Systems Thinking for Studying International Professional Program Participants’ Thoughts

Studying the experiences of participants in international professional programs requires conceptual frameworks that take into account the complex systemic nature of the intercultural journeys. This article explores the thoughts of a prospective teacher related to a field experience abroad. The purpose is to understand the narratives of experience and demonstrate how systems thinking facilitated a deep study of this case. The focal case is that of a prospective teacher from the US who participates in a professional program in Ecuador for 2 months. Systems mapping, critical and soft systems criteria, and correspondence analysis help explore the contexts of the international professional program and the thoughts of the participant. Results show that the participant developed an awareness of cultural systems which is also reflected in her culturally sensitive practices after her completion of the program. Both worldviews and social interactions abroad had a significant place in the participant’s narratives of experience.     

Changes in Multicultural Experience: Action Research on a Service Learning Curriculum

Service learning is a form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs together with structured opportunities designed for student learning and development. This study investigated the changes in the multicultural experience of graduate students who participated in a service learning curriculum. The participants comprised six graduate students who enrolled in the “Service Learning Research” course. Action research and qualitative methods were applied to analyze data including interview content, reflection diaries, and community service dossiers. The results revealed the following problems that the participants experienced at the beginning of service learning: (1) a sense of anxiety and anticipation before service engagement; and (2) substantial barriers during service delivery. Through guidance and reflection after intervention, the students demonstrated the abilities to question and observe. Moreover, the evaluation revealed that the participants reflected on the changes in their multicultural experience. Directly contacting service recipients was an essential factor affecting the participants’ changes, and keeping reflection diaries and engaging in in-class discussion facilitated supporting and inspiring the participants. According to the results of this study, we recommend that service learning curricula be reinforced through integrating multicultural teaching and challenging students to reflect on their conduct as well as supporting the students. Additionally, suggestions for subsequent studies are provided.     

You are Seldom Born with a Drum Kit in Your Hands: Music Teachers’ Conceptualizations of Knowledge and Learning Within Music Education as an Assessment Practice

Due to an increased demand for evaluation and accountability, the focus on assessment in public education has become stronger. Already leading to teachers’ deprofessionalization, another risk is assessment leading to criteria compliance and becoming a tool for measuring teaching quality. Those whose learning is affected are thereby not only students, but also teachers. One major factor to restore professionalism and focus assessment on learning is to change practitioners’ ways of thinking and not only their behaviour. Therefore, a group of seven music teachers and a researcher in music education have carried out a research and development project using participatory action research as approach as well as method. This article explores and presents these upper secondary school music teachers’ conceptualizations of musical knowledge, learning and educational communication working with peers. Using Deweyan pragmatism as a lens to interpret the qualitative data, the results show that while a professional language does exist, the music teachers’ conceptualizations of musical knowledge and learning and educational approaches differ. A key aspect for the teachers to develop their professional language, concepts and assessment practices is the teachers’ opportunities to communicate—both factual as well as perceived.     

考虑合作创新产品市场的IT研发外包合同

针对IT研发外包项目合作技术创新中的目标不一致问题, 设计了接包企业参与分 享合作创新产品市场收益的研发外包合同, 并对合同参数的影响因素进行了分析. 研究结果表明:最优收益共享激励系数与产品市场、研发项目的固定支付及双方的成本系数无关, 而与发包方对项目成功的影响系数正相关, 与接包方对项目成功的影响系数负相关; 最优固定支付与双方的成本系数正相关, 与合作技术创新产品的市场容量负相关, 与产品价格敏感系数及产品单位销售成本正相关.     

