When will we finally stop sending our kids to huge buildings managed by bureaucracies that are more concerned with making sure everyone changes class on time than they are with making sure that everyone is prepared to participate in our society?
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Are you curious about how modern science can revolutionize education? Let’s explore the world of systems thinking and see how it can transform schools into thriving, dynamic ecosystems.
Finding Order in Chaos
Where can we find order in the chaos of school life? It’s not about rigid rules but about the natural patterns that emerge from interactions among teachers, students, administrators, and parents. We can create a more harmonious and effective educational environment by fostering these natural connections.
How Do Complex Systems Change?
Change in education isn’t just about big reforms. It’s the small, strategic tweaks that can lead to significant transformations. Think of it like a ripple effect – introducing a new teaching method or technology can change classroom dynamics, boost teacher collaboration, and increase student engagement. Recognizing these interconnected changes helps manage and amplify their positive impacts.
Creating Flexible and Adaptive Structures
Rigid systems can’t keep up with the fast-paced world of education. We need flexible structures that can adapt to change. For example, a curriculum that allows teachers to tailor lessons to their students’ interests can make learning more engaging and effective. Similarly, professional development that encourages experimentation can foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement.
Simplifying Without Losing Complexity
How do we simplify education without losing its richness? By focusing on core principles and values while allowing for diverse expressions of these principles. This could mean emphasizing foundational skills but giving teachers the freedom to choose how to teach them. Concentrate on essential outcomes and allow for creativity in achieving them.
How can we balance teachers’ need for autonomy with the school’s need for accountability? We can create a sense of ownership and satisfaction by involving teachers in goal-setting and decision-making. At the same time, clear goals and metrics ensure that the school remains focused on its mission. Collaborative goal-setting, transparent evaluations, and supportive leadership are key.
Embracing New Science in Education
The “new science”—insights from physics, biology, and chemistry—emphasizes holism and relationships over isolated parts. Schools should be seen as ecosystems where every role and interaction matters. This perspective encourages leaders to consider the broader impacts of their decisions and create environments that nurture positive relationships.
Imagine a school where teachers are not just cogs in a wheel but vital, dynamic components. Where students’ learning experiences are shaped by a web of influences – home life, peer interactions, and community resources. This holistic approach can lead to more comprehensive and effective educational strategies.
Conclusion
We can transform schools into adaptive, resilient, and thriving communities by applying systems thinking and insights from new science. This approach addresses the complexities of modern education and harnesses every individual’s potential to contribute to meaningful, sustained improvement. Embrace the interconnectedness of educational ecosystems and watch as natural order, constructive evolution, and balanced autonomy emerge, creating a better future for education.
Must-Read: Margaret Wheatley’s Leadership and the New Science
If you’re intrigued by the idea of using cutting-edge science to transform education, Margaret Wheatley’s Leadership and the New Science is a must-read. Wheatley explores how quantum physics, biology, and chaos theory principles can revolutionize our understanding of leadership and organizational dynamics. She shows how we can create flexible, adaptive, and thriving organizations by shifting from a mechanistic view to a holistic perspective. This book is packed with insights that will challenge your thinking and inspire innovative approaches to leading and learning. Dive into Wheatley’s groundbreaking work to unlock the secrets of new science and transform your educational organization.
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“All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.”
― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Change is good. At least, that’s what I’ve heard from any number of well-meaning people. Change often means growth and fresh ideas, but it also means the death and destruction of old ideas. And, change often means returning to another time or to other practices that worked.
Or maybe they didn’t. Perhaps we just long for a return to comfort and normalcy.
Regardless, every institution can and does experience change, whether people on the inside of the organization deliberately create change or outside forces create “jolts” in the system and force change (cite p. 330).
Kentucky public education has had two considerable jolts that I’m aware of (and I’m showing my age for one of them): the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) of 1990 and, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. KERA was a jolt that began as the work of change agents, but that whole COVID thing… we’re still not sure who the change agents were (it was totally the bats), but it was still one heck of a jolt.
I was in high school when KERA became a thing. Along with it came these things called “portfolios” that were going to revolutionize Kentucky schools. Spoiler alert: they didn’t. That failure has more to do with the implementation of change than the idea of change.
