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NOVEMBER 2015 AECT ACCELERATE LEARNING: RACING INTO THE FUTURE
NAME CHANGE MESSAGE FROM THE
PRESIDENT & HISTORY
POLICY BRIEF BACKSTORY FROM
REIGELUTH
MEET THE PEOPLE WHO’S INVOLVED? CONFERENCE
RACING TO THOUGHTFUL CHANGE
What is our purpose? Provide a space where people connect with others in order to… • Disseminate research and evidence-based practices • Produce practical and scholarly arguments about change
and innovation • Engage people in understanding the scholarship and
practices on change • Promote meaningful innovation in organizations
SYSTEMS THINKING & CHANGE
Plan for Vegas 2016Join ST&C
1. Join AECT at www.aect.org
2. Select Systems Thinking & Change
3. Or, email Dr. Beth Sockman [email protected]
ST&C -‐Membership Meeting
Fri. Nov 6@ 9:15 -‐ Hyatt Regency -‐2
Concept A
Group: Systems Thinking, Design & Change in Education
http://tinyurl.com/STC-Facebook
NOVEMBER 2015 RACING INTO THE FUTURE
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Systems Thinking & Change Conference Highlights The only thing certain is change. Systemic Thinking and Change is there to help you get out in front of change and not fall. We probe one another to use systems thinking to encourage meaningful innovation and transformation.
This year’s conference embraces systems thinking about innovations through emerging technologies, health care, education and theory. In sessions, you have the opportunity to probe speci?ic applications or discuss the theoretical evolution toward strong research. Change is a messy process. As a community of scholars and practitioners, we aim to demystify it through our collaborative work.
Provoking Joint Panel Sessions We have three joint panel sessions that will have insightful discussions. The stellar panelists will focus on particular innovations and the systems in?luences within different ?ields.
TED-‐ST&C Panel: Taking a Systems look at Teacher Educa@on for 21st Century Needs Panelists: Ross Perkins, Drew Polly, Luis Camillo Almeida, Charles Morgan Reigeluth; Jennifer Karnopp & Jody Underwood Wed, Nov 4, 1:00 to 2:00pm, Hya4 Regency, 2, Theory A
ST&C and D&D Panel Address the Elephant: Using Systems Thinking to address MOOCs and Social Media in Design & Development Panelists: Kyle Peck, William Watson, M.David Merrill, Darryl Draper Wed, Nov 4, 2:15 to 3:15pm, Hya4 Regency, 3rd, Cosmopolitan B
ST&C and CLT Panel -‐A Systems Perspec@ve on the Cultural Influence of Technology with Represented and Underrepresented Groups Panelists: Deepak Prem Subramony; Roberto Joseph, Camille Dickson-‐Deane, Sunnie Watson, Eugene Kowch Thu, Nov 5, 1:00 to 2:00pm, Hya4 Regency, 2, Theory A
Poster Session and Roundtables The health care *ield has been besieged with innovations. Discuss how change theory is applied.
Thu, Nov 5, 10:30 to 11:30am, Indy ConvenFon Center, Indy ConvenFon Ctr (Rm 231) -‐ Posters Bracing for the Impact of Mobile ICTs in Ubiquitous Health Sciences Libraries Deborah M. Taylor
Thu, Nov 5, 10:30 to 11:30am, Indy ConvenFon Center, Indy ConvenFon Ctr (Rm 231) – Roundtables Aligning Change Theory to a Process Model for Assis@ng Asthma@c Pa@ent Self-‐Iden@fica@on Thomas Watson Lamey & Gayle V. Davidson-‐Shivers
Managing Healthcare IT Projects: Barriers to Implemen@ng a Project Management Office (PMO) Sco< Lilley
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Join Us in Vegas 2016! People wonder why technology ideas, designs and projects sometimes disappear within a ‘system’, or why innovation and the best ideas don’t translate into wider changes in thinking or practice. In ST&C, we wonder too but look for answers. Present your answers and findings in VEGAS!
We look forward to your proposal in 2016!
