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ERIC Number: EJ1074485
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1710-5668
EISSN: N/A
Change, Self-Organization and the Search for Causality in Educational Research and Practice
Koopmans, Matthijs
Complicity: An International Journal of Complexity and Education, v11 n1 p20-39 2014
Causality is an inextricable part of the educational process, as our understanding of what works in education depends on our ability to make causal attributions. Yet, the research and policy literature in education tends to define causality narrowly as the attribution of educational outcomes to intervention effects in a randomized control trial context. This reduction of the educational process to simple input-output relationships leaves important questions unattended about how change is produced in educational systems and how observed results can be predicted based on the propensity toward change in the baseline settings of those systems. This paper considers these questions from a Complex Dynamical Systems perspective, and concludes that answers to them can qualify the findings from at least some experiments.
University of Alberta. 347 Education South, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2G5, Canada. e-mail: complicity.journal@gmail.com; Web site: https://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/complicity
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A