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.     

Transforming Adult Learning Through Critical Design Inquiry

Marching toward the 21st century, there are not only drastic changes in global economic and political development, but also in technological advancement and ecological evolution. All of these are intertwined with one another to shape national and societal development in various areas. In the milieu of education, these changes exert great influence on the way we perceive learning and instruction, this in turn calls for a paradigm shift in the way we design learning and instruction. Consequently, calls to critically examine the way we have been designing our learning and instruction have gained more and more attention in the past decade. Since design could help in realizing our visionary ideals, and transforming these ideals into innumerable learning and working contexts, we need to probe into how our learning and instruction could be more creatively and powerfully designed. The author contends that most learners, through the process of critical envision and enaction, could learn to design their own learning, either independently or collectively, through the cultivation of design capacities. In this paper, the author first presents the historical analysis of the theoretical foundations of instructional design, and then takes a critical approach to examining the alternative possibilities of instructional design. Based on the critical perspectives of design, she develops the critical design inquiry by integrating the richness of contemporary critical thinking into that of systems thinking and design thinking. To make the critical design inquiry an educational praxis, rather than just another design theory, the author takes a participatory and collaborative approach to design with a group of adult students. The critical design approach aims at enlightening the adult learners’ inner systems revolution and enriching the outer learning environments through collaborative design engagement. In the final section, the author explicates how the confined roles of instructional designers could be conceptualized through the critical design inquiry.     

Situated learning theory versus traditional cognitive learning theory: Why management education should not ignore management learning

This paper describes the differences between situated learning theory (SLT) and traditional cognitive theory (TCT). SLT is distinctive because it perceives learning to be a socially relational rather than a mentalist process. SLT places research attention upon knowledge productionin situ and in the course of work practices rather than upon learning transmission in the classroom. This paper argues that SLT's emphasis on the social context of learning is problematic and ambiguous. SLT sees context as pregiven, which is consistent with modernist thought, but also sees it as emergent, which is more consistent with postmodern thought. The implications of this are discussed and the SLT-TCT debate is used to shed light on management education from the perspective of management learning.     

<Emphasis Type="Bold">An Engineering View for Social Systems: Agency as an Operational Principle for Designing Higher Education Access Policies</Emphasis>

Access to higher education (HE) has been a persistent concern for governments, practitioners and researchers. Access to HE has been widely studied from scientific perspectives that have focussed on the factors that contribute to the problem; however, authors have highlighted the need for systemic and design perspectives on education systems. The need to connect research with policy remains one of the most challenging issues for education researchers. In view of this gap, this paper argues that engineering thinking and methods represent an opportunity for the design of HE access policies because engineering rationality (distinct from scientific rationalities) matches the concerns and goals of any policymaking attempt. Engineers design artefacts to meet particular goals. These artefacts are artificial systems, tangible or intangible, such as hammers, bridges or whole organizations, which are designed in particular contexts to meet precise goals. Policies for access to HE are good examples of artefacts that seek to fulfil specific needs under concrete constraints inherent to a country or region. More specifically, HE systems are social systems; in other words, they are created and recreated by the interactions and decisions of diverse actors. Hence, to change, redesign or improve such types of systems involves engineering their very interactions that are the outcomes of institutional and human actions. In particular, engineering design requires operational principles. Thus, we propose agency as a fundamental design concept for the improvement of HE systems, which opens new possibilities for a distinct type of policy-making that takes excellent advantage of what engineering can offer, while at the same time expanding on traditional expectations for engineering.     

面向21世纪小学生综合素质系统评价及相应对策研究

在即将步入２１世纪的今天,积极探索一套面向２１世纪的小学教育模式极为重要和迫切．本文采用了ＡＨＰ法,试图探索一套较为完善的面向２１世纪小学生综合素质指标体系并进行评价,据此进行相应的对策研究,以期对改革之中的小学教育模式的建立有所稗益．     

Philosophical Differences: The Case of Architects' Reluctance to Use Strategic Planning Software

A briefing workshop was run in an effort to involve its participants in choosing a strategic direction, and eventual form, for a proposed facility. The workshop was an action research, participative process that sought to improve final design by preconsultation with some relevant stakeholders. This paper will specifically focus on our attempt to use strategic planning software at an early stage of such a workshop. It discusses and illustrates the difficulties of importing a new technique into an established, professional setting where activities and roles may be expressed, or assumed, on the basis of previous experience. More exactly, although we hoped to use our software to analyze and explore participants' design styles, and so predict their likely choice of design option, the architects present undermined such analyzes by playing a role rather than telling the software what they really thought about the various strategic choices. Hence it was, in some ways, a waste of time using our software. We speculate below whether such undermining might be symptomatic of deep philosophical differences between the workshop organizers, planners, and architects. We also examine whether such differences bode ill for the future of architecture.     

