Realizing the integrative capacity of educational mixed methods research teams: using a complexity-sensitive strategy to boost innovation

ABSTRACT

Educational research teams are increasingly recognized as an optimal configuration for addressing more complex mixed methods research problems; however, their development is often approached as a conventional research collaboration rather than an integrative one. An approach informed by complexity theory provides the practical guidance for studying mixed methods research teams as complex adaptive systems with the capacity for generating novel educational research outcomes greater than the sum of individual contributions alone. In this paper, I advance a complexity-sensitive strategy through which to realize the integrative capacity of educational mixed methods research teams comprising of four interrelated elements: membership, contributions, interactions, and performance. These elements embody amalgamations from a decade of my readings of the literature and real-life professional experience. Each element is examined in light of the three key concepts of complex adaptive systems to describe the necessary conditions for emergence, influential challenges illustrating interdependency, and desirable individual and team adaptations. The study’s theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Education is a Complex Dynamical System: Challenges for Research

Abstract

The complex dynamical systems (CDS) approach consists of a family of theories emanating largely from the exact sciences. These theories share a common focus on the behavior of systems and their interrelated parts and are concerned with the processes of stability, change, and unpredictability in those systems. This article takes stock of the methods tailored toward the study of complex dynamical systems in education—for example, the interaction between teachers and students in classrooms, educational organizations such as school buildings and districts, and collaborative learning settings. A historical and conceptual background is provided as a context for CDS. Use of the perspective in education is evaluated according to three basic systemic assumptions: Systems behavior is complex, it evolves over time, and the nature of systemic transformation is qualitative. A comprehensive yet incomplete overview is provided of available research methodologies concerned with those assumptions.     

Complex Systems Approaches to Educational Research: Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

To explore the movement toward increased complex systems (CS) research in education, this special issue of the Journal of Experimental Education was developed to identify some under-examined places where CS approaches have advanced research. The articles provide empirical examples of research leveraging methods and analyses from complexity science. In this introduction article to the special issue, we discuss the authors’ contributions to defining and explicating concepts and methods that fall under the umbrella of CS perspectives and how these methods were used to investigate complex processes in their topics of study. The articles capture the goal of the special issue to demonstrate how the research questions framed by CS assumptions can change our expectations about the very nature of the processes under study in education. We then take a more global perspective and acknowledge the commonalities amongst the papers, including (a) the reliance on intensive data to answer research questions, and (b) the use of dynamic approaches that yield findings about the stability and change of these systems and phenomena.     

A Survey of Scholarly Literature Describing the Field of Bioinformatics Education and Bioinformatics Educational Research

Bioinformatics education can be broadly defined as the teaching and learning of the use of computer and information technology, along with mathematical and statistical analysis for gathering, storing, analyzing, interpreting, and integrating data to solve biological problems. The recent surge of genomics, proteomics, and structural biology in the potential advancement of research and development in complex biomedical systems has created a need for an educated workforce in bioinformatics. However, effectively integrating bioinformatics education through formal and informal educational settings has been a challenge due in part to its cross-disciplinary nature. In this article, we seek to provide an overview of the state of bioinformatics education. This article identifies: 1) current approaches of bioinformatics education at the undergraduate and graduate levels; 2) the most common concepts and skills being taught in bioinformatics education; 3) pedagogical approaches and methods of delivery for conveying bioinformatics concepts and skills; and 4) assessment results on the impact of these programs, approaches, and methods in students’ attitudes or learning. Based on these findings, it is our goal to describe the landscape of scholarly work in this area and, as a result, identify opportunities and challenges in bioinformatics education.     

