Thursday, April 3, 2025

4 PM - 6:30 PM

Horrabin Hall #1
Western Illinois University

When Physics meets Educational Psychology:

The theory of dissipative structures elucidated by Nobel Prize winner Professor Ilya Prigogine
clarifies the mechanism by which the complex structures that arise in matter, life, and society
spontaneously create themselves while following the laws of physics.

In this presentation, Dr. Petrosky will introduce the theory and discuss examples in which it sheds new light not only on physical phenomena, but also on the worlds of education and psychology.

Based on these physics’ theories, Professor Hasebe (The School of Education, WIU) will explain the commonalities with cognitive psychology as it relates to Education. In traditional pedagogy, a state of "stability" has still been regarded as proof of mastery. In contrast, constructivism emphasizes the state of "instability" as a necessity for learning. The speaker will discuss, by relating it to actual teaching methods, the vital role of the state of cognitive disequilibrium (“yu-ra-gi”) that, in turn, activates the self-generative mechanism for information processing to help construct a higher knowledge of abstraction.

Presentation & Q & A  4:00-5:30 PM
Get together  5:30 -6:30 PM (light snacks and drinks will be provided)

Zoom Link- https://wiu.zoom.us/j/91358150334