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 Back To Module ListModule Main | Module Description | Instructional Outcomes | Instructional Proficiencies | Instructional EventsFacilitating Positive Attitudes Toward Collaborative Change: Module One Author Anita L. DeBoer, ED.D., Ball State UniversityTask for Completion and Discussion #4 Four Keys to Future Success
There are four keys to the future success of any organization that chooses to participate fully in the twenty-first century. They are:
Barker (1992) speaks to the importance of the first three keys. Barker argues that for organizations to compete in a global society, they must consistently strive for nothing less than excellence. To achieve excellence, schools must have missions, visions, goals, benchmarks, and ongoing monitoring systems. Through innovation, schools can constantly change how they do things in order to achieve the excellence they demand for themselves. Excellence and innovation must be accompanied with anticipation. Anticipation provides us with the information to be in the right place at the right time. For our schools, that means we must be able to predict the future needs of our students and teach the most appropriate curriculum for a global and technological society, as well as design appropriate innovative practices that will achieve excellence.
Excellence, innovation, and anticipation can best be achieved through collaboration. Senge (1990) believes that collaborative-learning organizations are an essential ingredient to any organization’s success. He (1990) describes a learning organization as follows:
(Learning organizations are) organizations where people continually expand their capability to create the results they desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together (p. 3).
Collaborative-learning teams within organizations come in many forms. You may recognize or be currently involved with any of the following:
This list is not complete. Collaborative-learning teams operate with a variety of names and structures.
Characteristics of Collaborative-Learning Organizations
Collaborative-learning organizations have the following characteristics. They are organizations where people:
A caution is in order. Many people erroneously believe that when people collaborate, positive benefits necessarily accrue. Not true! Successful collaboration always requires that team members keep their eye on the final prize – in the case of schools, continuous monitoring of student learning. Missions and great ideas are not sufficient in and of themselves.
To succeed as a learning organization, Wheatley (1992) believes the following ingredients are essential:
In addition to agreeing on our goals and our values, we must also agree on how we will monitor and evaluate them on a continuous basis. Foremost in our endeavors is the question, “Are we getting the results we want?”
Why Collaborative Learning Organizations are SO Important during Change
Learning organizations (L.O.s) are important for several reasons:
Tasks for Completion and Discussion #4
1. Read the book, Ten Steps to a Learning Organization by Kline and Saunders (see References); decide if any of these components are missing in your school-based learning organization.
2. Reflect on the following four questions with your school or district in mind and then use these same questions to interview two other educators in your school or district.
For educators who are involved in a collaborative-learning organization, ask them to rate their organization using the 15 characteristics of a collaborative-learning organization listed above. Use a scale of one to five (1 - 5) as a measurement tools with 5 as the highest score. Which characteristic do they believe needs the most attention and how might they achieve that goal?
Summarize your findings.
3. Read the book, Building Community in Schools by T. Sergiovanni (see references); identify five strategies that were suggested in this book that would benefit your school. |