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Self-organizing systems approach to course design, with embedded design as the pivotal principle

Design · All designs
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 1 study (1 causal), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description

A design framework derived from Bain's work on a self-organizing K-12 school and extended to higher education, in which "Self-organizing systems theory involves the application of six principles that enable change from the ground up": simple rules, embedded design, similarity at scale, emergent feedback, dispersed control, and a schema to guide action. Embedded design is treated as "the overarching and pivotal principle that guides application of all others". In this study it was applied to a pre-service inclusive education course to build deep, coherent pedagogical content knowledge.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

  • Course content valued as important must be embedded at all levels of the course design, not delivered once

Constraints

  • The article tests only the embedded design principle, not the other five principles, and in a single course at one university

Target Learners

  • pre-service primary (elementary) teachers

Learning Goals

  • pedagogical content knowledge about inclusive education and differentiation

Claims

Examples

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Key Sources

  • Lancaster, J., & Bain, A. (2019). Designing University Courses to Improve Pre-Service Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Evidence-Based Inclusive Practice. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 44(2). https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol44/iss2/4
Page metadata
Field Value
type design
id self-organizing-systems-embedded-design-theory
title Self-organizing systems approach to course design, with embedded design as the pivotal principle
description A design framework derived from Bain's work on a self-organizing K-12 school and extended to higher education, in which "Self-organizing systems theory involves the application of six principles that enable change fro...
status review
generated by process:settle-candidates on 2026-11-02
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 1 — lancaster-2019

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