The Pragmatics of Educational Systems Design: A Critical Examination

The author critically examines educational systems design (ESD) through the lens of pragmatism. Examining ESD through a lens of pragmatism draws to the foreground issues related to Banathy's (1991, 1996, 2001) idealized systems design for social and societal systems. The author addresses the complex and dynamic nature of systems design, focusing on the systemic processes in which user-designers are continually challenged to inquire, communicate, and consider choices, and make design decisions concerning the nature of the system being designed. The power of social systems design (SSD) lies in the ability to consider the ideal image of a social and/or societal system, critically and pragmatically in relation to creating a new system that will contribute to the evolutionary betterment of society and a sustainable future for humankind. Following an introduction, the author examines pragmatism. Then the author applies a lens of pragmatism, critically, to examine educational systems design in relation to generating change and creating the ideal educational system. The author then argues the pragmatics of educational systems design, concluding the paper with final reflections on ESD as a process.     

Modeling Organizational Systems: Banathy's Three Lenses Revisited

The inherent complexity of organizational systems defies full understanding by inquirers. This condition often causes organizational inquirers to become mired in convoluted deliberations, unable to attain the consensus among the inquiring community that is needed to advance the research forward to a meaningful conclusion. Consequently, many practitioners and researchers employ models of organizations to aid in simplifying the system's complexity and to reach shared agreement. Because no single model can fully capture the complexity of an organization, Dr. Bela H. Banathy therefore proposed using three types of interrelated models to give a multidimensional view of a human system under study. Since Banathy first introduced his three lenses approach, the concept has been employed in many educational and organizational settings. This article examines the author's experience using Banathy's three lenses and integrates their usage with some other popular modeling techniques, providing a comprehensive view of how Banathy's three lenses can be effectively employed in contemporary organizational settings.     

A Biography of Bela H. Banathy: A Systems Scholar

This article reflects a biographical account of Bela H. Banathy's life, providing a recorded history of his accomplishments, personally and professionally. Professor Banathy made significant contributions to systems design theory and practice throughout his life. The author chronicles Bela's lifework as a systems scholar, drawing from personal communication, autobiographical documents, and published works to create a biographical portrait.     

Disseminating Tacit Knowing of Design Conversation

One of Bela H. Banathy's most significant contributions to the systems design and research community was his initiation of systems design conversations, together with his colleagues. The purposes of this paper are: (1) To identify and classify tacit knowing, including explicit knowledge, of design conversation; (2) To identify the target audience for dissemination of such tacit knowing; and (3) To discuss the potentials and tasks for the design conversation community for making significant contributions to human betterment by disseminating its tacit knowing.     

Fostering Design Culture Through Cultivating the User-Designers' Design Thinking and Systems Thinking

In this paper, the essence of design thinking and systems thinking is reviewed, analyzed, and synthesized. Although there are many valuable schools of systems thinking, I focus on both Banathy's and Senge's since there are design spirit embedded in their systems thinking. I attempt to grasp the spirit of Banathy's systems models and the essence of Senge's systems thinking, incorporating them into my design inquiry. I propose adopting an enlightened, transformative design approach in order to enhance the revolution of the public's inner and outer systems through collaborative design engagement. It is expected that by utilizing the transformative design approach, the public or user–designers could gain the necessary skills to envision their own learning, assume responsibility for designing their own learning environments, and systematically reflect upon their habitual thinking and actions. Ultimately, the user-designers would be able to transform their model-driven or theory-driven approaches to systems application into a cultural approach to the cultivation of systems thinking and design thinking. Indeed, design thinking, as well as contemporary systems thinking are two powerful wings to make us fly in the capacious learning world of the 21st century.     

Opportunity Initiated Systems Design

This paper proposes a design theory of how opportunities might be used to facilitate change within a system, particularly an educational system. Opportunity Initiated Systems Design (OISD) is a system design model that retains the values and goals of Idealized Systems Design (ISD) yet incorporates other models of systemic change to form a simpler, more practical theory of systems design. Traditional barriers to ISD are discussed, used as the basis for describing suggest an alternative theory of systems design. The paper articulates the values and goals of OISD and outlines a theory of OISD. The six phases of OISD are presented, including specific guidelines for implementing OISD. Limitations of OISD and implications for further research are discussed.     

Exploration of the significance of values in the design of educational systems

In recent decades, there has been increased awareness of the need for systemic change in education. In systemic change, it is of the greatest importance that stakeholders examine and clarify their individual values and articulate shared values and state them clearly. This is necessary because values underlie visions, guide choices, decisions, and actions made in the course of design and, eventually, serve as practical tools in evaluating a system and its programs. This study explores the importance of articulating values in the design of educational systems. Given the importance of the clarification of values consented to by stakeholders and the lack of previous in-depth studies, the paper concludes that it is urgent to develop systemic and comprehensive value categories to aid in articulating core values and to serve as guidelines for applying these values in educational systems design.     

Educational systems design: Making it more user friendly

Concerns about our current public education systems have given rise to a variety of reform efforts. During the past several years, efforts have begun to emphasize the importance of systems thinking and a “systemic” approach for bringing about fundamental educational reform. In spite of the promise of system design as a model for systemic change, it has been largely ignored by its intended clients, the educational leadership. This paper explores some of the reasons for this and proposes a number of actions that need to be taken if system design is to become a viable approach.     

