The majority of instructional design models have directed focus on instructional design activities such as analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. Criticisms regarding instructional design models have suggested that the use of these models provides instructional designers with a limited view of the design environment. This…

Interpreting and creating computational systems models is an important goal of science education. One aspect of computational systems modeling that is supported by modeling, systems thinking, and computational thinking literature is "testing, evaluating, and debugging models." Through testing and debugging, students can identify aspects…

Over the past twenty-five years, or so, considerable advances have been made in understanding how learning occurs in the brain, though much of this research is still to make its way into education. One contribution it should be making is to furnish the philosophical critique of past and current theory with supporting empirical evidence. For…

The autonomous global system of science, grounded in collegial networks of scientists, publishing, and cross-border papers, is expanding rapidly and spreading to a growing number of countries. Strong national science systems have emerged outside Euro-America. Yet the multipolarization of economic capacity and scientific output plays out within a…

This article enters the debate about the complex and dynamical nature of second language acquisition (SLA) by discussing and commenting on Pallotti's critique of Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST). Pallotti's critique brings to the fore the argument that, due to its anti-reductionist stance, CDST research fails to observe three fundamental…

At-risk student bodies in public school districts have very different cultures of learning from mainstream learning communities. Policies and practices in schools tend to isolate these student bodies for convenience in administration and instruction, and little consideration is given to whether these experiences of isolation from the larger…

Assessment has been dominated by Classical Test Theory for the last half century although the radically different approach known as Rasch measurement briefly blossomed in England during the 1960s and 1970s. Its open development was stopped dead in the 1980s, whilst some work has continued almost surreptitiously. Elsewhere Rasch has assumed…

This paper assesses the engagement of family therapy and family practice with families with children, who are living in poverty. It analyzes four promising models from two perspectives. The first perspective relates to critiques, which have been made of the practice of family therapy with families living in poverty; and the second relates to the…

This collection provides a new perspective for understanding what assessment can do to promote continuous improvement in education. The concepts of systems thinking, continued learning, mental models, shared vision, and team building are highlighted in the selections, which include: (1) "A Systems Approach to Assessing School Culture"…