Most of humanity's important and difficult problems such as pandemics, environmental health, and social unrest require recognizing and understanding complex systems. Students often have difficulty understanding complex systems concepts and previous research indicates that scaffolded computer simulations may facilitate learning. Few studies,…

South Africa's basic education system is dysfunctional. It scores last or close to last in a myriad of metrics and delivers learners with some of the worst literacy and numeracy competencies worldwide. A bimodal distribution in the results exists when learners from the richest socioeconomic quintile are performing adequately well, while learners…

The properties and functions of complex systems apply across a variety of domains of science and are at the heart of the solutions to many global crises facing the world today. As such, understanding of complex systems has been increasingly recognized as a core goal of science education. Learning about complexity-related concepts and phenomena is…

Two leading camps for studying social complexity are case-based methods (CBM) and agent-based modelling (ABM). Despite the potential epistemological links between 'cases' and 'agents,' neither camp has leveraged their combined strengths. A bridge can be built, however, by drawing on Abbott's insight that 'agents are cases doing things', Byrne's…

In the knowledge age, performance evaluation is one of the vital components of each organization, and educational organizations are no exception. Teachers are believed as the single most important factor influencing students' academic success or failure. Considering the pivotal role of teachers, educational systems need to not only be assured that…

This article concentrates on the question what kind of model--conceptual and statistical--can serve as a good working model for the study of learning and teaching processes qua processes. We claim that a good way of answering this question is to begin by observing a teaching and learning process as, where, and when it occurs. In addition, a…

This paper investigates the dynamics of student enrolment in the Syrian private higher education sector. The paper adopts a system dynamics approach, to construct suitable simulation models that could be used to examine the complex and dynamic interactions between student flows, staff ratios and investments in plant and facilities. The study…

Components of complex systems apply across multiple subject areas, and teaching these components may help students build unifying conceptual links. Students, however, often have difficulty learning these components, and limited research exists to understand what types of interventions may best help improve understanding. We investigated 32 high…

Three educational interventions were simulated in a system dynamics model of the medical use, trafficking, and nonmedical use of pharmaceutical opioids. The study relied on secondary data obtained in the literature for the period of 1995 to 2008 as well as expert panel recommendations regarding model parameters and structure. The behavior of the…

The purposes of this article are to present the design of a technology-enhanced learning environment (Air Pollution Modeling Environment [APoME]) that was informed by a novice-expert analysis and to discuss high school students' development of modelling practices in the learning environment. APoME was designed to help high school students…

Changes to research methodology motivated by the adoption of a complexity theory perspective on language development are considered. The dynamic, nonlinear, and open nature of complex systems, together with their tendency toward self-organization and interaction across levels and timescales, requires changes in traditional views of the functions…

Discusses learning systems and learning difficulties, and describes the use of a simulation to help professionals better understand people with learning difficulties. The General Systems Theory and a systems approach are discussed, the role of debriefing is considered, and theoretical perspectives on the development of learning disabilities are…

This article discusses some current developments in Computer Based Guidance (CBG). CBG includes two major domains: educational/vocational information systems and counselor training programs. Educational/vocational information systems provide comprehensive and up-to-date data bases of information on educational requirements or programs and…

This monograph describes the basic conceptual background, the content, and the processes of a systematized approach to the evaluation of educational facilities. The system, the Evaluation of Educational Buildings (MEEB), focuses on a process that compares existing educational buildings in terms of a set of standards, and provides for an analysis…

Recent approaches to research on moral development have considered the preeminence of situational factors in moral development and moral behavior. An open systems approach emphasizes the interactive effects of person and situation variables on moral decision-making. The interactive effects of three sets of variables on moral decision-making were…