Recognizing respondents’ ways of being and knowing: lessons un/learned in researching Asian immigrant and Asian‐American teachers

Critical race theory (CRT) offers educational researchers a compelling way to view racism in education by centering issues of race and using counterstories to challenge dominant views in both research and practice. This article provides an overview of CRT and illuminates the dilemmas for white researchers wishing to incorporate CRT into their work. The author argues that while CRT may not be fully open to white researchers, their strategic use of CRT can help legitimize its use in fighting racism in educational settings. Building on her participation in CRT discussions in a mixed-race setting, the author suggests that white researchers must work to center race in their personal lives and work, engage in the strategic and sensitive use of CRT, and join in the effort to legitimize research that utilizes alternative methods such as CRT.     

International large-scale assessments: what uses,what consequences?

Abstract

Background: International large-scale assessments (ILSAs) are a much-debated phenomenon in education. Increasingly, their outcomes attract considerable media attention and influence educational policies in many jurisdictions worldwide. The relevance, uses and consequences of these assessments are often the focus of research scrutiny. Whilst some argue that the assessment outcomes provide an effective basis for informed policy-making, critics claim that the use of international assessment data can result in a range of unintended consequences, such as the shaping and governing of school systems ‘by numbers’.

Purpose: This article explores and analyses the arguments about the uses and consequences of ILSAs. In particular, the discourse about the assessments’ consequential validity will be discussed and evaluated.

Sources of evidence: Literature relating to the uses and consequences of large-scale assessment was analysed, with a focus on research on the consequential aspects of validity.

Main argument: Much research suggests that ILSAs have unintended consequences that affect and influence educational policy. However, the influences on educational policy are complex and interwoven: for example, it is not clear-cut whether effects such as converging curricular are, necessarily, direct consequences of large-scale assessments. Further, it is suggested that a beneficial consequence of large-scale assessment is the infrastructure they provide for studies in the social sciences, although caution must be applied to causal claims, in particular because of the cross-sectional design of the assessments.

Conclusions: The considerable literature discussing the uses and consequences of large-scale assessments tends to point out potential negative aspects of the studies. However, it is also apparent that large-scale international assessments can be a valuable resource for studying global trends and evolving systems in education. Despite the extensive debates around large-scale assessment outcomes both in the media and in educational policy arenas, empirical educational research all too often appears underused in the discussion.     

The leeway of qualitative educational research: A case study

This article presents a case study into the question of how research-internal and research-external factors influence the leeway of qualitative research, and ultimately determine which questions can and cannot be addressed in research. First an overview is presented of the position of qualiative research in the field of education in The Netherlands. This position is then analysed by situating educational research in the particular research political context. In the second part of the article the authors focus on effective schools research, one of the strongest research programmes in Dutch educational studies, in order to show the consequences of the lack of a qualitative tradition.     

Governance structure and standard setting in educational assessment

ABSTRACT

Seldom have comparative studies of educational assessment systems been undertaken, especially regarding their standard setting procedures. This study examines the effects of governance structures on the power relations in standard setting in the dominant school-leaving or university-entrance examinations. We present acritical analysis of the published research and policy documents, including sense-checking with senior assessment practitioners from 22 jurisdictions. The nature of standard setting systems in three cases of Ireland, the USA and India are described in detail to showcase the differences between the following three models of governance systems: nationalised, commercial market and quasi-market. The contribution of this article, then, is to describe the three models of governance systems, to classify the 22 jurisdictions using the three models, and to generate propositions inductively. Thus, the article provides aconceptual basis for extension of this work to other cases to advance the literature cumulatively by theory-building.     

A call to action: exploring and responding to educational developers’ workplace burnout and well-being in higher education

ABSTRACT

There is a gap in research exploring stress, burnout, and well-being within the context of educational development. The purpose of this study was to examine the concepts of burnout and workplace well-being among educational developers across the international landscape. Thematic analysis from the survey responses (n = 210) revealed characteristics around four themes that both enhanced or hindered participants’ sense of well-being: a) colleagues, b) manager/director, c) institution/senior administration, and d) workplace. Our findings highlight the need to further amplify conversations related to burnout, as well as examine and promote workplace well-being for educational developers.     

