystem. Other characteristics
identified by the analogy between the two systems include the following
characteristics of ecosystems in educational systems: complexity,
homeostasis, succession over time, fitness, generation/regeneration,
opportunism, reproductive maturity, fragility, variational evolution,
purpose, and knowledge. In order to document the broad educational reform,
we have identified three interconnected sub-systems, (curricular reform,
community, and advocacy) which have been instrumental to the flourishing
educational ecosystem at FIU. By identifying these systems as the
constituents, we are in effect establishing the boundaries of our
educational ecosystem. These sub-systems, have been subject to on-going
research efforts (Brewe et. al., 2008, 2009). In this talk we describe the
three subsystems, the connections between the subsystems, identify their
role in sustaining the educational ecosystem, and describe how the
educational ecosystem model provides a sustainable approach to educational
reform.
Refreshments in CW 119 at 4:15 p.m.