Accepted:
20 Dec 2003
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/vol10/vargas01/ | © Copyright 2002 | |||
| Volume 10 | Received: Accepted: |
14 Feb 2002 20 Dec 2003 |
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An educatinal production system complexity: implications for model completeness and performance improvement.
Vargas, SC., Bills, D. & Bricker, D. |
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| Abstract | |
| While improving performance and efficiency in educational production has been the concerned of educators, social scientists, and politicians for decades, questions such as how to improve and how to measure performance and efficiency still remain. Analysis of an educational production focusing on improving and controlling its performance and efficiency leads to a modeling process whose main goal is to increase our understanding of its structure and dynamics. The core to this modeling process is model completeness, which deals with a description of the system or problem being modeled and the resolution of uncertainties. Satisfaction of model completeness is a critical requirement to improve model accuracy and resolution. This, however, is a portentous task when dealing with dynamics and complex systems like educational production. This work addresses the issue of satisfying completeness in the formalization of a descriptive model of a K-12 educational production system. By examining a series of concepts and problems, we bring into shaper focus features characterizing the system complexity. Describing this system, including functions and objectives, variables, requirements, and the input-output functional relationships, requires large amount of information, which is often imprecise. Thus it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to resolve the uncertainties. This complexity constrains the development of models that can effectively support decision-making. Hence, complexity management becomes a critical requirement of a modeling process that seeks to increase completeness. | |
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Multimedia Links (none) Reference Links Citation Reference Vargas, SC., Bills, D. & Bricker, D. (2002), An educatinal production system complexity: implications for model completeness and performance improvement., Complexity International, Volume 10, Paper ID: vargas01, URL: http://www.complexity.org.au/ci/vol10/vargas01/ |
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