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Technology-supported learning innovation in cultural contexts

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Abstract

Many reform initiatives adopt a reductionist, proceduralized approach to cultural change, assuming that deep changes can be realized by introducing new classroom activities, textbooks, and technological tools. This article elaborates a complex system perspective of learning culture: A learning culture as a complex system involves macro-level properties (e.g., epistemological beliefs, social values, power structures) and micro-level features (e.g., technology, classroom activities). Deep changes in macro-level properties cannot be reduced to any component. This complex system perspective is applied to examining technology-supported educational change in East Asia and analyzing how teachers sustain the knowledge building innovation in different contexts. Working with the macro–micro dynamics in a learning culture requires a principle-based approach to learning innovation that specifies macro-level changes using principle-based instead of procedure-based terms and engages teachers’ deep reflection and creative engagement at both the macro- and the micro-level.

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  1. Department of Educational Theory and Practice, University at Albany, SUNY, 1400 Washington Ave, ED 115B, Albany, NY, 12222, USA

    Jianwei Zhang

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Zhang, J. Technology-supported learning innovation in cultural contexts. Education Tech Research Dev 58, 229–243 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-009-9137-6

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