Documents de travail de l'OCDE sur l'éducation
Cette série d’études basées sur les travaux de la Direction de l’éducation de l’OCDE est destinée à un large public. Il s’agit généralement d’un travail collectif, mais les noms des principaux auteurs sont cités. Ces documents existent en général uniquement en version originale – anglais ou français – avec un court résumé dans l’autre langue.
- ISSN: 19939019 (online)
- https://doi.org/10.1787/19939019
The Simple, the Complicated, and the Complex: Educational Reform Through the Lens of Complexity Theory
This paper explores the nature of complexity theory and its applications for educational reform. It
briefly explains the history of complexity theory and identifies the key concepts of complex adaptive
systems, and then moves on to define the differences between simple, complicated, and complex
approaches to educational reform. Special attention is given to work currently underway in the fields of
healthcare, emergency management and ecology that draws on complexity theory to build more resilient
and robust response systems capable of adapting to changing needs and of identifying key pressure points
in the system. Finally, this paper presents several examples of educational reform programmes undertaken
worldwide that have implemented complexity theory principles to achieve positive results. It also
recommends involving multiple stakeholders across the different levels of governance structure, increasing
lateral knowledge-sharing between schools and districts, and transforming policy interventions to bring
greater flexibility to the reform process. This move toward feedback-driven adaptive reform allows for
better targeting of programmes to specific contexts and may prove a key way forward for educational
policymakers.
- Click to access:
-
Click to download PDF - 1.31MBPDF