A study on teachers' classroom discourse strategies from the perspective of complex dynamic systems theory: lag...

Teachers' classroom discourse is a key window into the quality of teaching. However, traditional research has mostly focused on the frequency distribution of discourse behaviors, overlooking the dynamic characteristics of discourse in the time dimension. From the perspective of Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST), and using Lag Sequential Analysis (LSA) and State Space Grid (SSG) methods, this study examines four dynamic properties of the teacher discourse strategy system based on a video corpus of 72 lessons from 12 middle school teachers. First, historical dependence: teachers' strategy selection is significantly constrained by the preceding three turns of the conversation. Second, adaptability: expert teachers identify shifts in students' psychological states more sensitively and adjust strategies more quickly, with an adaptive switching latency of 2.1 s compared with 5.7 s for novice teachers. Third, nonlinearity: strategy diversity and student engagement show an inverted U-shaped relationship, with a "golden window" of entropy values between 1.32 and 2.78. Fourth, emergence: five recurring sequence patterns, interpreted here as candidate attractors, were identified; the "golden path of deep exploration" and "higher-order thinking path" characterize high-quality teaching, while the "deadlock pattern" signals declining teaching quality. The study offers an integrated methodological approach for operationalizing CDST in educational research and provides an empirical basis for teacher professional development and the design of classroom observation tools.