Instantiation of complexity of students and teachers' learnings in an EFL classroom

Abstract

This article reports on some of the results of a study whose objective was to interpret students' and teachers' learning as it emerged out of the interactions generated in and beyond the context of their EFL class in a state school in Barranquilla, Colombia. In this study I use principles of complex systems (MORIN, 1994) to make sense of the learning systems of students and teachers in an EFL class in Barranquilla, Colombia. The data for this ethnographic case-study include classroom observations, interviews, learning journals and documents (students' notebooks, worksheets, quizzes, and syllabus). A qualitative software program (Atlas.ti 6.0) was used to process data. Results from this study contribute to understand learning as a complex system by approaching students' learning from a complex perspective recursively connected to teachers' learning.

Keywords

• students' learning
• teachers' learning
• complexity
• principles of complex systems
• ethnographic case study
• EFL