With the help of Teacher-Powered Schools, Socol-Moran Partners, Stimpunks, and What School Could Be, we’ve officially announced our 4th annual virtual Conference to Restore Humanity for July 21-23, focused this year on the Quest for Connection. If you’re interested in joining us, tickets start at just 50 bucks and you can find the full lineup at humanrestorationproject.org/conference

Today I’m joined by Christian Moore-Anderson. And I wanted to have Christian on to talk about the ideas that drive his teaching practice and that he shares in his book, Difference Maker: Enacting systems theory in biology teaching. While that title may seem daunting, Christian’s teaching would immediately look and feel to observers like “just good teaching.” But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Informing his theory and practice of teaching is a set of related ideas that I was largely unfamiliar with before encountering it in his book: cybernetics, systems theory, and enactivism. Cybernetics is simply a feedback loop. Just as someone steering a ship adjusts the rudder based on feedback from the ocean, so too does good pedagogy depend on what Christian calls “recursive teaching”, or a constant feedback loop of action, interpretation, and learning between teachers and students. You can connect with Christian on BlueSky @cmooreanderson.bsky.social.

Difference Maker: Enacting Systems Theory in Biology Teaching - Christian Moore-Anderson

Christian's Recommended Reading:

From Being to Doing: The Origins of the Biology of Cognition - Humberto Maturana, Bernhard Pörksen

The Pragmatic Turn: Toward Action-Oriented Views in Cognitive Science Edited by Andreas K. Engel, Karl J. Friston and Danica Kragic 

Understanding Systems: Conversations on Epistemology and Ethics - Heinz von Foerster 

The Cybernetic Brain: Sketches of Another Future - Andrew Pickering 

Runaway: Gregory Bateson, the Double Bind, and the Rise of Ecological Consciousness - Anthony Chaney