آیا مدرسه یک سازمان آموزشی است؟ is this school a learning organization?

L eaders of schools, like leaders of businesses and hospitals, want their organizations to be flexible and responsive, able to change in accord with changing circumstances. Individuals learn best when the content is meaningful to them and they have opportunities for social interaction and the environment supports the learning. That idea applies to organizations as well. To check whether a school is functioning as a learning organization, its staff members and others need to consider this list of characteristics not as a checklist but as elements of the whole. 1 Learning organizations have an incentive structure that encourages adaptive behavior. Just as individuals learn when they are motivated to learn, organizations learn when they have a reason. The incentives to learn may be material or psychological, but one form of incentive that everyone understands is money. Incentives exist at all levels of an organization. Financial incentives may be individual or organizational. Stephen Fink, assistant superintendent, wrote in 1992 that the Edmonds, Wash., school district had paid attention to incentives when it reorganized its categorical programs. “The Edmonds district was an organization engaged in ‘learning’ new behaviors. To do so, it needed a set of incentives consistent with the new direction,” Fink wrote. Is this school a learning organization? 10 WAYS TO TELL th e m e / HOW EDUCATORS LEARN NATIONAL STAFF DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL (800) 727-7288 VOL. 24, NO. 1 WINTER 2003 JSD 11 “A major hurdle to improving the achievement of low-performing and handicapped students was the various categorical program regulations. … The Edmonds School District has not received any special waivers for program regulations. To support schools in their creative deployment of categorical resources, the district ‘blends’ federal, state, and local dollars according to each school’s needs. Due to federal regulations that require extensive record keeping to track each employee’s ‘time and effort,’ managing the ‘blending’ process is highly laborintensive. However, we believe it is necessary to promote school-centered decision making and reform” (Fink, 1992, p. 42). 2 Learning organizations have challenging but achievable shared goals. Most organizations have publicly stated goals. Learning organizations have demanding goals that actually guide the organization and somehow gain the dedication of staff and other constituents. In a school district, the most important goals are those dealing with student learning. Kevin Castner and his coauthors (1993) explained an ambitious plan developed by the Frederick County, Md., schools intended to ensure student achievement of five “Essential Learner Behaviors.” “In each curricular area, essential learner behaviors are supported by essential discipline goals, which, in turn, are supported by essential course objectives. For instance, a task that requires 7th graders to plan a field trip to a museum in Washington, D.C., could meet two essential course objectives: (1) collect, organize, represent, and interpret data, and (2) make estimates appropriate to given situations. “These 7th-grade objectives support our K-12 mathematics discipline goal: to develop mathematical skills and reasoning abilities needed for problem solving. In addition, the lesson helps students gain skills in effective communication, social cooperation, and citizenship. Each level and grade of schooling, beginning in kindergarten, uses the foundation of individual courses and disciplines to build toward mastery of the learner behaviors at the top of the pyramid” (p. 46). 3 Learning organizations have members who can accurately identify the organization’s stages of development. Organizations change over time. In learning organizations, people can articulate the changes they are consciously trying to make and can identify where they are in the process.