Pathways for Collaborative Innovation in Educational Groups from a Complex Adaptive Systems Perspective

During the cross-regional development of educational groups, dual challenges often arise: declining knowledge output capacity in core schools and limited absorption efficiency among member schools. This paper constructs a dynamic model for knowledge transfer within educational groups based on Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory, analyzing the pathways through which internal collaboration mechanisms, incentive systems, and digital platforms influence knowledge flow. Through comparative case studies and simulation experiments, this paper reveals that knowledge flow within education groups exhibits nonlinear, dynamic feedback characteristics, and identifies that “unidirectional knowledge transmission” struggles to meet the group's overall innovation needs. To address this issue, a “bidirectional empowerment” strategy is proposed: establishing multi-level interactive mechanisms between core and member schools to optimize knowledge absorption and innovation efficiency through resource sharing, real-time information feedback, and incentive-constraint mechanisms. Furthermore, the paper quantitatively evaluates the effectiveness of collaborative innovation pathways using mathematical models, data analysis, and visualizations, providing theoretical foundations and practical references for educational groups to make informed decisions and enhance cross-regional collaborative innovation capabilities.