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…

Early math skills predict later achievement for young children; thus, it is important to expand what is known about how to support preschool children's development of these skills. While there has been some research on interventions, including those using systemic instruction, to teach math skills to preschoolers, there is a need for additional…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences that contributed to the development of a systems thinking paradigm in instructors in a college of agriculture. Design/Methodology/Approach: A phenomenology design was used to understand the lived experiences of eleven instructors. Findings: Three themes emerged regarding how they…

This article applies system theory to the analysis of the relationship between the EU and candidate country Serbia, with a focus on adult education policy. The study explores how the peripheral status of Serbia with its hybrid political regime combining autocratic and democratic features leads to the hybridisation of its adult education system,…

Research suggests that gifted students benefit when their classroom teachers hold distinct dispositions regarding giftedness. However, most general education teachers have had little exposure to targeted dispositional development related to gifted learners, meaning their dispositions may be influenced by many different factors. In this…

Foundations and other public and nonprofit organizations increasingly express interest in cultivating systems-level change and maximizing their impact through more complex approaches. As organizations look beyond individual interventions and programs, they must think differently and define problems and questions in fundamentally new ways. The…

Since the 1980s, neoliberal reforms in Higher Education (HE) have been widely adopted by governments around the globe because HE was seen as central to knowledge creation, national prosperity and competitiveness. Although the rate of adoption of these reforms varied due to differences in historical and political contexts, they have had a…

Systems convening is a style of leadership developed by Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner (2021) that focuses on crossing social and institutional boundaries to facilitate change. Faculty developers are increasingly called on to cross disciplinary and institutional boundaries in their work supporting teaching and learning. A systems convening…

Purpose: Dynamic Systems Theory (DST) has been used as a foundational lens through which to observe and understand child development and disorders. Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a motor planning speech disorder that can be difficult to treat. This tutorial outlines how a DST framework can be used to understand the therapy process for…

Purpose: As the skills economy becomes the norm, learning focused on skills, learners who understand those skills and can iterate the learners to potential employers, and hiring personnel who prioritize skills when making personnel decisions create a visible currency that can be leveraged by all the stakeholders. This paper seeks to analyze those…

Contemporary US and European approaches to ecosystems and mental health have left many feeling disempowered in the face of the climate crisis. This article advocates for holistic approaches to supporting natural complex systems with contemplation and care. It explores how environmental metaphors and nature-based art therapy can foster human-nature…

Currently, STEM education and Education for Sustainability (EfS) are viewed as disconnected educational approaches in Pennsylvania classrooms. While both offer promising outcomes and have overlapping goals, research shows that separately they both face challenges to implementation. This study aims to strengthen both approaches by exploring the…

A design-based research study on the development of one-page tools to support systemic thinking in public managers is presented. Study participants included public managers of social and human service agencies within government or nonprofit organizations, as learners for whom the tools were designed; and instructional design professionals,…

This article reimagines exclusion in education through the contrasting lenses of animal privilege, competition, and conformity, akin to the pecking order observed in some animal species. However, more inclusive and neuro-affirming frameworks can be found in the cooperative strategies of plant ecosystems. Drawing on evolutionary biology, plant…

In this article we address two key questions in the application of dynamical systems theory (DST) to second language acquisition (SLA) that have not been resolved in recent debates about this issue. The first question relates to reductionism. Is an antireductionist position a necessary element of DST? We show that the radical antireductionist…