What many public schools in Kentucky have been able to do since the days of KERA is to continue pushing for creative solutions to difficult problems. They’ve also continued to make space for change agents in various positions across the state and in local schools. Of course, without effective leaders ready to change the constructed reality within a school, any change efforts will likely fail, and the same cycle of “all this has happened before,” continues as it has so many times in education.
“What’s past is prologue.”
– Shakespeare, The Tempest
After the COVID-19 pandemic (has it ended yet?), I’ve seen more concerted efforts to maintain institutional change here in Kentucky. With many districts instituting graduate profiles, the structures needed to support and maintain change are moving into place.
With the environment ripe for change after the COVID-19 upheaval, small changes in institutional processes are making their way across the state and have the potential to sustain change for the future.
References:
Marion, R., & Gonzales, L. D. (2014). Leadership in education: Organizational theory for the practitioner (Second). Waveland Press.
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This post was first published in August 2014,so please forgive any outdated references. I began my student teaching and carried many dreams and plans in my mind. Looking back on these words, I still carry many of these ideas with me eight years later. Maybe I was on to something…
I’m a huge movie fan. Many of my favorite films are science fiction, which, if you know me, is probably a foregone conclusion.
I love Star Wars, Star Trek, The Last Starfighter, Dune… the list goes on for days.
One of my favorite sci-fi films is Contact, based on the book by Carl Sagan. If you’re unfamiliar with the book or film, the plot revolves around what might happen if the human race received a message from another world.
Spoiler alerts ahead if you haven’t seen this nearly 20-year-old movie yet…
In the film’s climax, the main character speaks with a member of an alien race in the guise of her dead father. He explains a bit about how they were able to contact our planet and how things will progress in the future.
Our fearless heroine wants all of her questions answered at once, excited at what this incredible discovery could mean for science and the human race. However, she doesn’t get her wish.
The alien explains to her that progress and communication will come slowly over time. He tells her…
“Small moves, Ellie. Small moves.”
Change is a good but incredibly difficult thing. Especially in education. No matter how great we think some new technology or process is or how much we will benefit from it, the implementation will not come quickly. Not will it come free of pain, problems, and complaints.
Writing this post, I’m in my second full week of student teaching. Of course, I bring with me a fairly large amount of tech experience with a boatload of tools that teachers can use in the classroom. I am not, however, an experienced classroom teacher.
But, I can still show other teachers a few small ways that technology can make their lives easier, engage students, and bring some 21st-century methods into their classrooms.
But it has to start small. A friend of mine introduced Plickers in his classroom as a way to perform formative assessments. He called me over to see the trial run.
Of course, the students loved it. It was cool to see this app grade their responses instantly rather than waiting for their answers to be graded. I knew the kids would love it, and I knew my friend would love it, as we’ve been talking about using it since long before school began.
What I didn’t know would happen was the response from other teachers around his classroom. The buzz in the hallways after school about this little app was astounding. One of the guys from the district IT department even came over to see what we were doing.
Small moves.
Sometimes as tech evangelists, we forget that not everyone is as comfortable with tech as we are. There are teachers in your building right now that have been teaching long enough that they can remember a time when the only computers in the school were in a computer lab, and no teacher had a school email address.
And now we’re asking them to implement tools like GAFE, Microsoft LYNC, iPads, laptops, Chromebooks, and tablets….
Small moves.
If we really want to be great digital leaders, we have to be willing to meet others where they are with tech. Too often, we get carried away with the latest and greatest shiny app that will “revolutionize” our classrooms. We don’t understand why EVERYONE doesn’t use it the day it becomes available.
It’s not about beating other teachers and administrators over the head with new technology. It’s about showing them how one tool can improve or help them. How one tool can ignite a student’s interest in a new way.
It’s about small moves, not giant leaps.
We must be ready to make those small moves quickly and guide others to do the same. When that happens, teachers, administrators, and students win.
Sure, there will always be those asking, “Well, why are you doing this? What’s your motivation? What do you want to get out of it?” They balk at every suggestion and idea made.
But if we’re making small moves, those people will soon be drowned out by the gathering crowd of people making their small moves toward a better system for us all.
And soon, that gathering crowd will no longer be the minority that wants change; they will be the overwhelming majority that drives change and sends our education system in a new and exciting direction.
But it all starts with small moves.
Small moves, Ellie.
As leaders, that’s what we have to do.
Thanks for taking a stroll down memory lane with me.
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