Frequently one hears that behaviorist approaches to teaching and learning focus on the more mundane “basic” skills and often neglect the important aspects of advanced learning. That is, there is an emphasis on the simple, rather than the complex, and on direct teaching rather than on enquiry and problem solving. This presentation looks at complexity and argues that the meaning of complexity, especially as it applies to education, is not well understood and requires an examination of a range of teaching and learning issues. Further, complexity of task is different than complexity of teaching the task, and often repertoires of increasing complexity may become increasingly simpler to teach. Enquiry may itself be one of those instances. As one builds the component repertoires for enquiry, one may find increasingly more complex patterns may emerge with little direct instruction. A model for teaching and applying enquiry repertoires to increasingly more demanding criteria will be suggested that topographically looks unstructured, but in fact builds upon careful contingency shaping.

Review  T. V. (Joe) Layng‘s biographical statement.

CE: 1.0 credit BACB