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Education is a complex system, which has conceptual and methodological implications for education research and policy. In this article, an overview is first provided of the Complex Systems Conceptual Framework for Learning (CSCFL), which consists of a set of conceptual perspectives that are generally shared by educational complex systems, organized into two focus areas: collective behaviors of a system, and behaviors of individual agents in a system. Complexity and research methodologies for education are then considered, and it is observed that commonly used quantitative and qualitative techniques are generally appropriate for studying linear dynamics of educational systems. However, it is proposed that computational modeling approaches, being extensively used for studying nonlinear characteristics of complex systems in other fields, can provide a methodological complement to quantitative and qualitative education research approaches. Two research case studies of this approach are discussed. We conclude with a consideration of how viewing education as a complex system using complex systems’ conceptual and methodological tools can help advance education research and also inform policy.

The goal of this research study has been to develop, implement, and evaluate a school reform design experiment at a continuation high school with low-income, low-performing underrepresented minority students. The complexity sciences served as a theoretical framework for this design experiment. Treating an innovative college preparatory program as a nested complex adaptive system within a larger complex adaptive system, the school, we used features of complex adaptive systems (equilibrium, emergence, self- organization, and feedback loops) as a framework to design and evaluate a strategy for school reform. We created an environment for change by pulling the school far from equilibrium using a strategy we call "purposeful perturbations" to disrupt the stable state of the school in a purposeful way. Over the four years of the study, several tipping points were reached, and we developed agent-based simulation models that capture important dynamic properties of the reform at these points. The study draws upon complexity theory in multiple ways that support improved education for low-achieving students. This research does not provide a blueprint for an education reform that can be duplicated elsewhere--instead it provides a guide to help others to navigate the turbulent waters of school reform, informed by complexity theory. The exact nature of "purposeful perturbations" will differ from setting to setting, but this technique for generating persistent change may apply more generally. This study provides an existence proof of a successful teacher-initiated educational reform and shows that complexity theory can only not just describe educational reform but can also productively guide it.

Education is a complex system, which has conceptual and methodological implications for education research and policy. In this article, an overview is first provided of the Complex Systems Conceptual Framework for Learning (CSCFL), which consists of a set of conceptual perspectives that are generally shared by educational complex systems, organized into two focus areas: collective behaviors of a system, and behaviors of individual agents in a system. Complexity and research methodologies for education are then considered, and it is observed that commonly used quantitative and qualitative techniques are generally appropriate for studying linear dynamics of educational systems. However, it is proposed that computational modeling approaches, being extensively used for studying nonlinear characteristics of complex systems in other fields, can provide a methodological complement to quantitative and qualitative education research approaches. Two research case studies of this approach are discussed. We conclude with a consideration of how viewing education as a complex system using complex systems' conceptual and methodological tools can help advance education research and also inform policy.

Our study employs multi-level agent-based modeling and computational techniques to explore education as a complex system. With an underlying focus that education should be underpinned by a scientific understanding of student learning, we created computational models that simulated learning dynamics in classrooms, integrating both quantitative and qualitative insights. Through these models, we conducted experiments aligned with real classroom data to address key questions, such as "How can we effectively support the academic progress of underperforming students, who are disproportionately from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds, to close their multi-year achievement gap in mathematics?" Our study analyzes various instructional approaches for mathematical learning, and our findings highlight the potential effectiveness of Productive Failure as an instructional approach. Considerations of the broader applicability of computational methods in advancing educational research are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this research study has been to develop, implement, and evaluate a school reform design experiment at a continuation high school with low-income, low-performing underrepresented minority students. The complexity sciences served as a theoretical framework for this design experiment. Treating an innovative college preparatory program as a nested complex adaptive system within a larger complex adaptive system, the school, we used features of complex adaptive systems (equilibrium, emergence, self-organization, and feedback loops) as a framework to design a strategy for school reform. The goal was to create an environment for change by pulling the school far from equilibrium using a strategy we call “purposeful perturbations” to disrupt the stable state of the school in a purposeful way. Over the four years of the study, several tipping points were reached, and we developed agent-based simulation models that capture important dynamic properties of the reform at these points. The study draws upon complexity theory in multiple ways that have supported improved education for low-achieving students.

In the early 1990s, Chip Bruce created a taxonomy of education technology uses, which the author of the article helped to expand and evaluate. This taxonomy is based on John Dewey's 'four impulses of the child': inquiry, construction, communication, and expression. This taxonomy has helped people interested in the uses of technologies for education to better understand the range of uses and it has also helped spur the development of new uses.

In the early 1990s, Chip Bruce created a taxonomy of education technology uses, which the author of the article helped to expand and evaluate. This taxonomy is based on John Dewey's "four impulses of the child": inquiry, construction, communication, and expression. This taxonomy has helped people interested in the uses of technologies for education to better understand the range of uses and it has also helped spur the development of new uses.

