This article starts with a comment on John White's article published in 2019 in the "London Review of Education," 17 (3), entitled 'The end of powerful knowledge?', and particularly on the point made about specialized knowledge and its relation to powerful knowledge. It is argued here that it is important to clarify the distinction…

Meta-analysis comprises a powerful tool for synthesising prior research and empirically validating theoretical frameworks. Using this tool and two recent multilevel models of educational effectiveness as guiding frameworks, this paper synthesises the results of 195 studies investigating the association between system-level characteristics and…

Although teachers' learning has been increasingly recognised as nonlinear and contextually responsive, few studies have extended these understandings to the design and evaluation of professional development. In this case study, we examine nonlinear and contextual manifestations of high school science teachers' professional learning from a complex…

The past decade has seen increasing international education activity and interest from policymakers and think tanks in looking to other countries for educational reform strategies. This "new isomorphism"--the notion of global best practices in education--has been the subject of intensive debate between advocates and critics. But missing…

This conceptual paper revisits a set of pivotal learning community notions filtered through sociological and community psychology perspectives to unravel representations of the community construct within learning contexts. A conceptual review of sociological and community psychology perspectives on the community construct is initially presented.…

Revisiting an essay from 1999, this article explores the current conditions in higher education, and society more broadly, that help shape the roles for the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and educational development. By seeing the current "crises" of higher education not only as "problems" to be investigated but as…

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to introduce a systemic approach to organizational learning "triple loop learning" (TLL) that addresses processes of power. Three equally important foci in our TLL are processes of design, processes of debate and processes of power. The focus on power aims to shift "power over" (power as…

Systems thinking is the ability to reason about biological systems in terms of their characteristics and can assist students in developing a coherent understanding of biology. Literature reports about several recommendations regarding teaching systems thinking, while it seems that systems thinking has not reached classroom practice. The main aim…

Reinventing education is the ultimate aim of this contribution. The approach taken is a radical new complexity-inspired bottom-up approach which shows complexity as the fount of creativity and innovation. Organizing complexity accordingly may be the foundation for a new complexified vision of education. It all starts with new thinking in…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to give practical insights into the systemic approach to organizational learning "triple loop learning" (TLL; introduced in Part I) by reflecting on a facilitated research-and-intervention undertaken in South Africa as part of the "500 Schools Project". Design/methodology/approach: The…

This study explores the impact academic teachers' writing of a teaching portfolio can have on their professional learning. Through an open-ended questionnaire, 26 academics from three faculties reported on insights, effects on teaching practice, and effects on collegial exchange that the portfolio writing entailed. We discuss how the experienced…