The Classroom as A Complex Adaptive System: An Agent-Based Framework to Investigate Students ’ Emergent Collective

Abstract: This study applies agent-based modeling methodology to investigate individual and social factors underlying inequitable participation patterns observed in a real classroom in which an experimental collaborative activity was implemented. We created agent-based simulations of simplified collaborative activities and qualitatively compared results from running the model with the classroom data. We found that collaboration pedagogy emphasizing group performance may forsake individual learning, due to preference for short-term group efficacy over individual long-term learning. The study may inform professional development and pedagogical policy. Agent-Based Modeling and Team Work in Classrooms Agent-based modeling (ABM) has been increasingly used by scientists to study a wide range of phenomena such as species in an ecosystem or molecules in a chemical reaction (Bonabeau, 1999; Wilensky & Reisman, 2006). Such phenomena, in which the elements within the system (molecules, or animals) have multiple behaviors and a large number of interaction patterns, have been termed complex and are collectively studied in the interdisciplinary field called complex systems. In recent decades there has been a surge in social-science studies employing ABM (Epstein & Axtell, 1996). Recently, ABM has been used to illustrate aspect