Creating Our Future in an Age of Transformation

There is a growing realization that many of our social systems and organizations are out-of-syne with the new realities of the recently emerged post-industrial, information/knowledge age. These new realities are touching the lives of every individual, every family and community, the host of organizations of our public and private sectors. and our overall society. They affect the future of humanity as a whole. Questions arise. What are these new realities? What are the meanings of societal transformations? What is our role in facing the massive changes that confront us today? Are we only spectators of these changes? Are we their victims? Are we at the mercy of others who control these changes and the experts who design systems for us? Or is it up to us to shape; our future and create and recreate the systems to which we belong? What kind of capacities and capabilities should we develop that will allow us to design our own lives, shape our systems, and give direction to the evolution of our communities. our organizations, and our society? I have struggled and worked with these questions over the last three decades. They have been the focus of my research and teaching. I explore these questions in this paper in order to define an approach–the systems design approach–by which we can individually and collectively create a better future for ourselves, our families, our communities and our society while enhancing human performance, adding value to our organizations, and most importantly, creating just and ethical systems for future generations.     

The Changing Corporate Mind: Organizations,Vision, Missions,Purposes, and Indicators on the Move Toward Societal Payoffs

Where are the world's organizations headed? What do they see as their primary destination and contribution? What do they commit to deliver and to whom? How rigorous are they in defining their destinations? What label do they use to describe statements of their intended future? To find the answers to these and other questions, we examined 26 of the leading organizations internationally as well as 60 leading organizations in the United States. Based on this sample of world organizations, we found indications that many organizations see some aspect of societal good as basic to their future, while many others regard their own organization's well-being as what is most important. We find no clear favorite for what organizations label their statements of purpose: most use “mission” while some use “vision,” and some use “values” or “philosophy.” Few of the organizations in our sample state their intended destination in measurable performance terms. From these data, we discuss the implications in terms of an increasing emphasis in the literature on organizations having to deliver outputs that contribute to external clients and society. We also note that purpose statements must be accompanied by appropriate actions to achieve those intentions. In addition, we discuss how this move toward socially-responsive organizations is impacting the role of the performance technologist.     

Planning for the 2040s: everybody's business

As we mark the publication of the 35th issue of the British Journal of Special Education, Peter Mittler, Emeritus Professor of Special Needs Education at the University of Manchester, looks into the future and asks a series of challenging questions: What kind of a future do we want to see for a baby born with a significant disability today? What changes will be needed in society and in our schools both for the child and for the family? What reforms might this year's newly qualified staff bring about in our schools and services and in society as a whole by the time they retire in the 2040s? Professor Mittler proposes that the time is ripe to take advantage of new international and national opportunities to lay the foundations for a society that fully includes disabled people and safeguards their basic human rights. He argues that each one of us can help to determine the values and priorities of the society in which today's baby will grow up and suggests that the Make Poverty History movement has provided powerful evidence that the voice of ordinary citizens can shape policies and set priorities. He encourages us all to think globally and to act locally on a host of issues, including supporting families, planning for transition, promoting quality of life, professional development and challenging inequality.     

The University's Uncommon Community

In the UK, as elsewhere in the world, the global financial crisis has focused attention on the cost of public services and the need to reduce expenditure, not least in respect of higher education. This, however, raises a set of prior questions: What kind of society do we want? What is important to democratic society? What kind of higher education is desirable? The article takes Alasdair MacIntyre's critique of what he calls liberal capitalist society as a starting point for considering questions concerning the kind of higher education that would be valuable and relevant to a healthy democratic society. His thesis is outlined and the implications of this for the university set out. The article examines MacIntyre's notion of community, which he elaborates in relation to medieval religious worldviews, and argues that whilst his conceptualisation is more intellectually and educationally coherent than some others, it is ultimately too restrictive. The article argues instead for a recognition, within education, of what is uncommon. This may open greater possibilities for keeping alive the serious questions that we must constantly attend to, beyond and within our communities, secular or religious.     

