Synopses & Reviews
Schools are described as social systems whose primary organizational features are closely interrelated. Methods for coordinating these features are presented so schools can restructure their bureaucratic orientation. The interrelated nature of a school's various subsystems is highlighted to point out how they can be coordinated so genuine restructuring can be achieved and maintained.
Each model of organization in a school—bureaucratic, systems, and communal—displays its own distinguishing characteristics, and each one governs different aspects of people's behavior in schools. The decisive questions are: which behavioral patterns of the people in the school will be governed by each model, and what will be the relative extent to which each model influences the nature of the relationships and educational processes in the school?
Restructured schools emphasize the systems and communal models in their organizational and instructional norms, with bureaucratic norms mainly governing routine administrative procedures, while in traditional schools the bureaucratic model yields decisive influence on curricular structure, classroom teaching models, and staff relations, as well as on administrative features of the school. This book spells out a systems and communal approach to organization, curriculum, and instruction. It describes how to adopt an investigative approach to learning, often with cooperative groups of students, coupled with a trans-disciplinary approach to curricular structure and with a restructured schedule of classes to allow for in-depth study of broad intellectual domains.
Review
"[This] creative treatise offers clear descriptions of what schools are like today and what they should become, along with detailed roadmaps of how to move the organization and instruction in today's schools to the innovative organization and instruction of tomorrow's schools....[This is] the best book yet on school change." - Richard Schmuck Professor Emeritus, University of Oregon
Synopsis
The interrelated nature of a school's various subsystems is highlighted to point out how they can be coordinated so genuine restructuring can be achieved and maintained.
Synopsis
Schools are described as social systems whose primary organizational features are closely interrelated. Methods for coordinating these features are presented so schools can restructure their bureaucratic orientation. The interrelated nature of a school's various subsystems is highlighted to point out how they can be coordinated so genuine restructuring can be achieved and maintained.
About the Author
SHLOMO SHARAN is Professor of Educational Psychology, Tel-Aviv University-Israel, where he has been involved in school improvement by applying systems theory and small group dynamics to staff organization and classroom instruction.HANNA SHACHAR is Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.TAMAR LEVINE is Associate Professor of Education and Chair, Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the School of Education, Tel-Aviv University.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Images of School Organization
Schools Today
The Restructured School
Mapping the Road to Organizational and Instructional Change in Schools: A Model
Integrating the School's Systems
Experiential Workshops for In-service Education: Developing New Norms and Skills for School Personnel
The Non-Linear Curriculum
Restructuring Time in Schools
References
Index
About the Authors