Education is very resistant to reform. Despite billions in educational expenditures and decades in time, energy, and effort, most nation-states demonstrate only marginal educational improvements (such as those measured by international assessments, e.g., TIMSS, PIRLS, PISA, etc.). Even worse, many nations show decreases in educational capacity in certain subgroups with each new generation of students—a bizarre contradiction because reform should be improving students’ educational outcomes. Social systems theory—in particular complexity science (which examines super-systemic phenomena arising out of the interactions of the system’s sub-components)—proffer an important key to understanding this seeming paradox. From the powerful theoretical perspective of complexity science, overlapping, nested, multivariate educational systems are identified and can be portrayed as actual living organisms that care about their own survival, interact in productive manners with their larger environments, and manifest intelligent adaptation to challenges. It should come as no surprise then, that educational systems react—sometimes harshly—to outside pressures attempting to change the systems to conform to uncomfortable new requirements. This research report summarizes our latest thinking about several ongoing research studies investigating ways to categorize, understand,—and possibly control—educational systems. In particular, we theorize that successful (i.e., both effective and long-lasting) educational reform only occurs when the educational systems involved integrate intelligent (i.e., purposeful) change into their super-systemic life patterns. We give examples from Chinese, Japanese, and US educational reform, and conclude with concrete recommendations for improving nation-states’ educational systems and directions for future research.

Dr. Ricks’ research interests include mathematics and science education teaching and learning, teacher preparation, complexity, and international cross-cultural comparisons, particularly between the U.S. and mainland China.