Thinking in systems
Constraints and possibilities for action
In shortWhat a person does depends on them, the task and the place, and changing any one can open new options.
The idea
What a person does depends on three things at once: the person (body, what they know, what they expect), the task (what is asked, how) and the environment (place, people, noise, time). Karl Newell called these constraints. Constraining is not only limiting: a game rule, a timetable or a ritual also make possible things that were not possible before (Alicia Juarrero). What the environment offers for action is called an ‘affordance’: a chair affords sitting, a friend affords playing.
What to try
- When something does not go well, change one constraint at a time: the task, the place or the way.
- Think of rules and routines as things that make things possible, not only as limits.
- Ask what that place offers the child to do: sometimes the behaviour is the only action available.
The common mistake
Explaining everything by the person and ignoring the task and the environment, or the reverse.
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Short, plain pieces by the researchers and good writers.
The science behind itHow strong the evidence is, the model, videos and references.
How strong the evidence is
Promising Good studies, but little tested with children at home or school, or the step to daily life is our interpretation.
Newell (1986) proposed that coordination emerges from the interaction of organismic, task and environmental constraints; ecological dynamics applies this to learning. Juarrero (2023) distinguishes limiting from enabling constraints and shows how these create coherence across levels. Rietveld and Kiverstein (2014) describe the ‘landscape of affordances’ available to a form of life. For assessment: manipulate constraints (dynamic assessment, Feuerstein) and observe what changes in performance emerge.
More technical books
How constraints create coherence, from the body to society.
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Videos
External videos, chosen because they agree with these ideas. Bounded Uncertainty has no link to the channels.
References
- Newell, K. M. (1986). Constraints on the development of coordination. In M. G. Wade & H. T. A. Whiting (Eds.), Motor Development in Children (pp. 341–360). Martinus Nijhoff.
- Juarrero, A. (2023). Context Changes Everything: How Constraints Create Coherence. MIT Press.
- Rietveld, E., & Kiverstein, J. (2014). A rich landscape of affordances. Ecological Psychology, 26(4), 325–352.
- Gibson, J. J. (1979). The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Houghton Mifflin.
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