Complexity-based learning—An alternative learning design for the twenty-first century

Abstract

In programme delivery, while the international trend in education has seen a shift from teacher-centred to student-centred learning and from transmission to reflective approaches, most leadership programmes have remained heavily teacher-centred. A key feature of teacher-centred learning relies on practices of course-driven programmes. This feature has been remarkably resilient over the years in the face of efforts to effect change in programme delivery and a new understanding of complexity in the world of education. The complexity theoretical framework provides us the advantage of an alternative design for leadership development programmes that is able to meet current and future challenges. Yearly, billions of dollars are spent on training and development. It is important to ensure that the outcome of training, learning and development must yield practical outcomes that are relevant, innovative and implementable solutions.

Keywords

• leadership
• leadership development
• complexity theory
• programme design