Week 2 – Polarities

This week´s prompts are in the area of Systems Thinking, and lead up to how we can drive change despite some of the polarities that are evident in our schools.

First, Russ Ackoff stirs us with a surprisingly current reflection on continuous and discontinuous improvement, back from an event in 1994. His message calls us to reflect deeply on how to go about chane in our schools.

We then move on closer to the educational realm with a fragment from a talk by Andreas Schleicher, OECD Education Director, the man behind the PISA Evaluation. The whole talk is worth listening to, but we would suggest focusing on the segment that begins with the following YouTube video until minute 56 approximately:

During his presentation, Dr. Schleicher depicts these polarities wih great clarity:

This chart spells out the explicit polarities in the intended transformation.

Thinking back to last week’s reading from Zhao and the grammar of schools and our discussions during the Zoom on Wednesday. Simply comment on those aspects which resonate with you. During the Zoom next Wednesday we will use these prompts to dip into the area of Polarity Mapping.

As The Answer to How is yes, keep a Yes and….. focus as you comment on the ideas of others.  We will read everything you write, base what we do on the direction you indicate and all resources will be curated and made available to you as an easily references a resource

Please enjoy and play with ideas in the space.

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