General Membership Meeting: Fri. Nov 6@ 9:15 -‐ Hyatt Regency
1/27/16 @ 1pm EST Educational Systems Change and Personalized Instruction:How Learning Technology Broadly and Digital Badges with William Watson
Concurrent Sessions The concurrent sessions address the theory and practical applications of systems thinking and change in the educational facets of international education, k-‐12 education through higher education.
Adjus@ng the Suspension in K-‐12 Schools: Systemic change outcomes Fri, Nov 6, 8:00 to 9:00am, Hyaa Regency, 2, Concept A
• An educa?onal reform to improve classroom technology in Turkey: FATIH ProjectHoyet Hemphill, Erkan Caliskan & Leaunda Hemphill
• The Tea Party's Poten?al Influence on a Texas School District's Educa?onal and Instruc?onal PoliciesSteven Robert Watkins
Higher Educa@on and Designing High-‐Performance Change Fri, Nov 6, 10:30 to 11:30am, Hyaa Regency, 2, Concept A
• Accelera?ng E-‐learning Development: From the Passenger to the Driver’s SeatJeff Boehm, Dana Ruggiero, Susana Romans-‐Roca & Neil Glen
• Piecing Together The Puzzle Of Higher Educa?on: Debundling Educa?on with Digital Badges and Micro-‐courses for Customized, Competency-‐based LearningWilliam Watson, Sunnie Watson & Tim Newby
Be in the Lead by Driving the Change Fri, Nov 6, 1:00 to 2:00pm, Hyaa Regency, 2, Concept A
• PuVng a Stake in the Ground: Ins?tu?onalizing a University and School PartnershipBeth Rajan Sockman, Grant Rauch, Zhaoyuan Guo
• Toward a Peri-‐Instruc?onal Design Tradi?on in Educa?onElizabeth Bro4 Beese
Know the Terrain and Read Signs for Transforma@on Fri, Nov 6, 2:15 to 3:15pm, Hyaa Regency, 2, Concept A
• Educology for Systemic ChangeTed Frick & Kenneth Thompson
Tuning up Instruc@on through Change Fri, Nov 6, 3:30 to 4:30pm, Hyaa Regency, 2, Concept A
• Redesigning the conversa?on on educa?onal reform: A call for agencyWilliam Watson & Sunnie Watson
• FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS! Five Prac?cal Leadership Principles to Turbocharge Your CareerEugene Kowch
JOIN US!
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M E E T U S We are a group of people who want to shape change by
thinking through the process together.
Sunnie Lee Watson Title: Professor, Purdue University
Posi@on: Board Member About Me: CriFcal Systems Thinker, Humane Educator, Learning
Design and Technology Professor, Animal Rights Advocate.
Anthony Chow, Ph.D. Title: Associate Professor,University of North Carolina at Greensboro Posi@ons: Past President About Me: Systems Thinker, InformaFon ScienFst, Professor, Husband, Father, Strategic Planner and OpFmist.
Ashley Gouger Title: Learning Strategist, Clear Point Learning
Posi@on: Graduate Student RepresentaFve About Me: Learning strategist, Thoughbul researcher, Hopeful life-‐long
learner, Believer in and seeker of change in educaFon.
Genevieve Gallant Title: President, GG Consultants Limited Posi@on: Board Member About Me: Avid believer in Systems Approach to implement Change, Manager of technology implementaFon as a method for educaFonal change, InstrucFonal Designer, Professor/Researcher for Change.
Charles M. Reigeluth Title: Professor Emeritus, Indiana University
Posi@on: Founding President, Board Member About Me: Advancing knowledge about paradigm change,
what the new paradigm should be, and how to help educaFonal systems transform into the
new paradigm.William R. Watson Title: Associate Professor, Purdue UniversityPosi@on: Board MemberAbout Me: Learner -‐ Visioneer -‐ Gamer -‐ AcFvist.
Hoyet H. Hemphill, Ph.D. Title: Department Chair, Professor, Western Illinois University Previous Posi@ons: President About Me: Published and presented on: Assessing Engagement in Online Discourse, InternaFonal programs for systemic change.
NOVEMBER 2015 RACING INTO THE FUTURE
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Minkyoung Kim Title: Doctoral Candidate, Indiana University
Posi@on: Secretary-‐Treasurer About Me: Lifelong learner, InstrucFonal Designer pursuing learner-‐centered
educaFon, Former Business Consultant, Ph.D Candidate in InstrucFonal Technology, and Semi-‐Pro Ballet Dancer.
