Systemic Change in Education

Systemic change is change that occurs in all aspects and levels of the educational process and that affects all of the people included in this process--students, teachers, parents, administrators, and community members. It is a dynamic process that requires constant communication and evaluation and has implications for curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development.

The Regional Laboratory for Educational Improvement of the Northeast and Islands (1995) offers the following activity for understanding the meaning of systemic change:

Audience: Individuals responsible for reform in science and mathematics education.

Desired Outcomes for Participants:

• To understand the nature of systems thinking.

• To develop a rationale for why change in science and mathematics education needs to be systemic.

• To devise a working definition of systemic reform.

Materials:

• Transparencies:
  • Understanding Systems

  • Reflection

  • Dialogue. . .

• Videotape of the movie Witness, Paramount Pictures, 1985

• VCR and monitor

• Newsprint, easels, markers, tape and pens or pencils

Time Required: 3 hours

Facilitator's Notes: The Toolkit for Professional Developers is useful only within a context of new thinking about change in education. Many of the individual activities have been used for years to develop knowledge and skills related to particular aspects of a professional developer's role. What is new today, however, is the idea of systemic thinking--the imperative that what we do in one aspect of education be integrally related to what we do in all others, and that the sum of those actions be centered on a shared vision of learning and how to reach all learners.

The challenge for the facilitator is to help participants develop specific new skills and knowledge, and yet keep those related to the big picture of systemic change. In every activity of the Toolkit, we have suggested ways to help participants do so. In addition, we have developed this activity to provide a frame of reference--a beginning understanding of systems thinking in the context of systemic reform--that can be used as additional Toolkit activities unfold.

An anticipated outcome of this activity is that participants will have their own "working" definition of what a systemic reform effort looks like. If they have had no other exposure to the ideas of systemic change and systems thinking, their new understandings will be quite thin. . . . The alternative, which is suggested by how we have actually sequenced the activities in the book, is to have participants develop new knowledge and skills in some of the areas most relevant to their work--related to effective science and mathematics education, dissemination, and/or professional development--and have them reconsider their working definition of systemic reform as they learn. In this way, they will "construct" their knowledge of systemic change over time through learning and applying new ways to be effective in their work. . . .

Process:

1. Before the activity, fast-forward the video Witness to the barn-raising scene, about two-thirds of the way through the film.

2. Explain that this activity is intended to help participants develop a framework for systemic change--for feeding their vision of how current reform efforts need to be different from reforms of the past so that they can be more successful.

3. Have participants work in groups of three, giving each a sheet of newsprint and different colored markers. Ask them to first brainstorm various systems they know about (e.g., the circulatory system, the telephone system, the library system) and to choose one system to depict on the newsprint. Have the groups display their newsprint and describe what makes it a system.

4. Show the Understanding Systems transparency and walk through the definition. . . , giving examples of things that are and are not systems. Ask the groups to compare their system to this formal definition to see if there is a match.

5. Tell the group that you are going to show them a scene from the movie Witness to illustrate a working system. Show the Reflection transparency so they know what to look for. Introduce the story from the movie:

   While waiting for a train with his widowed mother, a young Amish boy witnesses the murder of an undercover narcotics agent. When the boy identifies a high-ranking member of the police force as the murderer, the police detective (Harrison Ford) reports this only to the police commissioner. Though seriously injured in an attempt on his life, Ford manages to get the boy and his mother back to their Pennsylvania Amish community. Because of the potential danger to the community if he is discovered, Ford is nursed back to health and grudgingly allowed to participate in the life of the Amish community as one of their own. The clip you are going to see depicts Ford's participation in a barn raising. The movie takes place in the mid-1980s.

   Show the barn-raising scene. After the music ends and the lunch prayer begins--about ten minutes--turn the movie off.

6. After the film clip, have the groups discuss the questions in the Dialogue transparency. After about ten minutes, direct a whole group discussion about the three questions. Summarize by saying that in a healthy working system, all the parts must work in unison toward an established purpose. . . .