The Shape of Change

The Shape of Change
Author: Rob Quaden
Publisher:
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2009
Genre: Change
ISBN: 9780975316979

Students engage in games and other classroom activities (teamwork, hands-on, learner-centered learning) to explore what changes over time. They draw behavior over time graphs to examine how these things changed, and they relate the patterns of behavior to other changes in their experience. Step-by-step, students build stock/flow maps explaining each lesson activity. These stock/flow maps are tied directly to students’ earlier behavior over time graphs and to the underlying causal loop structures that drive the changes. In this manner, students begin to build systems thinking skills – an understanding of how structure creates the behavior we observe all around us.

Schools That Learn (Updated and Revised)

Schools That Learn (Updated and Revised)
Author: Peter M. Senge
Publisher: Crown Currency
Total Pages: 610
Release: 2012-07-31
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0385521863

"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.

Schools That Learn (updated and revised second edition)

Schools That Learn (updated and revised second edition)
Author: Peter Senge
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 877
Release: 2012-07-31
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 185788941X

A NEW EDITION OF THE GROUNDBREAKING BOOK A new edition - revised and updated with over 100 pages of new material - of the groundbreaking book that brings the principles of organizational learning to today’s schools and classrooms. A unique collaboration between the celebrated management thinker and Fifth Discipline author Peter Senge, and a team of renowned educators and organizational change leaders, the revised edition of Schools The Learn addresses the new and unique pressures on our educational system that have emerged since the book’s initial publication in 2000. 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.

Thinking in Systems

Thinking in Systems
Author: Donella Meadows
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2008-12-03
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1603581480

The classic book on systems thinking—with more than half a million copies sold worldwide! "This is a fabulous book... This book opened my mind and reshaped the way I think about investing."—Forbes "Thinking in Systems is required reading for anyone hoping to run a successful company, community, or country. Learning how to think in systems is now part of change-agent literacy. And this is the best book of its kind."—Hunter Lovins In the years following her role as the lead author of the international bestseller, Limits to Growth—the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet—Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001. Thinking in Systems is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute’s Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life. Some of the biggest problems facing the world—war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation—are essentially system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others, because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking. While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner. In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions.

The World in the Model

The World in the Model
Author: Mary S. Morgan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2012-09-17
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0521176190

This book describes the radical shift in the study of economic science; where arguing with words was replaced by reasoning with mathematical models.

Growth Dynamics in New Markets

Growth Dynamics in New Markets
Author: Martin F. G. Schaffernicht
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2018-07-16
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1119118239

An innovative simulation-based approach for strategic decision making when launching new products Growth Dynamics in New Markets contains a dynamic case study and simulations that reveal what it takes to successfully introduce a product into a new market. Written by experts in the field, the text and companion website include a compelling simulation game and a variety of simulation models. Using the simulation game and computer models, readers are challenged to design and put in place a strategy about product introduction and competitive behavior. The simulation models build on each other to help to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of product uptake as well as market development and competitive dynamics. The authors present different approaches for enhancing the models and offer guidance for applying them to real-world problems. This groundbreaking text clearly shows how to develop maps of dynamic systems, formulate candidate policies and evaluate them based on the simulations. It also reveals how to use computer simulations to understand what decisions could and should be made, when to make them and how intensive they should be. The authors present an interactive approach that: Contains an innovative combination of a case study, simulation game and simulation models for developing the skills to introduce a product to the marketplace Offers targeted questions that help to enhance the understanding of the material presented Presents detailed answers and solutions to a number or real-world business challenges Features video tutorials that explain how the simulation experiments are implemented and interpreted Aids in the development an action-oriented, pragmatic understanding of the underlying forces in business Designed for students of business administration, management, industrial engineering, informatics, engineering, and public policy, Growth Dynamics in New Markets offers an innovative approach that combines the practice of dynamic reasoning and the use of simulation to design and test possible policies.