A wide body of literature has found that a strong sense of belonging and connection to school is imperative for students' academic success, in addition to their social and emotional well-being. School belonging is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, and researchers have identified a multitude of factors that influence the development of…

Research has paid less attention to the formalization of education from a systems theory and control perspective, rather than a mere algorithmic one. In this work, the underpinnings of system theory and control are provided, along with a review of their application in education. The review of studies in databases found only seven articles that…

The complexity of modern societies necessitates that children learn highly abstract material, such as mathematics, which often conflicts with behavioral goals that are innately motivating. For instance, children's educational success is generally evaluated based on their individual achievements, while humans are motivated to learn by engaging in…

Background: Complexity theory (CT) has been used in response to the need for a different mindset than the classical engineering paradigm. The engineering education research (EER) community may benefit from the knowledge of how CT has been used in the field. Purpose: Aiming to provide a broad view of CT in EER, the following research questions…

A growing body of evidence shows that positive student outcomes are associated with racial/ethnic diversity among university STEM instructors. However, few studies to date have been able to provide direct causal evidence identifying the specific mechanism(s) hypothesized to drive the benefits of instructor racial/ethnic diversity. Leaving these…

Sustainable leadership has become a significant focus in educational leadership. Still, concerns persist regarding the clarity of its definitions and their impact addressing critical educational needs. This study employs a systematic review to address these definitional challenges. Seven themes emerge, categorized into three meta-themes:…

Collective impact (CI) is a structured approach that helps drive multi-sector collaborations to address social problems through systems changes. While the CI approach is gaining popularity, practitioners experience challenges in evaluating its implementation and intended outcomes. We conducted a systematic scoping review to understand evaluation…

Amid persistent systemic racism, society is interested in changing education systems toward racial equity. Education law and policy play a critical role in these efforts. Given this context, we conducted a systematic review to examine the use of critical systems thinking (CST) in education, a tradition that can aid researchers studying education…

In this review, approaches to teaching and learning in environmental education were explored at a conceptual level to understand the diversity of pedagogies in the discipline. We applied systems thinking to make conceptual parallels between ecology (physical environment, plant species, traits, plant strategies) and education (environmental…

Evidence-informed change (EIC) has gained attention recently because it is seen as a lever to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of educational change. Important questions are: how is EIC conceptualized, what counts as evidence, and what factors can support EIC in practice? Because of the complexity of EIC, we aimed to understand these…

This study aimed to exhibit a bibliometric analysis of systems thinking (ST) research in the field of science education. A total of 340 articles from 201 sources indexed in the Web of Science database in the years 1991-2022 were used in the analysis. The analysis aimed to provide a review of systems thinking research in science education by…

This integrative literature review offers a portrait of the "middle leader" in lower secondary school, emphasising practical insights. Initiated by a Danish case study, it shows the middle leader as a formally appointed teacher with an add-on responsibility for pedagogical development in collaboration with colleagues and management. By…

By considering the interconnectedness of various elements, such as curriculum, instruction, assessment, and school organization, systems thinking provides a framework to understand the underlying patterns, feedback loops, and leverage points that shape educational outcomes. Frick's (1993) systems view of restructuring education supports the notion…

A quarter of a century has passed since complex dynamic systems theory was proposed as an alternative paradigm to rethink and reexamine some of the main questions and phenomena in applied linguistics and language learning. In this article, we report a scoping review of the heterogenous body of research adopting this framework. We analyzed 158…

Scientific misconduct, leading to the retraction of publications, presents a significant challenge to the progress of societies as it undermines both the scientific reputation and material resources of countries. This study adopts bibliometric analysis and scientometrics approach to examine the characteristics of retracted publications in the…