Reflex as a compass for educational ecosystems: towards extended and connected learning
Parole chiave:
School innovation; Systematisation; Rooting; Collective intelligence; Self-assessment.Abstract
This article introduces Reflex, a self-evaluation tool designed to support systemic school innovation within an ecological and multi-level perspective. Grounded in theories of distributed cognition and organisational learning, Reflex is conceived as a reflective governance artefact enabling schools to connect micro-level practices, meso-level organisational dynamics, and macro-level policy frameworks. Developed through a Design-Based Research approach, the tool was tested with 119 Italian schools, involving over 7,000 teachers. The study combines quantitative analysis of aggregated questionnaire data with qualitative insights from follow-up meetings. Findings show that Reflex fosters shared organisational awareness, supports professional dialogue between leadership and teachers, and promotes data-informed decision-making. At the network level, aggregated data reveal recurring patterns of innovation and highlight a systematic gap between systematisation processes and the slower rooting of innovation within teaching practices. The study suggests that Reflex functions not only as a diagnostic tool but as an infrastructure for organisational learning and collective intelligence, contributing to more connected and sustainable educational ecosystems.
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