Changing the Role of Teacher according to Complexity Theory: From Representation to Facilitating Emergence

The present study seeks to rethink the role of the teacher in the teaching-learning process according to the complexity theory. First, the role of the teacher is explained in the traditional vision of Comenius and Dewey's critical insight and then the role of the teacher is discussed in the complexity theory. Then, the teacher’s image as an emergence facilitator is suggested instead of their image as a representer. In this way, the facilitator role, as recommended by the complexity theory, involves creating a context for participation along with engagement and attention, hermeneutic listening, using imagination and improvising, the emergence of different interpretations, and the non-linear, unpredictable, self-regulated, and common knowledge and awareness. From this viewpoint, facilitating and learning which are considered as simultaneous and continuous and are not limited to teacher or learners, could establish a context for the emergence of common knowledge at the classroom level.