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Education as a Complex System: Conceptual and Methodological Implications
Abstract
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.
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“Education is a complex system with intertwined intrinsic elements such as discipline differences and learning environments (Jacobson and Wilensky, 2006;Jacobson et al., 2019), which can influence stimuli preference and the conduct of interviews.”
From A systematic review of Stimulated Recall (SR) in educational research from 2012 to 2022 (2024) · cites this paper as Jacobson et al., 2019
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Cited by
Kearney, C. A., Dupont, R., Fensken, M., & Gonzálvez, C. (2023) · Frontiers in Education · doi:10.3389/feduc.2023.1253595 · Cited by 71
A systematic review of Stimulated Recall (SR) in educational research from 2012 to 2022
Zhai, X., Chu, X., Wang, M., Tsai, C.-C., Liang, J.-C., & Spector, J. M. (2024) · Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · doi:10.1057/s41599-024-02987-6 · Cited by 47
Civís Zaragoza, M., & Díaz-Gibson, J. (2024) · International Journal of Leadership in Education · doi:10.1080/13603124.2024.2418605 · Cited by 6
Metadata
- Authors
- Jacobson, M. J., Levin, J. A., & Kapur, M.
- Venue
- Educational Researcher
- Published
- 2019-02-13
- Volume
- 48
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 112-119
- ISSN
- 0013-189X
- 1935-102X
- Cited by
- 174
- References
- 1
- Language
- en
- Funders
- Australian Research Council (DP150102144)
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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