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,…

The book brings together contributions from curriculum history, cultural studies, visual cultures, and science and technology studies to explore the international mobilizations of the sciences related to education during the post-World War Two years. Crossing the boundaries of education and science studies, it uniquely examines how the desires of…

As in many other social sciences, in international and comparative education there is an epistemological schism between two main approaches, one of which is traditional whose methodology and methods are historical-hermeneutical, while the other is empirical and oriented towards the natural sciences. In international and comparative education,…

This paper addresses some methodological issues concerning traditional linear approaches and shows the need for a paradigm shift in education research towards the Complexity and Nonlinear Dynamical Systems (NDS) framework. It presents a quantitative piece of research aiming to test the nonlinear dynamical hypothesis in education. It applies…

It is now widely accepted that qualitative and quantitative research traditions, rather than being seen as opposed to or in competition with each other (Hammersley & Atkinson, 1995; Furlong, 2004 ) should be used, where appropriate, in some kind of combination (Bryman & Cramer, 1999; Moore et al., 2003 ). How this combining is to be understood…

This paper describes a model for the systematic design, development, and validation of alternative instructional modules, by incorporating the basic concepts underlying Aptitude Treatment Interaction (ATI) analyses. The proposed working model is based on the premise that the ATI concept is best applied, not in isolation, but as an integral part of…

A major variable by which national educational systems may be compared is their structural differentiation, defined (1) as a process, referring to the multiplication of one structural element into two or more structurally distinct elements; and (2) as a state, referring to the number of structurally distinct elements which exist in a system at a…

This report explores some techniques that could assist educational managers in their attempts to arrive at more optimal input and output mixes. Following a review of the literature on input-output analyses in education and a description of the Pennsylvania Educational Quality Assessment Program (the basis of the present study), an empirical…

Using a systems approach to determine the relationship between modernization and education, data were analyzed from questionnaire responses returned by the chief administrators of 1,124 public high schools. The schools were a selected sample of the schools attended by the 28,000 pupils included in the October 1965, educational supplement of the…

This report describes and evaluates a training program for educational researchers conducted prior to and following the 1969 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. The report's description of each of the program's 12 specific training sessions, which served a total of 542 educational researchers, includes the following…

This document presents the key principles underpinning effective evaluations as applied to policy initiatives in the field of lifelong learning (LL) and the various methods available to implement them. The following are among the topics discussed in Chapters 1-6: (1) the distinction between monitoring, modeling, and evaluation and considerations…