>I wanted to briefly comment on this sentence:
>
>>Learning (and living) systems learn from their feedback and adapt
>>to survive and remain healthy. What can schools learn from their various
>>sources of feedback to do the same?
>
>I think schools could do a lot IF they had mechanisms in place that
>provided a means for what is learned to be fed back into the system. I
>think Deal and Kennedy's concept of a process culture applies absolutely
>to schools: they are no-feedback, no-risk cultures.
What you say above depends on your definition of "feedback." I suspect
that what you're driving at relates to the schools being closed to
external information (e.g., criticisms of schools). That's the common
usage of "feedback." A more technical definition has to do with
information related to goals. On that score, the schools might be doing
quite nicely, which is to say, the "feedback" confirms the schools'
actions because it is consistent with their goals.
In point of fact, schools have no goals, people do. So, when we speak and
write of school's goals, we are really talking about one or more
perspectives of schools and one or more persons who hold those
perspectives, not the schools per se; the schools themselves are incapable
of holding any view or perspective.
Thus, what you say above also depends on your definition of "schools" and
"culture." It seems to be the case that you mean the same thing because
you use them interchangeably, that is, by "schools" you also mean
"cultures."
Consequently, when you write later...
> My experience is in higher ed, community colleges to be
> exact, and as I visit campuses either as a member of an
> accreditation team or as I do research, I find that in
> almost every case, colleges have a wealth of data and
> information but no truly systematic way of analyzing it
> and incorporating the outcomes of that analysis into
> their operations in such a way that they can track the
> outcomes and continue to make improvements...
This bears out what I said above. "Schools" are abstractions. Are you
referring to the administration, the faculty, the community, or the
students? Or perhaps to the legislators who often fund such institutions?
I agree that higher-ed institutions are awash in a sea of data and
information but making good use of it isn't a simple matter of inserting
or closing some kind of feedback loop or mechanism; instead, it's a matter
of developing consensus amongst a contentious group of stakeholders.
Regards,
Fred Nickols
Distance Consulting
http://home.att.net/~nickols/distance.htm
nickols@worldnet.att.net
(609) 490-0095
--Fred Nickols <nickols@worldnet.att.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>