Enriching Service-Learning by Developing e-Tutoring in Foster Homes

In view of the learning divide between the children in ordinary families and those in foster homes, online one-to-one tutoring has been provided by university students as a service-learning option. Through the synchronous e-tutoring system platform, the goal of this study is to develop a service learning mode for creating campus-community partnerships and mutual learning experiences. Thus the study applies Ramsden’s theory of university teaching (2003) into an action research project for investigating (i) how e-tutoring can solve the problems occurring in face-to-face tutoring in foster homes; (ii) the effects of e-tutoring; (iii) the new issues identified; and (iv) new strategies for future iterations of the program. For explaining a social phenomenon through a theoretical framework, grounded theory analysis was applied and eight themes were identified in the qualitative data of 10 observation reports, 28 interviews, and 140 weekly journals from both ends of two foster homes and one university. Eight subcategories (content and learning, practical learning, tutoring concerns, knowledge gains, competency gains, adult guidance, e-tutoring approaches, and transformative development) are categorized along with Ramsden’s hierarchy theory—teaching as telling or transmission, teaching as organizing student activity, and teaching as making learning possible. With transformative development of the campus-community partnership the consensus goal among university faculty, directors of foster homes and relevant personnel of e-tutoring (Enos and Morton 2003), the study discussed future improvements for the e-tutoring program. The action research strongly suggests that e-tutoring should emphasize more reflective listening rather than subject-mattered achievement and turn service-learning into an opportunity of achieving the sustainable integration of community resources and social welfare institutions.     

All together now: The circular organization in a University Hospital. Part I. Planning and design

During a period of significant change in health care, hospitals are being transformed. This article—part I—reports on one university hospital's experience with a project funded by a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Pew Charitable Trusts initiative. The article presents the history and conditions that led to a planning year during which participants defined external and internal conditions contributing to the needs for change. Along with the driving pressures, the article addresses the planning process and the basic design for organization change, Ackoff's idealized design and circular organization. This model had been used in industry, but not in a hospital. Key themes related to the design and start-up are offered. Part II addresses the implementation of the model, the process of change, supports and barriers, and progress to date.     

Intersections of Critical Systems Thinking and Community Based Participatory Research: A Learning Organization Example with the Autistic Community

Critical systems thinking (CST) and community based participatory research (CBPR) are distinct approaches to inquiry which share a primary commitment to holism and human emancipation, as well as common grounding in critical theory and emancipatory and pragmatic philosophy. This paper explores their intersections and complements on a historical, philosophical, and theoretical level, and then proposes a hybrid approach achieved by applying CBPR’s principles and considerations for operationalizing emancipatory practice to traditional systems thinking frameworks and practices. This hybrid approach is illustrated in practice with examples drawn from of the implementation of the learning organization model in an action research setting with the Autistic community. Our experience of being able to actively attend to, and continuously equalize, power relations within an organizational framework that otherwise has great potential for reinforcing power inequity suggests CBPR’s principles and considerations for operationalizing emancipatory practice could be useful in CST settings, and CST’s vocabulary, methods, and clarity around systems thinking concepts could be valuable to CBPR practitioners.     

Consumer Participation in Designing Community Based Consumer-Directed Disability Care: Lessons from a Participatory Action Research-Inspired Project

User participation has been embraced worldwide as a means to provide better consumer outcomes in health and community care. However, methodologies to achieve effective consumer engagement at the programme design level have remained under-explored. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a Participatory Action Research (PAR)-inspired methodology used to develop a consumer-directed community care/individualised funding service model for people with disabilities. A retrospective analysis of case notes and internal reports for the first 6 years of an ongoing project were examined. The findings suggest that PAR methodologies need to take into account community development, group support, and capacity building as well as succession planning and risk management issues in order to facilitate the often lengthy policy and project development process. Drawing on these findings, this article discusses five lessons and their methodological implications for PAR in a health or social policy/programme design context.

Participatory Design and Technologies for Sustainable Development: an Approach from Action Research

This paper explores the relevance of the action research for design of technological solutions that lead to both systemic sustainable development and active involvement of the community. The paper shows how this idea was implemented in a project for water resource conservation with educational institutions of rural areas in Colombia. Through the use of technology, a reduction in water consumption increases in awareness about the use of this natural resource, and the active involvement of the community were sought. Additionally, social processes related to the conservation of natural resources were addressed through a socio-technical approach for analysis and design. During the application of the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), the participants and researchers created technological prototypes that allowed to: 1) give visibility to the community’s initiatives, and 2) save water in the households. This paper focuses on the importance of the design process of innovative solutions for social and environmental issues through the participative approach of action research.

