Autopoiesis, enactivism and student learning: An ecological model
Link Proceedings Collection December 31, 2021 Stanley Frielick
Student learning in higher education is better understood as an ecological, non-linear process rather than a simple cause-and-effect relationship. Drawing on the deep/surface learning research of Marton, Biggs, Ramsden, Prosser, and Trigwell, and integrating Bateson's ecology of mind with Maturana and Varela's concepts of autopoiesis and enactivism, the paper develops a model where cognition is embodied, learning is dialogical, and knowledge emerges from interactions within dynamic systems. The model emphasizes that learners and teachers are embedded in complex relationships with information, institutional structures, and each other, with learning arising from the transformation of information into understanding through shared action and mutual enactment of meaning.