The new organization and implications for training

In our work over the past 15 years, we have been guided by a premise, right or wrong, that fundamental changes in how organizations work require fundamental changes in how we think and interact. Changes in the “outer world” do not necessarily produce change in the “inner world”… I am skeptical of what can be accomplished by changes in structure alone.… What leads us to believe that lots of local managers, focused on their own profits, will be any more far‐sighted than a few corporate managers focused on corporate profits? Will they be any better at systems thinking? … What good is it to have more free movement of information if people cannot discuss the information that is most important, but that is also the most threatening? (Sugarman, 1997).     

What Do Learning Scientists Do? A Survey of the ISLS Membership

This study responds to a question that people working in the field of learning sciences get asked regularly: What do learning scientists do? Earlier attempts to answer this question came from a need to define a new field of educational research. Now that the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) has grown into a robust and productive society, it is time to gain a more nuanced understanding of learning sciences research and practices—including where it takes place, for whom, and in what form—as defined by members of the learning sciences community. Here we report on the responses of 253 ISLS members to a survey conducted in 2014. We discuss implications of the findings in terms of the type of impact learning scientists have. We also discuss how these results might be used to advise prospective students and to create a vision for our future.     

Roses from the Cracks: A Pedagogical Reflection on the 2018 Religious Education Association Annual Meeting

Abstract

This essay explores what surfaces when we lead a reflection on the 2018 REA meeting with questions about teaching and learning. What pedagogical models appeared to be operative during the meeting? What voices were missing and which ones were privileged? Who benefitted from the pedagogies at work in the meeting? Who was marginalized? What pedagogical possibilities burst through the painful and difficult spaces in the meeting that can be a “North Star” to guide us in our future work?     

The Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation: A Quarter Century of Contribution,A Future of Challenge and Optimism

The Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation (JEPC) is beginning its second quarter century of publication. Given the challenges education faced in 1990, when the journal began publishing, and the evolving challenges of 2015, it became important to answer two questions: (1) Has JEPC successfully contributed to the facilitation of service delivery leading to improved outcomes? (2) What major challenges should JEPC consider—in an era of diminishing school budgets, professional autonomy, and social safety nets—to ensure that it can help to meet the needs of struggling learners, their fellow students, and the people and organizations who work on their behalf? To help answer these questions, this article discusses JEPC's contributions to consultation, current and future challenges, and possible directions for meeting the current and future needs of struggling learners, their peers, and all other stakeholders to which JEPC has dedicated itself.     

Actors: From Audience to Provider

Abstract

This article describes and analyzes actors' experiences of distance learning systems in a wide variety of cultural and organizational contexts. In line with the project of this special series of issues, results of research, much of which is longitudinal, allow us to suggest answers to the following questions: Who are the actors of distance learning? How has their experience of learning systems evolved over the last thirty years? What roles have information and communication technologies (ICTs) played in this evolution? How do actors assess the effects of these learning systems on themselves, on the system itself, or on the organization? What are the future perspectives?     

全球化视野中“学习社会”与基础教育改革

处在一个人人都需要确立终身学习思想和观念的时代,教育的重要目标之一就是要使现代的人们都具有终身学习的意识,而我们的社会则应该为提供这样一种多样化和多元化的终身学习活动肩负起应有的责任和义务。那么,何谓“终身教育”?何谓“终身学习”?基础教育又应如何立足于终身教育和学习社会的理念来加以改革?全球化视野中“学习社会”的特征是什么?它对基础教育改革又将产生怎样的影响?这一系列问题的提出都具有十分重要的意义并有待于教育理论工作者去作深入的研究和探讨。     

The State of NCME: Remembering the Past, Looking to the Future

What are the roots of NCME? What were our initial goals and how well have we attained them? Are we drifting away from our practitioner orientation? What should be our policy on important matters in educational practice and our role in sociopolitical issues in educational measurement?     

