**5. Concluding thoughts**

In response to the widespread tendency for teaching and learning to be depicted in over-simplified and linear-causal terms, this chapter has discussed the potential usefulness of applying a CAS framing to the primary classroom. I have sought to begin addressing the question of whether viewing classrooms as complex systems may illuminate inherent complexities of learning and ask whether doing so reveals any useful lessons for teachers. Descriptions of the behavior of CAS and consideration of the typical characteristics of many classrooms leave little doubt that classrooms have CAS-like features, though the extent to which such features may prevail in any given classroom depends to a large extent on how teaching and learning are organized. The most salient CAS qualities inherent to primary classrooms are occasioned by pupil autonomy, interconnectedness, and interaction through which there is some evidence that learning can reveal itself in emergent forms, more as a consequence of bottom-up than top-down initiative. Under the right conditions, including sufficient enabling constraints and pupil autonomy, a focus on CAS characteristics can draw teachers' attention to the possibility of learning emerging from unexpected sources and in unanticipated times and ways. These include pupil errors, social conflict, and apparently off-task behaviors. However, more research is needed into the forms and value of such emergent learning, including how and to what extent it can be encouraged by thoughtful, imaginative, and sensitive teaching.

A possible implication for teachers is a recommendation to introduce subtle shifts in thinking about classroom practice and pupil learning. This would include considering the potential benefits of loosening central control and allowing pupils sufficient autonomy for self-organization to materialize, holding less tightly to evidence of pupils meeting learning objectives in unitary packages, and developing sensitivity to what else might be learned, when and how. I would urge my fellow teachers away from framings that locate learning as merely the linear product of teaching and instead invite them to adopt a more open and speculative mindset, exploring and investigating pluriform and interconnected antecedents of learning, rather than expecting it to appear as a product following teacher input.

*Pedagogy - Challenges, Recent Advances, New Perspectives, and Applications*