     

Systemic Thinking and Practice Toward Facilitating Inclusive Education: Reflections on a Case of Co-Generated Knowledge and Action in South Africa

This article offers our reflections around a case of facilitating systemic thinking and practice in which the first author of the article (Tlale) interacted with research participants/participant researchers with the intention of strengthening systemic thought and action toward fostering inclusive education in the setting (a rural school in the Eastern Cape in South Africa). We reflect upon the process and also how our engagement was perceived by participants, as expressed in feedback received from them. We point to how Tlale introduced the idea of systemic thinking (to teachers, school management team, school governing body, and a district officer for the district) as tied to the possibility of acting to generate transformation toward a more inclusive educational context for the benefit of the learners at the school in question, thus acting as a systemic mediator on their behalf.     

An Approach to the Notion of Reflective Teacher and Its Exemplification on Mathematics Education

Within research into the teaching profession, there are two main areas of interest, which have been thoroughly defined and consolidated: teacher’s knowledge and teacher’s professional development. This paper considers the latter area, and specifically sets out to define the concept of the reflective teacher and to show how we have applied this concept in our research. It aims at defining a more precise notion of teachers’ professional development linked to the concept of a reflective teacher, drawing on information from different interdisciplinary sources so as to frame the concept clearly. We discuss the conditions which determine the reflective teacher, and report on how these were put to use in a training course for practising teachers in which participants reflected on challenging episodes from their professional experience. We hope that clarifying this term will enable different educational agents (school teachers, teacher trainers or researchers) to have an informed view that can be interpreted and critiqued, and that it will also be of value to initial teacher training and to in-service courses.     

Ponder on the Public Service of Urban Community

The past several years witnessed an obvious development in the public service of urban community in China although some dissatisfaction still exists. This paper analyzes the reasons and presents thoughts and suggestions on improving the public service of urban community.     

The Organizational View of Public Participation: A Narrative Analysis

The following research paper presents results of an ethnographic investigation focused on the participatory process of a public project for urban environmental rehabilitation. This public intervention, called Iguaçu Project, is being carried out in the Baixada Fluminense, in the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region (RJMR). Drawing upon the literature on social learning from both organizational and environmental management studies, the research investigates when and why social learning occurs within a participatory arena. The paper presents an analysis of stories told by nine key informants, selected as representatives of the main social categories involved in the project. The different meanings the narrators attributed to participation, environment, knowledge and learning in their stories, are analysed through abductive reasoning, i.e. through a continuous reference to the literature and confrontation with former narrative analysis in business organizations. The findings show an interpretative framework based on development of multiple-loop learning theory, defined as contextual loops. Furthermore, it identifies five explanatory propositions to answer the research questions. The occurrence of social learning in participatory arenas seems to depend upon five organizationally related factors: a systematized organizational structure; the participants’ commitments and the pluralism of the participatory arena; the process proponents’ reliability, the supporting role of a facilitator.     

Boulding's typology elaborated: A framework for understanding school and classroom systems

The scope of current educational reform themes is wide. Power is shifted from central governments to local, from administrative office to school site, from principal to teachers, from teacher to students. This is hopeful because traditional reform efforts have been counterproductive. These new themes parallel a worldwide paradigm shift from viewing relationships as monocausal and top-down regulating to interactive and self-regulating. The new themes are also problematic because resulting reform efforts are conflicting, proposing either control or flexibility, which increases harmful out-comes. This paper elaborates Boulding's typology of system complexity drawing from education and related disciplines. The elaboration unifies conflicting perspectives and explains why school reforms fail. Agency in change is clarified. The change model that results highlights system adjustment capacities and specifies both control and flexibility: control of morphostatic subsystems for maintaining access to resources of time, materials, equipment, and energy; and flexibility in morphogenic subsystems for learning, growth, and differentiation.     