Dr. Francis Duffy Title: Professor, Gallaudet University Posi@on: Board of directors, president About Me: Focuses on leadership and organizaFonal change, Speaker, Author of Systemic Change wriFngs, co-‐director of “Future Minds” for transforming schools.
Monica Sulecio de Alvarez, M.A.Ed. Title: Distance Learning Experience Designer in Central America Posi@on: Board Member About Me: Non-‐stopping learner, complex-‐meaningful learning driven, distance learning experience designer/coach, holisFc life pracFFoner, peace-‐nature-‐sFllness lover.
Aaron Bond Title: Director Networked Learning IniFaFve
Posi@on: AECT Board RepresentaFve About Me: Faculty Development Professional, Technology-‐enhanced
Learner/Teacher, Social ConstrucFvist, Community Builder, Using Technology and Community to Bring Change to EducaFon.
KenPrest Title: Consultant, KW Prest & Associates Posi@on: Board member About Me: Passionate about energizing a broad-‐ranging conversaFon on the future of educaFon, deliberately -‐catalyzing membership experience, and, ulFmately, making educaFon more relevant, effecFve, and a be4er investment.
Dr. Eugene G. Kowch Title: Associate Professor, University of Calgary
Posi@on: AECT Board RepresentaFve About Me: Preparing next-‐generaFon educaFonal leaders
and policy makers by combining good learning environment design with cuhng edge organizaFon design,
Former Corporate development engineer (petroleum), Teacher, Principal & Deputy Superintendent.
Beth Rajan Sockman Ph.D. Title: Associate Professor
Posi@on: President Elect; CommunicaFons Officer About Me: Systems-‐Thinker, Grateful-‐Learner,
InstrucFonal-‐Technology-‐Professor, Striving for a Win-‐Win society with Peace through
Understanding.
A Rationale for Changing the AECT Division Name from ‘Systemic Change’ to ‘Systems Thinking and Change’ in 2015 Dr. E. Kowch, Ph.D. (AECT Board, 2015)
MESSAGE FROM ST&C PRESIDENT
Systems thinking has evolved primarily from its roots in management contexts (Ackoff, 1972). The scholarly work has been a response to deBicits found among less systemic, more structural mindsets about leading organizations effectively so that they are nimble enough to change. Systems thinking is a purposeful response by global members who subscribe to a conceptual view of society, organizations and institutions as highly interdependent entities of organization. Ackoff (1971)’s ideas on organizations as systems has evolved into thinking about a ‘design’ approach to types of systems where people try to create a feasible whole from infeasible parts. Historically, the founders of AECT’s Systemic Change division have similarly combined holistic thinking about learning situations (primarily in school settings) to evolve a beautiful design for conceptualizing changes in education systems (organizations). The work of AECT’s FutureMinds (Reigeluth & Duffy, 2009) for example is based on principles of interactive learning and, implicitly, interactive learning leadership (Reigeluth, 2015). This is the very Bine bedrock of our thinking in the Division about Systemic Change. However we have realized that our historical conceptualization of Systemic Change integrates the entire process of systems thinking along with its implicit design, development and system leadership outcomes to represent change. That can be confusing for some members because the Birst change required of anyone or any education system, by our account, is a paradigm change (Reigeluth & Duffy, 2008) which some argue is actually an outcome of a recursive learning process enacted by nested, co-‐dependent networks of people (systems) learning (Schlechty, 2011). Uniquely in the world, our AECT Division has evolved systems thinking with a design ideal to create change that impacts all parts of a system (in schools, primarily for learning and instruction). This is a tremendous leap forward from literature brought about to consider organizations and leadership dynamics independently of the idea that co-‐connected people can learn their ways forward (Ackoff, 1972; Senge, 1995). Designers choose to seek the future, rather than to predict it. In the Figure 1 below (Gharajedaghi, 2011) design thinking is compared to other inBluential, interconnected systems thinking frameworks, where we have found that trying to predict system outcomes just doesn’t work in the complex reality of our constant-‐Blux, co-‐dependent world of nested systems (inclusive of, but extending well beyond ‘the school’). Today, our concept of a system is more open, and it is expanding to include temporal, shifting nested systems that impact each other in complex, nested and interconnected ecosystems that are constantly in Blux.
