Approximate the starting conditions; you can’t replicate them anyway
…trying to exactly replicate the starting conditions might well be wasteful, it is in anyway impossible. However in the context of experiments and transfer of learning…one would not be attempting an exact replication, but rather to say something along the lines of XYZ put these things in place, had these resources and took these actions and things worked for them. Having done that, you move on work out the degree to which you can replicate those starting conditions, or where, given your local context to have to provide a substitute. You then take action and monitor, reinforcing good patterns, disrupting the bad ones. Now I summarised that quickly in the phrase: In any complex system you can never replicate outcome, but you can replicate starting conditions.
- Dave Snowden
Now to Earl’s objection to “In any complex system you can never replicate outcome, but you can replicate starting conditions”. I think he’s saying that you can’t replicate the ‘starting context’ for the teacher, because the teacher has already experienced the original outcome and process. The teacher is changed. They are no longer in exploratory/experimenter mode, they are well on the path to process entrainment and ritualisation (an important survival tactic for overworked teachers).
For me it comes down to outcomes again. If the desired outcome is ‘an exact replica of what happened last time’ then the change in the teacher’s starting context might lead them to impose structure to force the desired outcome. You might then end up with similar outwardly visible behavior as last time, but nothing like similar learning experiences taking place.
Related
Something that works in town X will not necessarily work in town Y