A three year study of digital video creation in higher education investigated the impact that creating short digital videos by university students in their final class of a teacher education program had on those students. Each student created a short video reflecting on the process of how he/she became a teacher. An analysis of the videos themselves, analyses of surveys of the students immediately after they created the videos and also years later, and analyses of the number of views of and comments on the videos show that creating these digital videos served reflective, communicative, and memorial functions for these students. Creating the digital videos functioned as a novel and powerful form of reflection for the teacher education students as they completed their program, helping them put their preparation for teaching in a broader perspective. The digital videos helped the students better communicate to others why they had chosen to become teachers. The digital videos also functioned as artifacts years later for teachers to remind themselves of why they became teachers in ways that helped them maintain their commitment to continue teaching. These three functions of creating multimedia projects served as powerful supports for new teacher learning.

Electronic networks are being increasingly used to support a variety of educational activities. Although early research in this area has been promising, there has been less work to date concerning more basic cognitive and theoretical issues associated with the design and use of educational electronic networks. This paper proposes a distributed network learning framework (DNLF) which will be presented through three main aspects: (a) network mediators and the flow of information and knowledge, (b) networks and cognitive theories of learning, and (c) the network-human interface. A s an example of an application of the distributed network learning framework, an ongoing research and development project is discussed that involves a cognitively-based educational electronic communication tool. The Message Assistant. In addition to the standard electronic mail features such as creating, sending, and receiving messages, this program includes a user-defined incremental expert system and hypertextual linking functions to assist a network mediator in her or his evaluation, organization, and distribution of network information and knowledge. The distributed network learning framework can function as a flexible-and extendable—set of conceptual views from which to examine and to work with different aspects of dynamically evolving network learning environments.

The expectation that educators will use data in the service of school improvement and planning is a major feature of national and local reform agendas. Prior research has found that the principal plays a critical role in making policymakers' visions for data use a reality at the school and classroom levels. Most prior studies, however, have not fleshed out how the principal functions as a key agent in influencing other key players in data use. This article will illustrate the actions of the principal, teachers, students, and district personnel through simulation models of principal leadership that we developed based on a case study of a high school implementing this reform. We use these models both as a framework for understanding our findings and as a way to enhance understanding of the processes by which educational reform is co-constructed through the simultaneous mediation of the multiple agents involved in the system. (Contains 6 figures and 1 note.)

Students, faculty, and advisers must have ready access to current, accurate, and useable information about programs and curricula (Commission for Undergraduate Education 1995). College and university publications (e.g., bulletins, catalogs, schedules of classes, websites) generally provide brief descriptive overviews of each major and list courses required to graduate. If using only these materials, it is a difficult, time-consuming task for students, faculty, and advisers to compare majors across common dimensions. This article provides an analysis of science- and math-related majors across eight content dimensions which provides students with majors that are congruent with their interests and abilities. (Contains 5 figures and 11 tables.)

Within the existing system of education, student work rarely has any value beyond the particular course that it is created for. The work is graded and then usually discarded. The authors describe in this article a way that student work can be systematically made available for use by others beyond the immediate learning context within which it is created. They provide a case study in which this mechanism worked. They describe the benefits and costs of doing this, along with the broader implications this systematic publication of exemplary student work might have for the changing relationship between learning and doing, between education and the rest of society. This publication mechanism, called OPEER (open publishing of exemplary educational resources), can enable education to have an additional major positive impact on the rest of society, creating and maintaining quality-assured resources at a minimal additional cost. (Contains 1 figure.)

Contrasts the dominant mode of formal education today with new interactional frameworks enabled by new technologies, including teleapprenticeships and tele-task forces. Explores alternative physical settings for education, including neighborhood learning centers, to combine the strengths of face-to-face interaction with computer-mediated interactions; and discusses implications for precollege and higher education. (Author/LRW)

Describes a Master of Education program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign called Curriculum, Technology, and Education Reform OnLine (CTER) that is aimed at K-12 teachers. The evaluation based on program stakeholders includes interface design; instructional design; faculty satisfaction; student attitudes; economic viability; university infrastructure; and learning communities. (LRW)

Discusses the interaction among school and university contexts, instruction, and individual practice that occurs as telecommunications technology is integrated into teacher education programs. Data from a series of studies of such integration within one university are presented. The paper describes how the studies contributed to the development of a model to guide future research on technology use in teacher education. (SM)

To examine the role of teachers' conceptual representations of the Internet and World Wide Web, a survey and 10 case studies were conducted among pre- and in-service teachers enrolled in university courses. Results reveal diverse, plausible representations, not related to level of expertise. Experts were found to have a "representational toolkit" containing many different representations to be used for different purposes. (AEF)

Describes an approach to using new technologies in online education that consciously uses the multiplicity of options that these technologies provide. Provides a case study of an online course in a master of education program and examines multiplicity in contexts for learning, instructional media, instructional formats, learning activities, and assessment techniques. (Author/LRW)

Describes the development of a Web-based software tool, the Technology Competencies Database, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign that will enable faculty to effectively collaborate in providing technology experiences to preservice teacher education students. Discusses the National Council on Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) adopting standards for instructional technology developed by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (Author/LRW)

Describes a new way of classifying uses of educational technologies based on a four-part division: inquiry, communication, construction, and expression. This taxonomy is compared to previous taxonomies of educational technologies. The utility of the taxonomy is tested by using it to classify "advanced applications of technologies" projects supported by the National Science Foundation. (LRW)