About the Book
"A rich, much-needed remedy for the standardized institutions that comprise too much of our school system today... ideal for teachers and parents intent on resurrecting and fostering students' inherent drive to learn...An essential resource."
-Daniel H. Pink, author of DRIVE and A WHOLE NEW MIND
"Schools that Learn is a magnificent, grand book that pays equal attention to the small and the big picture - and what's more integrates them. There is no book on education change that comes close to Senge et al's sweeping and detailed treatment. Classroom, school, community, systems, citizenry---it's all there. The core message is stirring: what if we viewed schools as a means of shifting society for the better!"
-Michael Fullan, author of "Change Leader" and "Learning Places"
A new edition of the groundbreaking book that brings organizational learning and systems thinking into classrooms and schools, showing how to keep our nation's educational system competitive in today's world.
Revised and updated - with more than 100 pages of new material - for the first time since its initial publication in 2000 comes a new edition of the seminal work acclaimed as one of the best books ever written about education and schools.""
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A" unique collaboration between the celebrated management thinker and "Fifth Discipline" author Peter Senge and a team of renowned educators and organizational change leaders, "Schools that Learn" describes how schools can adapt, grow, and change in the face of the demands and challenges of our society, and provides tools, techniques and references for bringing those aspirations to life.
The new revised and updated edition offers practical advice for overcoming the many challenges that face our communities and educational systems today. It shows teachers, administrators, students, parents and community members how to successfully use principles of organizational learning, including systems thinking and shared vision, to address the challenges that face our nation's schools. In a fast-changing world where school populations are increasingly diverse, children live in ever-more-complex social and media environments, standardized tests are applied as overly simplistic "quick fixes," and advances in science and technology continue to accelerate, the pressures on our educational system are inescapable. "Schools That Learn" offers a much-needed way to open dialogue about these problems - and provides pragmatic opportunities to transform school systems into learning organizations.
Drawing on observations and advice from more than 70 writers and experts on schools and education, this book features:
-Methods for implementing organizational learning and explanations of why they work
-Compelling stories and anecdotes from the "field" - classrooms, schools, and communities
-Charts, tables and diagrams to illustrate systems thinking and other practices
-Guiding principles for how to apply innovative practices in all types of school systems
-Individual exercises useful for both teachers and students
-Team exercises to foster communication within the classroom, school, or community group
-New essays on topics like educating for sustainability, systems thinking in the classroom, and "the great game of high school."
-New recommendations for related books, articles, videotapes and web sites
-And more
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Schools That Learn" is "the" essential guide for anyone who cares about the future of education and keeping our nation's schools competitive in our fast-changing world.
Review :
Advance Acclaim for Schools That Learn:
"Today, more than ever, all the forces within society must join together to prepare our children to meet the challenges of our rapidly changing world. Schools That Learn is an important resource for all those wanting to tackle the challenge of integrating family, school, faith community, and policymakers into one coalition on behalf of children."
--Dr. James P. Comer, Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry, Yale Child Study Center, Associate Dean, Yale School of Medicine
"I don't know of a country that is happy with its educational system. That is because most schools are crafted for the mass production ethic of industrial society. Changing this obsolete state of affairs is the best investment that a government or community can make. This book can help; it shows how schools can reorient themselves to emphasize humanity, adventure, entrepreneurship, leadership, teamwork, problem-solving, and experimentation, instead of rote learning."
--Kenichi Ohmae, author of The Mind of the Strategist and The Invisible Continent
"I plan to read long passages to my daughter. Whenever I think about the world in which she (and her children) will grow up, the educational system seems to be the locus of both hope and despair. Reading this book is like opening the curtains and letting in rays of hope, illuminating an entire, systemic, detailed map for change."
--Howard Rheingold, author, The Virtual Community
What Educators and Students Say About How Our Schools Work
"It took us three years to define the standards we expected of students, because we engaged the community from the beginning. It mattered to us that [the people ofMemphis] own the standards."
--1999 U.S. Superintendent of the Year Gerry House
"Ordinarily, teachers are taught to work as individuals, so staff development has to help them learn to work together. And it needs to be an ongoing process, with enough time to learn new ways of teaching, to develop esprit de corps, and to unlearn old habits."
--Ed Joyner, executive director of the Yale School Development Program
"We work harder than kids in other schools. But we have more fun doing it. All the kids have different rates of learning, so the teachers keep up different rates of training."
--Students at a "five disciplines" -oriented middle school in Chelmsford, Massachusetts