Community Development and Renaissance Social Humanism: Some Lessons for Systems Science

Starting from the crisis in our communities—research has indicated it to be widely spread—the author explores the scientific tradition preceding the rise of modernism in order to draw out a more humane way of thinking that may help our contemporary societies. He discerns between two types of Renaissance humanism, one characterised by its cleverness, the other by its compassion and desire to restore dignity to the lives of people struggling to escape the clutches of medievalism. The father of the latter is Erasmus of Rotterdam and we follow the development of his conception of a social humanism as it branches out, through the work of his successors, into every scientific discipline, both natural and human. These disciplines are united by an embracing systemic idea of philosophy that unites the mind with the heart and which Erasmus called “Philosophia Christi”. We examine the two main pillars upon which this philosophy is built, love for our neighbour and education as the only legitimate instrument to change society, and the extraordinary impact it had on science and on communities living in the seventeenth century. We contrast this with the idea of power, the chosen instrument of modernity to transform society, and trace some of its tragic outcomes. We conclude by discussing the incorporation of an Erasmian type of social humanism into systems education and the future development of such programmes.     

A new procedure for testing normality based on the L 2 Wasserstein distance

This paper proposes a new goodness-of-fit test for normality based on the L ₂ Wasserstein distance. The authors first construct a probability through the Bootstrap resampling. Although the probability is not distributed uniformly on the interval (0, 1) under the null hypothesis, it is shown that its distribution is free from the unknown parameters, which indicates that such a probability can be taken as the test statistic. It emerges from the simulation study of power that the new test is able to better discriminate between the normal distribution and those distributions with short tails. For such alternatives, it has a substantially better power than existing tests including the Anderson-Darling test and Shapiro-Wilk test, which are two of the best tests for normality. In addition, the sensitivity analysis of tests is also investigated in the presence of moderate perturbation, which shows that the new test is a rather robust test.     

H 2/H ∞ control problems of backward stochastic systems

This paper is concerned with the mixed H2/H∞ control problem for a new class of stochastic systems with exogenous disturbance signal.The most distinguishing feature,compared with the existing literatures,is that the systems are described by linear backward stochastic differential equations（BSDEs）.The solution to this problem is obtained completely and explicitly by using an approach which is based primarily on the completion-of-squares technique.Two equivalent expressions for the H2/H∞ control are presented.Contrary to forward deterministic and stochastic cases,the solution to the backward stochastic H2/H∞ control is no longer feedback of the current state;rather,it is feedback of the entire history of the state.     

Conclusion: New Directions Through Extending Deliberative Democracy to Enhance Representation and Accountability

Two way, systemic dialogue enables new ideas to emerge. Rorty (1989) in ‘Contingency, irony and solidarity’ argues that we need to ask questions that acknowledge solidarity with other human beings who suffer. He asks us to consider the consequences for humanity by widening our sense of solidarity or links with others. Considering their pain should be our starting point for drawing ever widening circles of solidarity. The issue is not idealism versus pragmatism as Rorty argues; it is about widening our understanding of the consequences of our thinking and our practice. We need to understand that the environment of which we are part has been shaped by our social, cultural, political and economic decisions and that it will in turn shape our thinking and practice. This is the principle of co-determination that has been developed by systems thinkers such as Maturana and Varela and understood by recent thinkers such as Tim Flannery (2007) and Ulrich Beck (1992, 1997).

浅谈系统思维方法在高校人才引进工作中的应用

本文探讨高校人才引进工作对于提高高校师资队伍建设水平、推动高等学校科学发展积极作用的同时,根据系统哲学和系统科学原理,分析当前高校人才引进工作现状,针对性地提出了加强高校人才引进工作的系统思维方法、途径和手段,为高校人才引进工作更好地服务学校发展进行了有益尝试和深入探索。     

Efficient Asymmetrical Extended Designs Under Wrap-Around <Emphasis Type="Italic">L</Emphasis><Subscript>2</Subscript>-Discrepancy

The purpose of the present article is to introduce a class of mixed two- and three-level extended designs obtained by adding some new runs to an existing mixed two-and three-level design. A formulation of wrap-around L₂-discrepancy for the extended designs is developed. As a benchmark of obtaining (nearly) uniform asymmetrical extended designs, a lower bound to the wrap-around L₂-discrepancy for our proposed designs is established. Thorough numerical results are displayed, which provide further corroboration to the derived theoretical results.     

A Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) Based Framework for Evaluating Managed Learning Environments

Managed Learning Environments (MLEs) in higher education institutions (HEIs) are relatively new to the arena of higher education, even though there are over 90% of institutions in the higher and further education sector who are currently engaged in some kind of MLE development activity (University of Brighton 2003). However, when it comes to the task of assessing the performance of an MLE there are no universally recognisable frameworks for evaluating MLEs in HEIs currently discussed within the literature. The paper advances a general systemic framework for evaluating MLEs based on Checkland’s SSM and reports on the first stages of our attempt to evaluate the MLE at Manchester Metropolitan University involving the team developing the system and the stakeholders concerned. Two of three iterations of this research have been completed and, whilst outside the scope of this paper, have found that SSM has coped with the criteria demanded of the evaluation framework within its context. After completing a stakeholder analysis, the criteria for evaluating an MLE, based on the stakeholders’ requirements, emerged. These iterations have tentatively concluded that by contextualising SSM to the evaluation requirements of an MLE in a UK HEI, the measures of performance suggested by SSM need to be adjusted. The final iteration will check this outcome.     

