Introduction and Application of Inquiry and Communication Tools in Planning for Systemic Educational Change

摘要

This paper presents key findings from a qualitative study which explored how one elementary school site council learned and adopted a set of tools to increase their collective ability to work together and lead school improvement activities. The communication and inquiry tools introduced to this site council were drawn from learning organization theory and learning organizations. The results indicated that the tools increased the site council members= individual and collective capacity to listen, engage, trust, and work effectively with each other. These aptitudes were developed through the use of the tools in six areas: (a) becoming aware of one=s own thinking, (b) making one=s thinking visible and transparent to others, (c) understanding the thinking of others, (d) seeing one=s interactions from a systems perspective, (e) engaging in collaborative decision-making, and (f) capturing and documenting learning. These aptitudes and activities increased the members= awareness in three capacity building dimensions: self, others, and the system.