This document outlines Erika Pace's research interests and a proposed project on developing a reflective journal to guide teacher training. The project aims to increase teacher efficacy in inclusive settings. It will design a journal, measure teacher efficacy before and after a course using a validated scale, and pilot test the journal. The rationale discusses complexity in classrooms, implications of inclusion, self-efficacy and its link to teacher agency. Reflective practice and Alain Berthoz's theory of simplexity are also summarized as underpinning the project. Six simplex principles as tools for life are outlined.

1. Erika M. Pace
Prof. Paola Aiello

2. Department of Humanities,
Philosophy and Education,
University of Salerno
Research Interests:
 Inclusive and Special Needs Education, Teacher
Education, Non-linear Trajectories in
Didactics, Technology in Education
 Motor Activity, The Role of the Body in
Educational Research, Health and Wellbeing

3. Project Outline
Research aim:
To develop a resource to guide reflective processes
during teacher education courses that will positively
impact teacher efficacy to deal with the complexity
characterising inclusive school settings.

4. Specific Objective:
Create and pilot test the effectiveness of a
specifically-designed professional development
journal to be used during teacher education courses
to guide reflective processes aimed at increasing
teacher efficacy to work in inclusive contexts.
Project Outline

5. Core Project Phases:
• Design and develop a professional development
journal to be used during a teacher training course;
• Teacher efficacy will be measured prior to and at
the end of the course using the Teacher Efficacy
for Inclusive Practices (TEIP) scale, a validated tool
designed by Sharma, Loreman & Forlin (2011);
Project Outline
• Pilot test the resource
during a teacher
training course and
gather feedback on
journal use.

6. Rationale
3. Reflective practice – acknowledged as an essential
competence for lifelong learning and continuous
professional development;
4. The theory of simplexity: its application to
didactics may provide a key to face complexity.
1. Complexity: in inclusive contexts,
teaching-learning processes and
inclusive teaching;
2. Teacher agency: depends on
teacher efficacy, which is
underpinned by personal, behavioural
and environmental factors;

7. Complexity in 21st Century Classrooms
Fast social, cultural, economic and technological
change leading to:
 obsolescence of knowledge and skills
(Michel, 2001) within knowledge-based
economies (OECD, 1996);
 an unpredictable environment in constant
evolution (Putman, 2012; Sibilio, 2014).
Shift from dual track to single-track inclusive
systems

8. Implications of Inclusive Education
A radical shift in attitudes and a willingness on
the part of schools to transform practices:
• in the curriculum on offer,
• the assessment,
• recording and reporting of pupils’ achievements,
• the decisions that are taken on the grouping of
pupils within schools or classrooms,
• pedagogy and classroom practice,
• sport and leisure and recreational opportunities
(Mittler, 2000).

9. The Construct of Self-efficacy
SELF-EFFICACY:
“what you believe you can do with what you have
under a variety of circumstances” (Bandura, 1986 p. 37).
Individual’s overall
perceptions
of his/her abilities
- SELF-EFFICACY
Motivation to
change
Personal
Factors
Behavioural
Factors
Environmental
Factors

10. Self-efficacy and Teacher Agency
Self-efficacy is an essential component within human
agency, defined as the intentional completion of
actions (Bandura, 1986), as it influences:
• the choice of tasks,
• the effort one puts into the application of such
tasks and
• the persistence over time (Putman, 2012);
all fundamental elements when working within
complex scenarios as are inclusive classrooms and
systems.

11. Self-efficacy and Teacher Agency
A strong predictor of various variables linked to
effective inclusive education such as:
• willingness and openness to innovation (Berman,
Mc Laughlin, Bass, Pauly & Zellman, 1977, Guskey,
1988, Stein & Wang, 1988);
• persistence when faced with low-performing
students (Gibson & Dembo, 1984; Pajares, 1996);
• lower inclination to refer a difficult student to
special education (Meijer & Foster, 1988; Podell &
Sodak, 1993; Soodak & Podell, 1993); and
• a higher likelihood to implement effective
methods of instruction (Ashton & Webb, 1986;
Bandura, 1997).

12. Reflective Practice
“it is through the
development of knowledge
and understanding of the
practice setting and the ability
to recognize and respond to
such knowledge that the
reflective practitioner
becomes truly responsive to
the needs, issues, and
concerns that are so
important in shaping practice”
(Loughran, 2002, p.42).

13. The Theory of Simplexity – Alain Berthoz
 Based on simplifying principles, a complex adaptive
system finds solutions
“to process complex situations very rapidly,
elegantly, and efficiently, taking past experience
into account and anticipating the future” (Berthoz,
2012, p.3).
 Simplexity complements complexity – it’s not an
anytonym. Nor is it a synonym of simplicity.
 Simplexity is an ensemble of
solutions that appeared in the
course of evolution to allow
living organisms to survive
despite the complexity of
natural processes.

14. Simplexity – 6 Characteristics or Properties
Specialisation and Modularity
needed for the breakdown of
a complex task into various
functions to facilitate better
control of action
needed for the ability of decision
making when anticipating and
predicting consequences of
actions, capitalising the results of
past experiences and betting on the
behaviour of others
Speed

15. Simplexity – 6 Characteristics or Properties
Reliability
to reduce the margin of error
to a minimum
the ability to select the right strategy
from a repertoire of choices to resolve a
problem, perceive, capture, decide, or
act depending on the context
Flexibility, Vicariance and Adaptation
to Change

16. Simplexity – 6 Characteristics or Properties
Memory
present action relies on
this characteristic to
predict the future
consequences of an
action
the ability to capitalize
patterns of interactions
in similar situations
Generalization

17. Six Simplex Principles as Tools for Life
1. Inhibition and the
Principle of Refusal
• Enables competition,
and consequently
decision making,
plasticity (flexibility),
and stability.
• It enhances speed to
select from among the
complex constituents
that make up any
phenomenon, act, or
situation.
• Selecting one action over
another requires
inhibiting all the actions
one does not choose and
disinhibit the one acted.

18. Six Simplex Principles as Tools for Life
2. The principle of
specialisation and
selection
• Every species scans the
world only form cues
important to its survival,
creating one’s own umwelt
(subjective universe).
• It involves the selection of
pertinent information
needed to reach the goal
of action.
• It is induced during a
stimulus-response process,
but it is also intrinsic to
adopting a perspective to
project one’s intentions
and hypothesise onto the
world.

19. Six Simplex Principles as Tools for Life
3. The principle of
Probabilistic
Anticipation
• Prediction always involves probability, and to take action
the brain has to make some hypotheses, deciding on what
probability that hypothesis has of being correct on the
basis of the information available in the present as well as
taking the memory of past experiences into account.
• Key to innovation thanks to its unique spatial and
temporal organisation.

20. Six Simplex Principles as Tools for Life
4. The Detour principle
• Essential to solve non linear
problems.
• Inextricably linked to creative
thought and action.
• Short-cuts should not be
ignored, but systems need to
ensure that taking the longer
way is not faster.

21. Six Simplex Principles as Tools for Life
5. The principle of Cooperation and
Redundancy
• Redundancy refers to the duplication of components or
function of a system with the intention to increase
reliability of the system to make it fail-safe.
• Cooperation refers to the process of combining the
information available to ensure that the information is
coherent and therefore mitigate the risk of error.

22. Six Simplex Principles as Tools for Life
6. The principle of Meaning
• Since “simplex solutions are motivated by intentions,
goals, or functions”, it implies affirming the principle of
meaning whose foundations are in the act itself.

23. Erika M. Pace
epace@unisa.it