Changing the rules: from textbooks to PLEs / Cambiando las reglas de juego: de los libros de texto al PLE

Abstract

This article is a pedagogical contribution to the debate about the meaning, usefulness and possible integration of PLEs into formalized education. We assume that PLEs represent a change in the rules of traditional teaching taking place in formal educational contexts. We use the comparison of a solid knowledge taught in textbooks compared PLEs in the context of the liquid culture of cyberspace as a metaphor for learning. The article provides an overview of the features and elements of a PLE in formal education and suggests that the educational objective of PLEs is the formation of digital citizenship. This concept implies that learners must become aware of their digital identity and develop competence in five dimensions for an intelligent use of digital technology and culture. We conclude by referring to PLEs as an educational ideology and its potential evolution from the deschooling theses and educational reform in schools.     

Virtual,augmented and mixed reality in K–12 education: a review of the literature

ABSTRACT

This article provides the first review of the existing literature consolidating research into the use of virtual, augmented and mixed reality technologies within K–12 educational environments. The review explores the peer-reviewed scholarly studies conducted between 2006 and May 2017, which involved the use of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) or mixed reality (MR) technologies in the instruction of students in elementary, middle or high school. The literature revealed common themes including collaboration, communication, critical thinking, attitude, engagement, learning, motivation, performance or achievement, and technology (used or proposed). This literature review will contribute to the field by providing clarity on definitions for VR, AR and MR technologies in consideration of educational use, present an overview of the existing research on VR, AR and MR specific to K–12 educational environments and identify future research needs and directions.     

A ratchetdemic reality pedagogy and/as cultural freedom in urban education

Abstract

This article explores the dynamic between Black youth and their teachers through an exploration of an approach to teaching and learning embedded in the complex cultural knowledge(s) of this population. It interrogates the concepts of ratchedemics and reality pedagogy as both philosophy and practice for moving past the framing of particular populations as dystopian and non-academic in the pursuit of the mirage of urban educational utopia.     

Education for pupils with profound disabilities: Issues of policy,curriculum, teaching methods,and evaluation

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses some issues in the education of pupils who have profound disabilities. Following an examination of policy and curriculum issues, we review recent research on teaching methods. In particular, we look critically at the concepts and methods of behavioural psychology and its influence in this field of education. We then examine the issue of evaluation of educational outcomes using illustrations from current research at a special school for adolescents with profound disabilities. Finally, we suggest some directions for future research which place the education of persons who have profound disabilities clearly within the mainstream of educational thinking and research endeavour.     

Teacher collaboration: 30 years of research on its nature,forms, limitations and effects

ABSTRACT

This article reprises and reflects on 30 years of the author’s work on teacher collaboration. The distinctive nature of this work has not been in making a case for teacher collaboration in terms of its benefits for students, teachers, or educational change. These arguments are widely available elsewhere. Rather it has examined ways of collaborating that are available to teachers, how formal or informal collaboration should be, how collaborative efforts can be misused or misdirected, and what factors must be considered when deliberately designing teacher collaboration so it will have the most beneficial effects. The article discusses the explanatory and strategic power of three concepts in particular—contrived collegiality, professional capital, and collaborative professionalism. Conclusions are drawn about next steps for educational research in terms of establishing clear typologies of teacher collaboration in relation to their impact and appropriateness in different circumstances.     

Complex Systems Research in Educational Psychology: Aligning Theory and Method

The purpose of this work is to provide an overview of complex systems research for educational psychologists. We outline a philosophically and theoretically sourced definition of complex systems research organized around complex, dynamic, and emergent ontological characteristics that is useful and appropriate for educational psychology. A complex systems approach is positioned as a means to align underexplored elements of existing theory with appropriate interaction dominant theoretical models, research methods, and equation-based analytic techniques. We conclude with a brief discussion of several foundational topics for complex systems research in educational psychology.     