Exploring Community Collaborations: Social Network Analysis as a Reflective Tool for Public Health

Social network analysis is a potentially useful reflective tool that could be used by public health practitioners to assess the overall composition of their networks, strengthen collaborations with other community partners, and evaluate network function. The purpose of this paper is to report on public health practitioners’ experiences with social network analysis. Thirteen public health practitioners, each associated with their own advocacy-oriented community collaboration, participated in the study. Specifically, the intervention consisted of social network analysis output (social network analysis measures and sociograms) and a facilitated discussion to stimulate reflection on the respondents’ professional networks. Semi-structured interviews were conducted two weeks later to solicit participants’ reactions to the sociograms and the accompanying measures, and elicit thoughts about how social network analysis might have an impact on their work. Participants commented on ways in which social network analysis could be applied in practice, such as using sociograms to raise awareness of the nature of current networks, as a planning and evaluation tool, to identify gaps, and to assess the degree of sustainability of current networks.     

Action Research in Management—Ethical Dilemmas

This paper discusses the application of the guiding ethical principles for the conduct of research involving human subjects in an action research project in a membership-based community psychiatric disability organization. Action research is a collaborative process of critical inquiry between the researcher and the people in the situation, in this case the management executive. The relationship between the researcher and manager participants in a long-term action research project gives rise to ethical dilemmas related to participant selection and voluntary participation, informed consent, decision making, anonymity and confidentiality, conflicting and different needs. The process and strategies implemented to address them are discussed.     

基于节能服务的嵌入式低碳服务机制研究

碳排放依赖型企业在引入嵌入式低碳服务(embedded low-carbonservice)时往往面临着低碳节能水平信息不对称带来的项目风险.鉴于此,在低碳经济背景下,本文考虑了低碳服务商(lowcarbon service provider)的投资水平和低碳节能能力不可观测情形嵌入式低碳服参与主体间最优激励契约的设计问题.同时对该情形下的最优激励契约进行了分析.应用嵌入度刻画嵌入式低碳服务参与主体间的价值共同度,分析了嵌入度对最优激励契约的影响.研究表明,低水平的嵌入度将使得低碳服务商承担更大的项目风险,同时形成需要低碳服务商每期预付节能保证金的合同模式.高水平的嵌入度能促进嵌入式低碳服务的低碳减排效率.     

系统科学与中医方法论

中医学中蕴含着很多系统理论的朴素思想值得我们去科学地继承、发扬和发展.近五年多我们参加了名老中医经验和思想传承的数据挖掘研究项目,更使我们坚信钱老的一些对中医的重要观点:"中医的理论是宝贝,但是需要中医现代化".当然中医界和我们系统科学界能共同携手则会加快这个进程.钱学森认为人体是个开放的复杂巨系统,自然要应用从定性到定量综合集成系统方法论.这个方法论强调要把专家的经验和智慧吸取进来,强调人机结合以人为主,强调要从定性到定量等.在此基础上我们开发专家挖掘的理论、方法和工具对我国部分名老中医的经验和思想加以发掘,取得了一些有益的成果.     

Enriching Service Learning by its Diversity: Combining University Service Learning and Corporate Social Responsibility to Help the NGOs Adapt Technology to Their Needs

Community-based service learning helps students link subject matter to everyday life and developing sense of responsibility to their community. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. Both promote civic engagement but the two hardly come across each other. We explore the process that enriched service learning with its diversity by combining CSR practices of a multinational software company. It begins by exploring different forms of action research with a focus on action engagement to improve students’ involvement in marginalized communities. The article provides field-based reflections of the sustained engagement and suggests ways in which service learning experiences may create rooms for innovation and growth in the non-profit sector, local communities, businesses, and students themselves.