For many years our Division has been known as Systemic Change. Last year, our Executive Committee gave serious consideration to changing the name of the division. The reason for this was twofold.
1. We felt that systemic thinking was a critical process that could be applied to any learning system and organization. While change might indeed be an outcome of this process, the application of systems thinking was an important contribution to the efBicacy and goal achievement for a learning system, environment, and organization.
2. We wanted to recognize that change and transformation can occur at both a micro and macro level within a learning environment. Understanding and celebrating successful change should be part of the Division's mission.
The Executive Committee therefore voted on changing the Division name to Systems Thinking and Change to reBlect a more inclusive role for the Division's membership and their own range of endeavors to apply systems thinking and to implement change.
Hoyet H. Hemphill, Ph.D.
What is signiBicant in this evolution of systems thinking, particularly in the education context is a similar and parallel change in the evolution of change thinking in education. That, too has evolved from principles about holistic, mechanical change (Simon, 1967) to holistic change in schools and school communities (Fullan, 1998; Hargreaves & Shirley, 2011). The language of ‘transformation’ is a rhetorical move to suggest an expanding concept of school and district level educational change (Gronn, 2002).
So systems thinking and change thinking have evolved in parallel to help us contemplate the design of better education systems in our changing world. Most of it is based on excellent research done by bounding the ‘system’ as one within a classroom, a school or a district, not as nested systems where the very way we conceptualize it all matters as well. While educational leadership disciplines have classically embedded this kind of change thought, we realize that a design approach to both learning and change leadership require a design sensibility and an ecosystemic perspective on learning and organization design in the knowledge era (Kowch, 2013). This Binding emanates from a special edition of TechTrends created by Division members in 2013.
Separating ‘change’ thinking (and output, really, in our current discourse) from ‘systems thinking’ helps us consider the wider space of the possible when we contemplate contributing, in a high-‐impact way to the design of new organizations, leaders and learning situations where technology is deeply, purposefully embedded with a new paradigm for .. (What the organization does). Considering our professional ‘home’ in AECT as a space for “Systems Thinking and Change” opens up a wider space for research, practice and discourse.
Our idea is to be more inclusive because when we think about these nested systems spanning organizational bounds we have studied (i.e. schools), we can include wider concepts of integrated communities, governments, stakeholders, histories, economics and social pulses in our research. We include other organization frames as well, such as universities and corporations – bridging and integrating, perhaps with the heavy work in leadership, administration, public administration, business and organization as well as social justice, distributed learning and design theory for example, perhaps from settings inclusive of hospitals, government agencies, the military, R&D and other institutional contexts (Clegg et al., 2011). So our gesture for changing our AECT Division name is to be more academically and pragmatically inclusive and cohesive in terms of involving people who love designing learning and leading nested, well led and changing interconnected systems. We can do this without thinking quite as much about the implicit ‘change’ cause-‐effect relationship implied from traditional ‘systems’ thinking (systemic change).
So by separating the ‘change’ from the ‘systemic (thinking)’, we can consider the systemic thinking going on with less of an eye to speciBic utilities or outcomes from it. This is a liberating idea, yet it is daunting. The proposed name change “Systems Thinking and Change” reBlects a less instrumental, more exploratory paradigm for examining the possible results of our designs – a paradigm that is less bound by, but yet inclusive of institutional boundaries (i.e. schools) or by the predictive results from idea sets about evolving systems from A to B states (systemic change).
For example, if we can imagine a learning setting that spans well beyond time or mastery boundaries in schools to include university or corporate settings, we must think about the results of my systems thinking in different terms -‐ terms that again involve more of an ecosystem change possibility. Government budgets pegged on $120 barrel oil and the impact on any 21st century high-‐cost tech-‐embedded learning system are examples of the need to conceptualize systems thinking with change thinking for speciBic, more adaptable designs for example.
