 Systems
Approach
A comprehensive learning program should include many of the concepts made popular by author, Peter Senge, in The
Fifth Discipline. Later elaborations of the original ideas are
published in The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, The Dance of
Change, and Schools That
Learn. The five disciplines that can powerfully transform institutions
into learning organizations when a critical mass or stakeholders know,
understand and incorporate into their daily practice each of the following
disciplines:
Personal Mastery is one of four,
core disciplines required to build a learning organization. People with a
high level of personal mastery live in a continual learning mode, striving
to achieve excellence in their professional and personal lives. Knowing
they will never "arrive", they view personal mastery as a
process, a lifelong discipline, not something one can possess.
People with a high level of personal mastery are acutely aware of their
ignorance, their incompetence, and their growth areas. They are committed,
take more initiative, have a broader and deeper sense of responsibility in
their work, and they learn faster. A learning organization cannot exist
unless individuals within the organization are committed to personal
mastery.
The Fifth Discipline p. 139, 142-143
Shared Vision is one of four, core
disciplines identified by Peter Senge as being required to build a
learning organization. A shared vision is not an idea. It is rather, a
force in people’s hearts, a force of impressive power. It propels a
group of individuals striving for a common goal down a common path.
"Few, if any, forces in human affairs are as powerful as shared
vision. At its simplest level, a shared vision is the answer to the
question, 'What do we want to create?' Just as personal visions are
pictures or images people carry in their heads and hearts, so too are
shared visions pictures that people throughout an organization carry.
Shared vision is vital for the learning organization because it provides
the focus and energy for learning."
The Fifth Discipline p. 206
Mental Models are identified by Peter
Senge as one of the four core disciplines required to build a learning
organization. Mental models are the images, assumptions, and stories we
carry in our minds of ourselves, other people, institutions, and every
aspect of the world. Mental models shape how we act.
Each of us interprets these images and assumptions differently. That
explains why two people can observe the same event yet describe it
differently. Each one connects with the experience differently by paying
attention to different details. These connections create "maps"
of the world, which individuals hold in their long-term and short-term
memory. The maps reflect the perceptions we build as a part of our
everyday reasoning process. Reflection and inquiry are effective tools
offering high leverage for improving mental models in a learning
organization.
The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook p. 236-237
Team Learning is one of four, core
disciplines identified by Peter Senge as being required to build a
learning organization. A group of talented
individual learners will not necessarily produce a learning team, anymore
than a group of talented athletes will produce a great sports team. Team
learning is vital because teams, not individuals, are the fundamental
learning unit in modern organizations. This is where the rubber meets the
road; unless teams can learn, the organization cannot learn."
The Fifth Discipline p. 257
Systems Thinking
According to Peter Senge, "Systems thinking is the fifth discipline
because it is the conceptual cornerstone that underlies all of the five
learning disciplines. Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing the
'structures' that underlie complex situations and for discerning high from
low leverage change. It offers a language that begins restructuring how we
think. Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a
framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing
patterns of change rather than static snapshots."
The Fifth Discipline pp. 68-69
Performance/Project
Based Assessment
The SPIRAL approach includes Performance/Project Based Assessment. Each
course contains a major project that allows learners to demonstrate
mastery of the skills and concepts presented. The benefits of performance
tasks are many. Indeed, their very nature seems to support their
superiority over off-the-shelf tests. For example, assessment expert, Joan
Baron identifies a number of characteristics of performance tasks.
According to Baron (1990a, 1990b, 1991) performance tasks:
- Are grounded in real-world contexts
- Involve sustained work and often take several days or combined
in-class and out-of-class time
- Deal with big issues and major concepts within a discipline
- Present non-routine, open ended , and loosely structured problems
that require students to define the problem and to construct a
strategy for solving it
- Encourage group discussion and brainstorming in which the problem is
considered from multiple perspectives
- Require students to determine what data are needed, collect the
data, report and portray them, and analyze them to discuss sources of
error
- Call upon students to make and explain their assumption
- Stimulate students to make connections and generalizations that will
increase their understanding of the important concepts and processes
- Spur students to monitor themselves and think about their progress
in order to determine how they might improve their investigational and
group process skills
- Necessitate that students use a variety of skills for acquiring
information and for communicating their strategies, data, and
conclusions
Integrated
Instructional Design
The SPIRAL approach includes
courses offered in a model that emphasizes connected learning. In
concurrent courses offered to local cohorts, learners will notice that
learning activities and skills for each course compliment the learning in
the partner course. Students can see the integration of courses by viewing
the course maps. Each degree has been planned using Curriculum Mapping to
identify and eliminate redundancy in instruction. Concepts on curriculum
integration that are taught in individual courses are modeled throughout
the entire degrees.
Research
Based Framework
Most traditional Higher
Education programs are developed based only on the knowledge of the
professors that teach each individual course. Sometimes content can be
outdated and may not be relevant for the K-12 classroom filled with a
diverse student population. Quality Learning courses incorporate current
educational pedagogy and practices from relevant and timely research from
leading experts in educational reform. This provides teachers with
field-tested practical knowledge and skills to be more successful in their
own classrooms. Instead of merely teaching current pedagogy, our courses
model effective teaching and learning practices. Lecture based information
transfer is rarely used, and only then if it proves to be the best method
of instruction for the topic.
Research on the brain and how people learn is flourishing. New and more
effective ways to conduct research provide extensive knowledge on what
works to increase student performance. This creates a greater demand for a
highly skilled teaching staff who uses data to drive their decisions
resulting in increased performance for all students. Courses and programs
offered through Quality Learning provide teachers with the knowledge and
skills to conduct effective action research on programs and practices in
their classrooms. Districts struggling to acquire positions for research
and development will benefit from a cadre of their teachers trained in
conducting program evaluation.
Application
of Technology
Many traditional courses focus on teaching technology in isolation, hoping
that the learner will later be able to apply the skill in a meaningful
way. The SPIRAL approach proposes that technology skills should be
embedded into learning activities for each course. Instead of technology
skills being taught in isolation, they are used as tools to enhance
learning. Quality Learning students will discover that technology skills
are frequently "caught" while significant concepts or content is
"taught." Each course attempts to apply technology skills and
concepts in a connected and integrated manner.
Learner
Engaged Environment
The United States Distance
Learning Consortium (USDLC) Star Schools Project uses the engaged learner
model as a framework for its teaching and learning goals. The model,
developed by the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, has been
incorporated in the SPIRAL approach and includes the following eight
learning indicators:
- Vision of Engaged Learning - Students are responsible for learning,
energized by learning, and engaged in strategic planning and
collaboration
- Tasks for Engaged Learning - Tasks are challenging, authentic, and
integrative/interdisciplinary
- Assessment of Engaged Learning - assessment is performance-based,
generative (productive), interwoven with curriculum and instruction,
and has equitable standards
- Instructional Models and Strategies - Strategies are interactive and
generative (learners construct and produce knowledge in meaningful
ways)
- Learning Context - Context is a knowledge-building learning
community that is collaborative and empathetic
- Grouping - Grouping is heterogeneous, flexible, and equitable
- Teacher Roles - Roles include facilitator, guide, co-learner, and
co-investigator
- Student Roles - Roles include explorer, cognitive apprentice, and
producer of knowledge
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SPIRAL
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