The document discusses the concept of variety in cybernetics and its application to pedagogy and educational systems. It defines variety as the number of possible states of a system and explains that for a control system to stabilize a complex system, the control system must have an equal or greater level of variety. It provides examples of variety in systems like traffic lights, chess, and sports. It also discusses how different teaching methods can act as amplifiers or attenuators of variety within a classroom system and impact the learning process. The document calls for further research on developing detailed models of variety management in pedagogies and determining best practices.

1. Variety and Pedagogy Oleg Liber

4. Example 1: traffic lights = 8 = 4

8. Traffic lights Stop Prepare to go Go Prepare to stop Variety (Traffic light) = Variety (Driver)

11. High variety Low variety amplifier attenuator transducer channel Each system constrains its own variety Messages are transduced Channels have capacity (bandwidth) to transmit variety Amplifiers increase variety Attenuators reduce variety

12. Expert Novice Expert simplifies Converts to appropriate form Communicates simplified message Novice interprets … Rich domain model Crude domain model

13. Ignorance is the lethal attenuator!

16. Rules, responsibilities and resources Class Teacher How are these typically implemented in different pedagogical scenarios? What is communicated? Are these amplifiers or attenuators?

17. Managing the avoidance of conflict and achieving synergy Class Teacher How is this achieved in different pedagogic scenarios? What methods are there for stopping learners from competing unreasonably for resources? How do these affect their learning?

18. Monitoring the health of the system Class Teacher What determines the “health” of an educational system? How can teachers find out the current state of health?

19. Elaborating the channels The department /institution Other courses Teacher monitoring resource negotiation Self-organisation adaptation Environment Environment co-ordination