In sum, the rationale for changing our Division names comes from its very strong roots which are growing to expand our design thinking. Here we include more ‘space’ for designing well beyond organizational and disciplinary contexts – including the necessary domains of leadership (for change) as well as learning situations, IT, economics, history and politics, for example. Systems Thinking and Change builds upon, rather than replaces the visionary work of our collective to open up inclusive conversation and joint research aimed at expanding, not limiting our thinking about system mental models and ecologies of learning in the context of technologies (Cabrera, 2009). It invites change, systems, technology, learning and leadership scholars together in AECT.
References Cabrera, D. (2009). Systems thinking: Four universal patterns of thinking. Saarbrucken, DE. VDM. Ackoff, R. L. (1971). Towards a system of systems concepts. Management Science, 17, 11. 661-‐671. Ackoff, R. L., & Emery, F. E. (1972). On purposeful systems: An interdisciplinary analysis of individual and social behavior as a system of purposeful events.
Chicago, IL. Atherton. Cabrera, D. (2009). Systems Thinking: Four universal patterns of thinking. Saarbrucken, DE. Verlag Dr Mueller. Kowch, E. G. (2013). Wither thee, Educational Technology? Suggesting a critical expansion of our epistemology for emerging leaders. TechTrends, 57, 5,
11-‐27. Reigeluth, C. M. (2015 in press). Systemic change for schools. AECT Policy Brief Retrieved online at: http://aect.site-‐ym.com/forums/Posts.aspx?
topic=1070472 Reigeluth, C.M., & Duffy, F.M. (2008). The AECT FutureMinds initiative: Transforming America’s school systems. Educational Technology, 48 (3), 45-‐49.
Also published as Reigeluth, C.M., & Duffy, F.M. (2010). The AECT FutureMinds initiative. In F. M. Duffy (Ed.) (2010), Dream! create! sustain!: Mastering the art & science of transforming school systems (pp. 352-‐361). Leading Systemic School Improvement Series. Lanham, MD: Rowman & LittleBield Education.
Gharajedaghi, J. (2011). Systems thinking (3rd Ed.) New York, NY: Kaufmann. Clegg, S., Harris, M., and HopBl, H. Managing Modernity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Senge, P. M. (1990). The Bifth discipline. New York, NY: Doubleday.
SUMMARY OF POLICY BRIEF- SYSTEMIC CHANGE FOR SCHOOLS
Backstory from the Author
For many years I have pushed AECT to adopt advocacy statements. I chaired the AECT Advocacy Committee in 2004 to put the mechanism in place, but it was not adopted then. So I was delighted to find out that the Policy Briefs were established last year. I believe such statements are an important responsibility of both individual scholars and their professional associations. As scholars, we owe it to those who pay our salaries to not only advance knowledge, but also to help others benefit from that knowledge.
I have a strong conviction that systemic transformation of education (paradigm change) can significantly improve the lives of millions of people, so I felt strongly that AECT should do what it can to help make it happen. Hence, this policy statement.
Charlie Reigeluth
Charles M. Reigeluth prepared the Policy Brief, Systemic Change for Schools.A summary of this Policy Brief is provided here. The complete Brief can be found at the Systemic Thinking and Change web site - landing pages: http://aect.site-ym.com/members/group.aspx?id=79885
The AECT Policy Brief, states that advocates for school district change should engage in a process of transformation from standardized, time-‐based, teacher-‐centric instruction to customized, attainment-‐based, learning-‐centered instruction, using technology throughout school operation, particularly in instructional settings.
Reigeluth states, “We cannot and should not expect a system designed for the Industrial Age to serve the needs of Informational Age communities.” The Brief calls for “systemic change” of educational organizations. This new paradigm requires a complete change in the roles of parents, teachers, administrators and technologies.
Students need to change from passive, teacher-‐directed learners into active, self-‐directed learners. Teachers must become designers and facilitators of student work and mentors. Parents must become partners in their children’s learning; and, technology must facilitate planning, instruction and assessment for student learning.
In the paradigm-‐change process, the ‘unit of change’ could be a charter school or a school district, which should encompass all stakeholders, organizational levels, with administration and governance systems. There are five actions that must occur in the change process within “a culture of developmental or transformational leadership that empowers all stakeholders to be leaders.”
It is recommended that educators, policymakers, and union leaders become active players in initiating and carrying through systemic changes in schools.