The Concept of Sustainability in the Evolutionary Guidance of an Educational Institution

Sustainability has been introduced at Ithaca College as a potential guiding theme for a wide range of development efforts. How these efforts will shape the institution's future is unclear, particularly when one places them in the context of recent changes in the College's approach to governance and planning. Countering rather primitive applications of systems thinking in the popular literature on sustainability, a case is made that sustainability principles can be reframed within Banathy's [Banathy, B. H. (1989). Syst. Res. 6(4), 289–296.] notion of an evolutionary guidance system, and this could lead to the next evolutionary stage of the institution.     

从系统观看重庆统筹城乡教育发展

重庆统筹城乡教育发展对促进统筹城乡综合发展有重要意义。本文利用乌杰系统辩证学中的系统观和系统分析法,对重庆统筹城乡教育发展中的问题进行了系统深入的分析,提出了合理化建议和意见。     

论高校人才培养质量管理系统的优化

针对当前我国高校人才培养质量管理系统存在的问题，用系统论的思想，首先说明高校人才培养质量管理系统的优化应整体协调推进，然后分别就人才培养目标的合理定位、教育路径的科学选取、动力机制的有效构建等问题，从系统论的视角提出相关建议。     

Imagine the ideal,make it real: Bringing shared values to life

Idealized systems design (ISD) is defined as a process of disciplined inquiry that enables a system's users to discover the values that most inspire their involvement in the system and then to jump conceptually outside of existing reality to imagine what that system could or should be in light of those values and unconstrained by practical reality. When a fanciful but appealing idea is reached, one which represents an optimum resolution to the needs which have brought or will bring the system into existence, users bring that idea into contact with practical reality and design a system to bring it to life. Costs, benefits, limitations, requirements, and promises of ISD are discussed in light of the author's involvement with 80–85 ISD inquiries.     

Application of Mathematial-Simulated Model Setup for Eudcational Planning

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系统方法指导下的EWM(增强Web模式)软件体系结构研究

结合作者近几年来所从事的基于Web的软件系统的优化研究工作，从系统论的角度论述了为解决Web应用系统缺陷而提出的EWM软件体系结构的构建与完善过程。在应用于特定工程实践的同时，为应用信息系统分析设计提出一种优化设计方法。     

基于基尼系数的我国教育经费配置区域与结构公平性分析

本文提出了基尼系数的一个等价算法：收入份额法，该算法不仅方便基尼系数按组群分解和来源分解，而且可以进行边际效应分析. 将上述方法应用于对我国省域教育经费配置的公平性分析，无论是从总体还是从区域结构来看，与1999年相比可以发现，2009年省域教育经费配置的公平性有了显著的改善. 中西部地区教育经费占总体教育经费的比重，出现了明显的上升；国家财政教育经费占总体教育经费的比重，也有较大幅度的提高. 国家财政教育经费来源和东部地区教育经费配置，对总体教育经费配置的公平性具有决定性作用. 增大国家财政教育经费来源和中西部教育经费在总体教育经费中的比重，有利于改善省域教育经费配置的公平性.     

Distance Education: A Reflective Action Research Project and Its Systemic Implications for Higher Education

This reflective action research study examines faculty experience with distance education. Distance education has become increasingly of interest in higher education and is seen by many as the opportunity for systemic change in higher education. This study is a reflective action research project which examined the author's experiences teaching a distance version of a basic instructional design course at the same time as teaching a residential version of that same course. The examination finds significant faculty issues that emerged during the experience and specifically found concerns with the distance education learner. In the end, the study finds that as a tool for systemic change of higher education, distance delivery will have to engage faculty with their concerns in more substantive ways than they have to date. In essence, this study asserts that the current demands on distance educators are not motivating for traditional faculty members because of increased time demands, lack of traditional rhythm, lack of personal contact with students, and less evident interest among distant students in the areas that faculty value.     

A conversation on guidelines for the process of facilitating systemic change in education

The International Systems Institute held its sixth annual conversation at Asilomar on November 14–19, 1993. At that meeting, seven participants self-selected themselves into a conversation group that met intensively over 4 days to develop some guidelines or principles for the process of facilitating systemic change in education. This is a report on how that group functioned and what it produced. The trigger questions addressed included: What are the major stages in the systemic change process? Can you do systems design with only a part of the “system”? How important isscale (e.g., number of people, schools)? What is an educational system? Can you use the same design process in any culture? How can one best create the idealized design? What are the major goals, obstacles, guidelines? Can we design the process without knowing the product? and Are there big differences between working within the system and outside the system? A large portion of the effort focused on guidelines for facilitating the first two phases of the systemic change process: preparing for design and designing the new system.     

战术导弹自动测试系统体系结构的选择

本文从战术导弹自动测试系统研制需求出发，论述了以ＶＸＩ总线为核心的体系结构是当前战术导弹自动测试系统的最佳选择，应当在国内该领域内大力推广。     

Decentralized Control for Similar Composite Systems with Interconnections Satisfying Interconnected Condition

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人力资源管理的发展新趋势——从基于工作的人力资源管理到基于能力的人力资源管理

以工作为基础进行组织设计的思想已经统治了组织行为学与人力资源管理数十年 ,但是这种思想目前已受到了挑战 .许多学者提出了基于能力的组织设计方法才是更适当的组织方法 .在日益激烈的全球竞争中 ,一个组织的报酬系统 ,人员选拔系统以及组织结构需要转换到以能力为中心 .本文着重从当今工作性质的转变、组织的转变、组织机构的变化、对全球经济竞争的适应几个方面论述这种转换的必要性 ;同时 ,论述了基于能力的组织方法的潜在效果 .