As a result of some difficulties I encountered in my classroom, I explored a newly formulated theory that connects the scientific principles of chaos with current education dilemmas. Through chaos theory, I began to view the failures and successes of one particular semester in a different light. I learned to accept that positive results are not often immediate; they are often revealed over time and distance.

Chaos theory connects with the educational environment when educators and administrators engage in a vision which dismisses either/or thinking, accepts flexibility, and acknowledges constant activity, viewpoints, and interpretations (Wheatley 64). For the educator and the administrator, the process of chaos theory may be viewed as self-transcending, self-renewing, and self-organizing.

From the advent of Einstein’s theory of relativity and from the discovery of the quantum world, present day theorists have created a new order of thinking, "chaos theory." Although the roots of chaos theory are formed from Einstein’s and Bohr’s work in the early l900’s, its current configuration can be applied to many non-scientific areas of study.

Chaos theory acknowledges the world’s diversity "in composition, form, and function"(Cambel 1). It promotes the tenet which speculates that seemingly unrelated artifacts when taken together display continuity and patterns that suggest different things rather when studied separately. Random events or patterns lead to momentous kinds of events. It is a confirmation that even accidental contact enriches a global experience.

Critics of chaos may be uncomfortable with these new leaps in thought. Classical theorists decree that the world is supposed to work in a particular order, yet this is counter to what actually happens. What these theorists believe to be out of control is profoundly orderly; often, the viewer must step away in time and space. The most useful aspect of chaos theory is that it basically gives us knowledge of the world as a real world, provides a mandate not to leave out things, to encourage thinking about connection. The processes of change are simultaneously occurring. From a distance things look smooth, but turbulence is occurring over time and space. Order and disorder co-exist interrelating in a very orderly way; fragments appearing as wholes unto themselves are also related to the larger whole. Changes which happen in the system’s margins affect the mainstream.

The New Paradigm for the Community College Composition Classroom

Several years ago after teaching at the smaller Woodbridge campus, I returned to the Alexandria campus of Northern Virginia Community College. My English III class – freshman composition – met for the first time, and I was surprised at the diversity within the classroom population. Some students were recent graduates from local high schools; some students were adults returning to college. Several students were from various countries and cultures – even warring nations – Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Puerto Rico, Italy, Germany, Iran, and Iraq. Each student had a distinct background. I faced a challenge, which I had never faced before – but continue to face today. Some would believe that teaching composition to these students would be difficult, if not impossible to accomplish. Frustration, chaos, and complexity were the conditions under which I attempted to teach these multicultural students English composition.

To teach these students is not impossible; however, a "romantic" view of the student population must be avoided. Students drop out of classes constantly. They fail to notify teachers and administrators of their academic decisions causing confusion at final grading time. Often students attend classes sporadically, thinking that they can easily catch-up on missed assignments without the benefit of classroom participation. Outside responsibilities and family crises interfere with their studies. The demands of the workplace force these students to drop one or two courses because of the stress. Many students have limited incomes and cannot purchase required texts. More importantly, many of these students have tried college work before and failed.

All of these elements create an academic atmosphere which is chaotic at best. Our students demand flexibility, vision, and a willingness to share the complexities of life through an educational openness to interconnection and collaboration. The followers of chaos theory can substitute the positive terms integration, interrelationships, and interdependency for the negative terms fragmentation, hegemony, and hierarchy. Diverse voices in an open, democratic classroom challenge traditional notions, and composition studies in the community college classroom invite this challenge.

When the classroom includes a diverse population of students, the traditional methods of teaching seem obsolete. The challenge is to encourage each student to develop independently while creating a community of writers within the classroom. The respect for diversity inherent in postmodern theory and the call for integration and assimilation in social construction offer avenues to create an empowering course which invites consideration of and respect for the community college classroom and its students. Chaos theory allows for fragmentation, yet it advises the educator to eliminate the need for immediate results. Disorder, failure, and confusion are part of the more realistic view of community. Instructors need not be frustrated or angry when these events occur within the classroom. Reality is "what we create through our engagement with others and with events"(Wheatley 7). Those searching for the definitive "end result" need to step back, to allow some distance, to finally observe the outcome. Educators should offer themselves and their students the opportunity of new knowledge, a new way of thinking, a "system of survival and success"(Mossberg 2).

Chaos theory allows the community college professor multiple options to do the following:

• Think differently – accept disorder as the norm, not the exception;
• Give up a hierartical classroom environment – create a student-centered classroom; adjust the syllabus, assignment, presentation to the students’ needs;
• Cheer their and your own successes – in a collaborative environment, all members deserve applause;
• Accept failure – rethink, readjust, rework, revise; discuss with the students why an assignment failed to achieve its goal;
• Celebrate diversity – age, ethnicity, culture, race, learning styles – they all offer opportunities for pedagogical transformation.

In the 21^st century community college students will be challenging our traditional notions of success in the classroom. Therefore, we must re-evaluate our opinions about what constitutes success and what constitutes failure. Positive results are not often immediate; our impact on our students may not be revealed in one semester. The diverse student population inherent in community colleges across the country challenges educators to understand that success and failure are compatible. Understanding chaos theory allows us to celebrate diversity, disorder, and change.

Bruffee, Kenneth. Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdepedence, and the Authority of Knowledge. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, l993.

Cambel, A.B. Applied Chaos Theory: A Paradigm for Complexity. San Diego: Academic Press, Inc., l993.

Faigley, Lester. Fragments of Rationality: Postmodernity and the Subject of Composition. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, l992.

Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Viking, l987.

Mossberg, Barbara. "Chaos for Planners." American Council on Education. 1994.

Villanueva, Victor. Bootstraps: From an American Academic of Color. Urbana: NCTE, l993.

Wheatley, Margaret. Leadership and the New Science: Learning about Organization from an Orderly Universe. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., l992.

Dr. Victoria N. Salmon is in her l0th year as an adjunct professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College. She also teaches a course on researching and writing the dissertation at the National Center for Community College Education, George Mason University. Her dissertation, "Seeking Authority in Composition Theory: Leadership from the Community College Classroom," received an Honorable Mention designation in the competition for the l998 CCCC James Berlin Memorial Outstanding Dissertation Award. This essay is adapted from one of the chapters in her dissertation.