Building the Future of Learning

Could it be that in our excitement about e‐learning we forgot about buildings? With the advent of the personal computer and ubiquitous networks were we enticed into thinking that they would suffice and learning would follow removing the need for places and communities for learners? We now seem to have woken up, however, as there is an enormous resurgence of interest in new building in Universities, Schools and Colleges — a real opportunity to ‘build’ our learning futures. But if the interest is just in building then it's an opportunity lost. However, if it is about transformation, place and community we could create the connected learning society, both physically and virtually, that we aspire to. New 21^st century buildings and refurbished spaces should reflect our educational approaches and philosophies and, even more importantly, they should not disable tomorrow's possibilities. The buildings that we build today can prevent us from doing what tomorrow might become the dominant ways of working and learning. Our buildings should combine educational ideas, with imaginative technology and architecture to create the learning futures we wish to see. The Saltire Centre at Glasgow Caledonian University, which opened in January 2006, started from the premise of a building that is flexible and does not disable the future. The building, through its variety of spaces, embraces learner differences and supports a concept of learning as a social process putting human social interaction and conversation at its heart. This article uses the Saltire Centre as a case study to illustrate how some current key ideas in educational thinking can influence the learning facilities that we provide.     

Ethics and Values: Their Place in Computer Labs and Classrooms

Articles concerning computer law abound. Institutions of higher learning have produced lengthy documents addressing computer ethics on campus, and several organizations have printed materials to educate the public. Are these efforts working? Are the ethics and values in the business world and in the education world the same? Several scenarios are examined in investigating these questions.     

以人为本与教育学改造

以人为本唤起我们对教育学改造必要性的思考。人在哪里?谁的教育学?工具理性为何畅行?超越的声音怎样在低旋?人文课程的地位焉在?人是什么?这些问题引导我们思考改造。     

The Impending Revolution in Undergraduate Science Education

There is substantial evidence that scientific teaching in the sciences, i.e. teaching that employs instructional strategies that encourage undergraduates to become actively engaged in their own learning, can produce levels of understanding, retention and transfer of knowledge that are greater than those resulting from traditional lecture/lab classes. But widespread acceptance by university faculty of new pedagogies and curricular materials still lies in the future. In this essay we review recent literature that sheds light on the following questions:

• What has evidence from education research and the cognitive sciences told us about undergraduate instruction and student learning in the sciences?
• What role can undergraduate student research play in a science curriculum?
• What benefits does information technology have to offer?
• What changes are needed in institutions of higher learning to improve science teaching?

We conclude that widespread promotion and adoption of the elements of scientific teaching by university science departments could have profound effects in promoting a scientifically literate society and a reinvigorated research enterprise.     

A Complexity Approach Toward Mind–Brain–Education (MBE); Challenges and Opportunities in Educational Intervention and Research

In the context of an educational or clinical intervention, we often ask questions such as “How does this intervention influence the task behavior of autistic children?” or “How does working memory influence inhibition of immediate responses?” What do we mean by the word influence here? In this article, we introduce the framework of complex dynamic systems (CDS) to disentangle the meaning of words such as influence, and to discuss the issue of education and intervention as something that takes place in the form of complex, real‐time, situated processes. What are the applied implications of such a CDS framework? Can we use it to improve education? Five general principles—process laws—are introduced, which can be used to guide the way we formulate research questions and methods, and the way we use the results of such research. In addition, we briefly discuss a project in progress, in which we ourselves attempt to apply the process laws that govern educational activities. Finally, we report about a discussion about the usability of the process laws, both in educational research and in the classroom, as was held during our workshop at the Mind, Brain, and Education Conference, November 2014.     

States of matter

All of us have read about solid, liquid and gaseous states of matter in school. Are these the only states of matter? What distinguishes different states of matter from each other?     

States of matter

All of us have read about solid, liquid and gaseous states of matter in school. Are these the only states of matter? What distinguishes different states of matter from each other?     

Religious Identity and Cultural Refashioning: Educational Constraints for Migrant Muslim Hui University Students in China

This study discusses the educational constraints facing Muslim Hui students and the measures that should be pondered by the Chinese government to address these constraints. Three key research questions are addressed: (1) How does the mainstream Han, Confucian, or the state ideology interact with Hui students’ culture? (2) In what ways do ethnic boundaries and educational uniformity affect the engagement of ethnic minorities in education as well as the larger society? (3) What are the major educational constraints faced by Hui migrant students of Muslim background? Through the mixed-methods research design, I find that the yearning of Muslim Hui Chinese students to achieve educational success and social mobility is limited by social, cultural, and educational factors that regard them as the “other”; they still face issues of marginalization—educationally, socially, and culturally—that delay them from achieving higher educational success.