PC-B01 Overcoming the Fear of
Change: Building a Sustainable Future
John Gould, Drexel University
Target Audience: All
Presentation Strands: Policy/Planning/Funding,
Professional Development/Teacher Preparation, Standards/NCLB
Technology and Ethics. Technology Directions/Trends:
Issues, Innovations, and Research, Technology Leadership
Session Level: All
Allaying the fear of change is a critical leadership skill
for your technology environs and
other reforms to become sustainable! The focus of this
interactive workshop is to develop the skills necessary to
understand how to overcome the fear to change, how to
change perceptions of learning, envision new curricular
models, and develop a shared commitment to creating
sustainable learning environments for the 21st Century.
Background rationale for the workshop: Given the changes
happening in technology, medicine, social interactions,
the environment, and the international scene, what kind of
world might our students face? You are a creative educator
who has been able to use technology, district resources
and other initiatives in imaginative ways to engage
students and impact student achievement. But the fact is
that, for most educators, truly infusing technology into
daily instruction is still a difficult goal— even for
motivated, talented teachers who really want to use
technology to teach core subjects. So the central question
we will explore ask: can our present model for schools
create a sustainable future for our children in a time
when innovation and creativity are essential for the
twenty-first century. Educators and students are living in
a transitional period. It may take another decade to
sort out these issues.
The essential question of this presentation: "What are
educators to do in order to survive and thrive during this
transitional period?
Overcoming the Fear:
What do you think about the following statements?
- Children are deficient and schools fix them.
- Learning takes place in the head, not in the body as
a whole.
- Everyone learns, or should learn, in the same way.
- Learning takes place in the classroom, not in the
world.
- There are smart kids and dumb kids.
- Strong economic growth and increased competitiveness
in global markets depends upon a highly skilled
workforce.
- Higher test scores in school means better
performance later in college or at the work place.
- Specialists, who maintain control, run schools.
- Knowledge is inherently fragmented.
- Learning is individualistic and competition
accelerates it.
These statements are some of the fundamental
assumptions that underpin our schools today. They create a
powerful cultural “mind-set” that repeats the structures
and routines for schools as they prepare students to deal
with global unpredictability and unprecedented change.
They block meaning change to take place within out
schools. They keep the discussions surrounding school
reform and the integration of technology focused upon
making the present system more “rigorous” in order to
prepare our students for the future. This “mind-set” us
keep reinforcing the old model by making the “new” fit the
“old!” The outcome: our children are not prepared for
their future. What principles would underlie schools that
“shift” from the above assumptions that have underpinned
the “industrial” model of schooling? Primarily, it would
be situated in the ideas found in both systems thinking
and living systems.
Getting your staff to explore all of these assumptions is
the key to overcoming the fear of
change! |
