Synopses & Reviews
"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.
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
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.
Synopsis
Created by bestselling author and MIT senior lecturer Peter Senge and a team of educators and organizational change leaders, this new addition to the Fifth Discipline Resource Book series offers practical advice for educators, administrators, and parents on how to strengthen and rebuild our schools.
Few would argue that schools today are in trouble. The problems are sparking a national debate as educators, school boards, administrators, and parents search for ways to strengthen our school system at all levels, more effectively respond to the rapidly changing world around us, and better educate our children.
Bestselling author Peter Senge and his Fifth Discipline team have written Schools That Learn because educators--who have made up a sizable percentage of the audience for the popular Fifth Discipline books--have asked for a book that focuses specifically on schools and education, to help reclaim schools even in economically depressed or turbulent districts. One of the great strengths of Schools That Learn is its description of practices that are meeting success across the country and around the world, as schools attempt to learn, grow, and reinvent themselves using the principles of organizational learning. Featuring articles, case studies, and anecdotes from prominent educators such as Howard Gardner, Jay Forrester, and 1999 U.S. Superintendent of the Year Gerry House, as well as from impassioned teachers, administrators, parents, and students, the book offers a wealth of practical tools, anecdotes, and advice that people can use to help schools (and the classrooms in them and communities around them) learn to learn.
You'll read about schools, for instance, whereprincipals introduce themselves to parents new to the school as entering a nine-year conversation about their children's education; where teachers use computer modeling to galvanize student insight into everything from Romeo and Juliet to the extinction of the mammoths; and where teachers' training is not just bureaucratic ritual but an opportunity to recharge and rethink the classroom.
In a fast-changing world where school violence is a growing concern, where standardized tests are applied as simplistic quick fixes, where rapid advances in science and technology threaten to outpace schools' effectiveness, where the average tenure of a school district superintendent is less than three years, and where students, parents, and teachers feel weighed down by increasing pressures, Schools That Learn offers much-needed material for the dialogue about the educating of children in the twenty-first century.
Synopsis
First published in 2000, SCHOOLS THAT LEARN introduced the groundbreaking Fifth Discipline organizational principles to the world of education. This comprehensive revision addresses the increasing challenges facing our educational system and presents practical advice on how schools can use the principles of organizational learning to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world.
Few would argue that schools today are in trouble. In the age of “No Child Left Behind,” when students, teachers, parents, and school boards are weighed down by increasing pressures, standardized tests are being used as “quick fixes,” school violence is growing, advances in science and technology threaten to outpace teachers effectiveness, and the average tenure of a school district superintendent is less than three years, SCHOOLS THAT LEARN offers much-needed advice on how we can overcome these persistent problems that threaten our educational system.
Drawing upon experience and advice from prominent educators, teachers, principals, business and community leaders, parents, and students from across the country, the authors offer clear guidelines for how to implement the principles of organizational learning in the classroom, and explain why these practices work. The book features stories and anecdotes from the classroom and the community; charts, tables and diagrams to illustrate learning principles; individual and team exercises for both educators and students; and recommendations for related books, articles, Web sites, and other resources. This updated and revised edition of a decisive and influential work is invaluable for everyone involved in a dialogue about how to better educate our children in the twenty-first century.
Synopsis
A completely updated and revised edition of the acclaimed guide to strengthening schools. It features 200 pages of fresh, current case studies, essays, and frontline reports from teachers, students, parents, and administrators.
Synopsis
"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.
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
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.
About the Author
PETER SENGE is a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the founding chair of the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL), and the author of
The Fifth Discipline. He is the coauthor of
Presence, and, with BRYAN SMITH and ART KLEINER, of
The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook and
The Dance of Change. ART KLEINER is the editor-in-chief of
strategy+business. NELDA CAMBRON-McCABE is a professor of educational leadership at Miami University in Ohio. TIMOTHY LUCAS is an assistant professor at Lehigh University. JANIS DUTTON is an educational writer, consultant, and community activist.