Matrix Thinking
The word in language is half someone else's
Mikhail Bakhtin
Why ME: 101?
My name is Jeremy Dennis. I created ME: 101 as a learning tool (heuristic) because I believe you learn more by connecting knowledge rather than separating it. Our educational system tends to separate it. You miss the education that exists between the disciplines, making it harder for you to see how college classes connect as a whole. Certainly, I understand our minds divide information and humans can’t learn everything. I know specialization and differentiation create efficiency. However, efficiency comes at a cost in education [1]. All of the years you spend preparing for one thing in school really means you miss something somewhere else. Today's economy needs more cosmopolitan learners, creators and problem solvers.
Ironically, many of our solutions reinforce divisions [2]. Of course, I am a product of the system I question, but I noticed the gaps many years ago during my graduate school experiences in Rhetoric and Composition and Higher Education and Community College Teaching. It was like living in two different worlds and I, like most students, was expected to make connections on my own. After many years as a professor and/or administrator at a range of educational institutions, I know that doesn’t always happen. I understand the difficulties of teaching across disciplines and managing them. ME: 101 makes interdisciplinary experiences coherent, accessible and enjoyable, whether you are enrolled in an educational institution or not. Ultimately, it is a meditation and model based on Ernest Boyer's view of the scholarship of integration (SoTL).
What causes the separation?
One cause is reductionism or the idea that knowledge can and should be reduced and divided. This is one result of the influence of science and industrialization on education. Much of what we miss is due to the disconnected ways in which we are taught in schools, in spite of the fact that knowledge is always already connected. We often fail to see the web of meaning in and around us because nobody ever taught us to look for it [3]. We may live in the information age, but many of our views, paradigms and practices in education haven’t caught up.
What is the solution?
There isn’t just one solution because our educational system is complex. However, I believe more interdisciplinarity can help. Yes, we need independent disciplines, but we also need interdisciplinarity to bridge the gaps, create coherency and possibly help reduce college costs by combining courses. What is interdisciplinarity? It is the integration of two or more disciplines for the creation of a new activity, project or learning experience. Theoretically, it is the wiser choice for better education. Politically, it might be too disruptive to do this kind of work on a wide scale in most educational institutions [4]. Therefore, the separation of knowledge will likely continue in most schools, and you might have to look beyond the traditional classroom if you want to experience the cumulative effects of interdisciplinary learning.
In fact, many people have turned to non-traditional educational opportunities due to the increasing cost of higher education. More people are graduating with burdensome debt and fewer job opportunities. Financial illiteracy aggravates the problem. Not only has college gotten expensive, but so has ignoring the dangers of overborrowing to pay for higher education [5]. Online education and Credit for Prior Learning opportunities can help cut costs, but this alone will not resolve the larger problems associated with fragmenting knowledge. A shift in educational delivery is not the same as a change in educational philosophy and practices. There are critics who believe we simply do not have the perspective or principles to help us map out a terrain of commonality, combine information and courses, and guide teaching and learning in a better direction [6]. Actually, we do. I call it Matrix Thinking (more here). It is a form of knowledge-building that is also known as architectonics in philosophy.
What is a Matrix?
A matrix is a model typically used in algebra and General System Theory to frame and analyze complex interactions. In other words, a matrix arranges information (usually numbers) to show variability, connections and simulations. Inspired by the philosopher, mathematician and semiotician, C.S. Peirce, James Joseph Sylvester introduced the term in algebra and described it “as a rectangular array of terms, out of which different systems of determinants may be engendered, as from the womb of a common parent” [7]. Due to its multiple meanings and surprising reoccurrence across so many academic fields, the matrix becomes the master trope that I use to (re)connect disciplines to each other and to popular culture using guides I call Matrix Maps. As a trope or metaphor, the matrix draws attention to the fact that many postmodern theorists have more in common with mathematicians and each other than we think, and their support for its definition and theoretical underpinnings can be found in the concept known as intertextuality. Intertextuality characterizes the ways language (including numbers), knowledge and texts mix or integrate and resist singular meaning. It is supported by the hypertextuality, networks and connectivism of the internet. Also, the logic of intertextuality raises serious questions about the political nature of reductive thinking and all of the dichotomies, divisions, silos and boundaries it supports and reinforces, particularly in education [8].
General System Theorists present an even stronger argument against reductive thinking. With roots in biology and the study of organisms, General System Theory is the study of the complex and dynamic interrelationships between all things. It is concerned with how parts relate to the whole to form a big picture. In General System Theory, the unity of knowledge mirrors the unity of life, and it is a theoretical lens we can put in place to (re)envision language, knowledge, texts, genres and disciplines. According to one of the leading scholars in this area, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, General System Theory offers us “important headway towards interdisciplinary synthesis and integrated education” [9].
So what is Matrix Thinking and how can it help me?
Matrix Thinking is the opposite of reductive thinking. As a metaphor, Matrix Thinking is a handy, more accessible, way to describe open systems and the simultaneity of theory and practice and creative and critical thinking. It is a philosophical perspective that says everything in life is connected and all knowledge is socially constructed, intertextual and interdisciplinary, undergoing continuous revision and transformation. Also, it is a performance that seeks and utilizes networks, patterns and associations found across disciplines and cultures, thus identifying for analysis the conflicts, problems and texts that really affect our lives [10].
ME: 101 uses Matrix Maps to provide descriptive frameworks and contexts for the bits and pieces of interdisciplinary information that shape human experiences. More importantly, Matrix Thinking is the way you learn to discover, develop and connect relationships inside and outside that framework in order to create a web of meaning and a better education for yourself. ME: 101 is a tool for teaching and learning that makes it a lot easier to do.