Non-prescribed spaces,creativity and narrative formation: a systems-based examination of a community art group exploring food poverty

ABSTRACT

This article describes a year-long participatory arts project carried out as part of a community–university partnership in the South of England. The research sought to examine the relationship between the ‘user-led’ ethos of the Brighton Unemployed Centre Families Project (BUCFP) and emergence within it of creatively working and self-managing groups, examining how an environment that did not adhere to a prescribed use of space might enable groups to make sense of their experiences. The research used ethnographic methods and a theoretical framework informed by systems theory, critical health psychology and narrative analysis to explore the group’s experiences of food poverty. The research demonstrates ways in which the group provided community members with a space in which to examine, define and make legitimate their experiences and how this can be thought of as an educational and community knowledge-building practice that has important implications, particularly for notions of well-being.     

Language-in-education policy in South Africa: The challenge of sign language

Abstract

Although there is an extensive and growing literature that addresses issues related to most aspects of language-in-education policy in South Africa, one area in which the literature remains fairly sparse has been that of the implications of current government policy for South African Sign Language (SASL). This article presents an overview of the complex issues presented by the case of SASL for language-in-education policy, and offers a series of recommendations for how these issues might best be addressed. Given the relatively small research base that currently exists dealing explicitly with SASL, the article makes use of both the South African research literature and the far more substantial international research that addresses issues of sign language, education, and language policy.     

The Ako Conceptual Framework: toward a culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy

ABSTRACT

This article offers a new model, the Ako Conceptual Framework (ACF), as a theoretical proposition to add to the critical discourse and development of culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogies within the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. By drawing on the socio-cultural theory and the concept of Zone of Proximal Development, the ACF conceptualises the intersection of culture and pedagogy using a Tongan epistemology. The ACF positions the vā (a space that is relational which enables authentic relationships to be established, nurtured and maintained) and tauhi vaha`a/vā (a responsibility that teachers, schools, educational leaders and practitioners have to establish, nurture and maintain authentic relationships) as the fundamental concepts in the development of culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogies. It is theorised that by recognising Tongan strengths-based principles, values and educational concepts, the taumu`a `oe ako (the purpose for teaching and learning), founga ako (the concepts of teaching), and feinga ako (the concepts of learning) can be aligned. Thereby, recognising and acknowledging the various knowledge systems that the students from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds arrive at school with. The concepts and implications of the ACF are discussed in this article.     

How teachers' autobiographies influence their responses to children's behaviors

Abstract

Psychoanalytic theory postulates that an individual's forgotten past can shape his or her behavior in the present. In psychotherapy, clients relive past conflicts and direct them toward their therapists in the present. This phenomenon, known as transference, is not limited to treatment considerations, but influences all interpersonal interactions. However, the professional literature has given minimal consideration to the importance of transference for understanding classroom dynamics. This and a companion article focus upon how transference shapes relationships between teachers and students by integrating narrative case studies with a literature review. However, the ideas and examples are thought to be relevant for all mental health and educational workers with children. The article provides an overview of transference concepts as they emerge in the context of clinical psychoanalysis and human development with implications for classroom life.     

Instructor-provided summary infographics to support online learning

Infographics are a visualisation tool that can be used to improve retention, comprehension and appeal of complex concepts. The rise of infographic use in education has facilitated new forms of application and design of these tools. Instructor-provided summary infographics are a new form of infographic, whereby key learning objectives and content are summarised in graphical form at the end of a lesson. However, it is unknown whether these types of infographics can support learning in online environments. This exploratory research investigates student perceptions, retention, applications and activity generation of instructor-provided summary infographics in a massive online learning environment. Using both post-course learner survey data (n = 1,899) and text mining analysis (n = 72,490 words), results present how learners perceived instructor-provided summary infographics as useful and appealing for retaining, clarifying and understanding learning concepts. The research contributes a novel understanding of summary infographics in online learning environments, and supports their use as a design tool for educational delivery in the online space.