| Summary: | Recent findings in complexity theory and enactivism have a relevance on how we view and
teach children. In this study, 10-yearold children were taught the basics of complexity
theory using improvisational writing, theatre sports, and fractal geometry over a 6-month
period. The curriculum was framed in an extemporal methodology based in complexity
theory (specifically drawing on chaos theory, systems theory, and emergence). An
enactivist theory of cognition, whereby knowledge is seen as a complex process involving
learners, teacher, and environment—rather than a reductionist project of inputting
information into learners—was the basis for final appraisal of student learning. The
outcomes of the study suggest that complexity and enactivism might serve to inform both
the content and the structure of curriculum—in the process, rendering visible many of the
reductionist and untenable assumptions that infuse much of conventional teaching.
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