基于熵权法的教育质量评价方法

提出一种基于熵权法的教育质量评价方法。在承认不同学校生源入学基础不同的前提下,阐述了奖罚加权矩阵概念及其系数确定法,其质量评价指标突出了学生的进步而不是分数,并利用四所中学的数据进行实际分析,比较客观公正地评价了不同学校的教育质量。     

基于熵权法的教育质量评价方法

提出一种基于熵权法的教育质量评价方法。在承认不同学校生源入学基础不同的前提下,阐述了奖罚加权矩阵概念及其系数确定法,其质量评价指标突出学生的进步而不是分数,并利用四所中学的数据进行实际分析,比较客观公正地评价了不同学校的教育质量。     

适于IP设计的定点DSP软件开发系统

描述了一种本实验室开发的适合于IP(IntellectualProperty)设计的DSP(DigitalSignalProcess)处理器核WDSP(以主要开发者姓Wu命名Wu′sDSP)的软件开发系统。这一开发系统将使根据不同DSP应用产生不同DSP处理器核成为可能。此外,WDSP还将作为一个核心部件应用于本实验室正在开发的称为FDP(FPGAforDataPath)的FPGA(FieldProgrammableGateArrays)系统中,以适应当前普遍采用的IP和SoC(SystemonChip)设计方法。     

A Critical Systems Approach to Elicit User-Centric Business Intelligence Business Requirements

This paper describes an action research study where the researcher developed and tested an alternative business requirements elicitation approach that enables reflection on business intelligence business requirements from a social/organisational perspective and, accordingly, surfaces user-centric requirements that support development of systems that are technically good and effectuate organisational improvement. It is based on critical systems heuristics, a framework that facilitates participative discourse to surface contributing and consequential factors of a planned social system, i.e. relevant sources of motivation; expertise; inflicting and controlling boundaries; and sources of moral and political justification acting as guardians for all that will be impacted upon by the adjusted social reality caused by the new system. Such an approach is valuable to developers of business intelligence systems; it complements traditional requirements gathering approaches. Present-day organisations require efficacious decision-making capabilities to succeed—business intelligence systems enable efficacious decisions. However, business intelligence systems often fail, at great expenses to organisations. They fail due to social/organisational infeasibility, rather than technical insufficiency; they fail when developers lack adequate understanding of users’ business requirements. Appropriate business requirement specifications entail more than definitions of functional, non-functional and technical attributes of new systems. Business requirements must also capture the social/organisational context of a system, i.e. the impact that it will inevitably have on users and the organisational environment, so as to ensure that it ultimately bring about improvement. The approach developed in this study enables elicitation of user-centric business requirements.

     

灵捷制造企业设计

灵捷制造是21世纪制造企业的战略。灵捷制造企业设计意指:如何使灵捷制造企业能迅速实现其资源的有效集成, 对市场变化作出快速响应。现代系统科学是灵捷制造企业设计的理论基础, 传统的线性设计模型已不适于复杂系统的设计。螺旋循环设计模型可满足灵捷制造企业设计的基本要求。     

DESIGN SAMPLING AND REPLICATION ASSIGNMENT UNDER FIXED COMPUTING BUDGET

1. Introduction The essence of any decision problem is an optimization problem. Whether it is a decision on the production schedule of a manufacturing plant, a decision on the routing rules of networking, or a decision on the make-up of investment portfolios, the problem always revolves around making a choice from a population of alternatives (either finite or infinite) so as to optimize certain targeted objective. Without loss of generality, the objective can be represented by Mθ ∈iΘn J(…     

How Systemic Inquiry Releases Citizen Knowledge to Reform Schools: Community Scorecard Case Studies

Despite the relevance of systemic practice for repairing broken public systems, documented instances where it empowers marginalised groups en masse to be action researchers are rare. Public school systems that fail to educate millions of pupils are ripe for systemic inquiry. Using evidence, this article identifies conditions under which such inquiry fosters school system accountability and increases pupil learning. By tracing the emergence of a type of community scorecard practice called Citizen Voice and Action (CV&A), it explains how and why marginalised groups use CV&A’s systems-enhanced participatory research to engage with and reform unresponsive public systems. It also shows how soft systems thinking and further action research enhanced scorecard methodology. Brief case studies of CV&A use in Ugandan primary schools illustrate and explain how communities reform schools by using CV&A to systematically foster accountability. Discussion identifies how processes free them to create and use systemic knowledge. This theorising helps explain conditions under which systemic inquiry into school and other public systems is being generalised and scaled up.