Educational Systems Theory

Property: State Determinacy

Definition:

"Educational system state determinacy is derivability of conditions from one and only one state." (p. 65)

Comments:

State determinacy has to do with predictable outcomes. That is, when one can accurately predict conditions from an initial state, a high degree of system determinacy is evidenced.

Illustration:

Illustration under construction.

Examples:

Think of a traffic light, shown in the illustration above, in which red follows yellow, green follow red, and yellow follows green. The predictability of any of these three colored lights following its antecedent reflects a very high degree of state determinacy.

Another example would be a combination lock, whereby a sequence of steps, in a prescribed order, always results in the lock opening. Still another example would be a vending machine, whereby a prescribed order of steps (insert coin or currency and make selection) results in a predictable outcome (product released).

Because human systems tend not to be deterministic in the same way as machines, we are likely to find varying degrees of determinism in systems such as education. For example, in some states, one's earning a high school diploma might be highly predictable based on one's having completed specific requirements (x units of math, x units of English, etc.). Some school libraries may, without fail, send overdue notices to students one week to the day after a missed due date; others might not respond so predictably.

Related Terms:

Educational System State

Educational Negasystem State

Educational System Equifinality

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Hypotheses Containing the Property: State Determinacy

# 89. Educational system (state steadiness increases if and only if state determinacy increases) and (state steadiness decreases if and only if state determinacy decreases).

# 153. If educational system state determinacy increases, then regulation decreases.

# 154. If educational system state determinacy increases, then selective information decreases.

# 165. If educational system flexibility decreases, then state determinacy increases.

# 169. If educational system wholeness is greater than some value and centrality is greater than some value, then state determinacy is greater than some value.

# 188. If educational system size increases and complexity growth is constant, then state determinacy increases.

# 191. If educational system efficiency is greater than some value and compactness is greater than some value, then state determinacy is greater than some value.

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