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 A free e-newsletter spotlighting systemic thinking and innovations in leadership, management, and organizational development. Please forward to your colleagues. 
Special "Back-to-School" Issue on Education! This month Leverage Points highlights educational themes that will be explored in depth at this year's Pegasus conference, Leading in a Complex World: Systems Thinking in Action. |
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FACE
TO FACE |
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LEARNING
LINKS How Do You Gauge Achievement? |
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FROM
THE FIELD New Ways to Deal with Teen Issues |
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FACE
TO FACE Liberating Children's Goodness and Genius: An Interview with Educator Stephanie Pace Marshall by Kali Saposnick 
"When you
ask children to forget about 'school' and focus on what makes them
curious, they become very motivated to learn," says Stephanie Pace
Marshall, president of Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA).
Founded 17 years ago, IMSA is a free public residential educational
institution for 10th- to 12th-grade students talented in math and
science. Its inquiry-based, problem-centered, and integrative approach
toward learning and teaching challenges the current high school model,
which Pace Marshall characterizes as "grounded in acquisition, independence
or isolation in learning, and competition." She explains, "A profound disconnect exists between the formal structures that most developed cultures have created to shape the minds of our children and the actual learning needs of our children if they are going to solve the world's growing complex, interdependent problems. My belief, based on 36 years of experience in education, is that what we have designed in schools is precisely what we're getting: Kids believe that to do well, they have to memorize and repeat information by rote; work alone, because collaborating with other kids is often called 'cheating'; and compete, because GPA does make a difference as to who gets into what college." IMSA embraces what Stephanie refers to as "generative learning," which involves inquiry, interdependence, and collaboration. This approach builds students' capacity for more and deeper understanding of the challenges facing our global community. "At our institution, we tell students they have to develop thought tools," says the educator. "They're expected to know how to evaluate the soundness and relevance of information, identify their own unexamined assumptions that might skew their inquiry, find and analyze ambiguities, connect ideas in different disciplines, and so forth." Continue reading this article. Stephanie Pace Marshall will be presenting at this year's Pegasus conference, "Leading in a Complex World: Systems Thinking in Action," to be held September 30-October 2 in San Diego, California. Learn more about the conference. To learn more about books and resources on systems thinking in education, see "Pegasus Highlights" in the right-hand column. |
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LEARNING LINKS How Do You Gauge Achievement? by Phil and Deb Ramsey Because we generally judge achievement at school based on grades, you may have heard comments such as "Alex is a B student." But overemphasizing grades can distort the larger picture of the learning process. To reach high levels of achievement, we need to pay attention to three interdependent results of study: performance, learning, and experience. Grades measure performance and current capacity, learning is the process of growing our capacity, and experience represents the level of personal fulfillment we derive from the process. When we focus on performance alone, we tend to take actions that maximize grades at the expense of learning. We also reinforce undesirable behaviors; for example, students may take part only in those activities they know they can do well, and educators may "teach to the test." How can we take a broader view of academic achievement? Prior to receiving a grade, have your child create three lines on a piece of paper with 0 at one end and 100 at the other. Label them "Learning," "Experience," and "Performance." Explain that grades only measure one thing: how well the work met the teacher's demands. Scores in the other categories represent how the child feels she did. Have her determine a score for "learning" by gauging whether she took a small or big step forward in understanding the concept. Ask her to describe how valuable the experience was and give it a score. This process doesn't minimize the importance of standards in education, but helps us find ways to view achievement more holistically. By doing so, we nurture the invaluable process of sustainable, life-long learning. Read the complete article or see The Systems Thinker, Vol. 12, No. 10 (December 2001/January 2002). |
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FROM
THE FIELD New Ways to Deal with Teen Issues As parents and educators grow increasingly frustrated with ineffective, expensive strategies to deal with teenage delinquency, violence, and substance abuse, a growing body of scientific research suggests that what children most need to withstand the risks of adolescence are a sense of belonging and skills to cope with daily stress. In a 20-year youth-development study, researcher David Hawkins and his University of Washington colleagues showed that students can achieve greater success in schools when they bond with others. They studied 18 Seattle elementary schools, half of which participated in a program that taught teachers, parents, and children techniques for building relationships. Teachers were encouraged to greet and make eye contact with students every day, and children learned to wait their turn and recognize others' feelings. Children who participated had higher school achievement and were less likely to drop out of school, engage in delinquent behaviors, and abuse drugs and alcohol than those who did not. They were also significantly less likely to engage in risky sexual behavior or become pregnant by age 21. In another study, Cornell University researchers introduced a rigorously tested drug-prevention curriculum into 7,500 classrooms nationwide. Based on the premise that increasing a child's overall confidence makes them less vulnerable to media messages and peer pressure, students were taught real-world coping skills, such as building confidence for a job interview or rebuffing a schoolmate who wants to copy homework. The result? A 66-percent reduction in teen usage of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana. These studies indicate that confident teens who feel connected to school and family are less likely to engage in negative behaviors and more likely to succeed in school and society. By implication, when we focus on building relationships with children rather than bombarding them with anti-delinquency messages, they're more apt to choose wisely for themselves. —KS Source: Bob Edwards and David Hawkins, "Morning Edition," National Public Radio, May 23, 2002; and Tara Parker-Pope, "Health Journal," The Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2002 |
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| Copyright 2002 Pegasus Communications. LEVERAGE POINTS™ can be freely distributed in its entirety or reproduced or excerpted for another publication with written permission from Pegasus Communications. Contact permissions@pegasuscom.com. | |||||||||||||||||||
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In
Memory
"A Pioneer on the Next
Frontier: An Interview with Jay Forrester"
"Making
the Grade: Finding Clarity, Purpose, and Alignment
in the South Pasadena Schools" by Patricia
Martinez-Miller, Mary Ann Ahart, and Leslie
Adelson
Schools That Learn: A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook
for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares
About Education
