1. Chapter 21: SuperVision, Change, and School Success
Chaos Theory and Change
Cultures for Change
School Success

2. School Change: Michael Fullan (1991):
Assume that your version of change is only one of many possible.
Any significant innovation requires individual implementers to work out their own meaning. Significant change involves ambiguity, ambivalence, and uncertainty. Effective implementation is a process of clarification.
School Change: Michael Fullan (1991):

3. Assume that conflict and disagreement are fundamental and inevitable.
Effective change takes time. Minimum of years. Persistence is a critical attribute of successful change.
Many possible reasons for lack of implementation: inadequate resources, insufficient time, value rejection, etc.
School Change:

4. Don't expect all or even most of the group to change
Don't expect all or even most of the group to change. Complexity of change makes it impossible to bring about widespread reform in a large social system. Progress occurs when we increase the number of people affected.
Assume that you will need a plan based on an understanding of change processes.
School Change

5. Assume that no amount of knowledge will make it totally clear what action should be taken. Decisions are a combination of intuition and 'on-the-spot' decision- making.
Assume that changing the culture of institutions is the real agenda, not implementing single innovations.
School Change

6. School Change: Guskey (1994)
1) Change is both an individual and an organizational process.
2) In planning and implementation, think BIG, but start SMALL.
3) Work in teams to maintain support.
4) Include procedures for feedback on results.
School Change: Guskey (1994)

7. School Change: Guskey (1994) cont.
5) Provide continued follow-up, support, and pressure.
6) Integrate new programs into existing frameworks.
School Change:

8. School Change: Frances Fuller (1969), Hall and Hord, (1987)
0: Awareness: I am not concerned
1: Informational: I would like to know more
2: Personal: How will it affect me?
3: Management: How can I be efficient?
4: Consequence: What is the impact?
5: Collaboration: How can I coordinate and cooperate with others?
6: Refocusing: I have some new or alternative ideas.
School Change: Frances Fuller (1969), Hall and Hord, (1987)

9. School Change: Chaos Theory
Nonlinearity: cause and effect relationships are not simple. Ex: bowling ball and pins, not dominoes.
Complexity: chaotic systems take complex forms, exact measurement difficult and non-linear.
School Change: Chaos Theory

10. School Change: Butterfly Effect
Sensitive dependence on initial conditions.
Butterfly stirs their wings in Beijing ... Storm in New York.
School Change: Butterfly Effect

11. School Change: Chaos Theory
Fractals: a geometric pattern similar to itself in difference scales. Mid-size branches similar to large, etc. Metaphor for complex social systems that can also reveal similarity on different scales. Inherent patterns.
School Change: Chaos Theory

12. School Change: Chaos Theory
Feedback Mechanisms: Outputs feed back into the system as inputs, providing feedback, and continually causing adjustments in the system.
School Change: Chaos Theory

13. School Change: Chaos Theory
Turbulence: Disturbances inside or outside a system. Increased complexity, increased possibility of turbulence. Ex: Heavy rain increases the volume of water in a river bed.
School Change: Chaos Theory

14. School Change: Chaos Theory
Strange Attractors: Chaotic systems are not random. They possess inner patterns that are complex and predictable within certain parameters. "Deeply encoded structures".
School Change: Chaos Theory

15. School Change: Chaos Theory
School Applications:
Change is non-linear.
Schools are complex systems.
It is impossible to predict long-term effects of school improvement efforts.
"Reflection in Action" (Schon) creates on- going feedback.
School Change: Chaos Theory

16. School Change: Chaos Theory
"Those who feel comfortable with order and reason, with symmetry, equilibrium, and stasis, will find life in the world of dynamic complexity quite challenging...Those who are comfortable with being in the process, the flow of the system [and] can see the larger patterns beyond the endless change and dynamisms, those who can tolerate ambiguity and unpredictability,... Will find being in a complex
system at the edge of
chaos to be stimulating
and rewarding."
(McAndrew, 1997, p. 40)
School Change: Chaos Theory

17. School Change: Change Culture: Saphier and King (1985)
Cultural norms that foster school improvement:
Collegiality
Experimentation
High Expectations
Trust and Confidence
Tangible Support
School Change: Change Culture: Saphier and King (1985)

18. School Change: Change Culture: Saphier and King (1985)
Reading out to knowledge bases
Appreciation and recognition
Caring, celebration and humor
Involvement in decision making
Protection of what's important
Traditions
Honest, open
communication
School Change: Change Culture: Saphier and King (1985)

19. School Change: Changing the Conditions of Teaching
Toward: Teachers as professionals who make professional decisions about curriculum, instruction and assessment.
Away From: Teachers as technicians who transmit mandated curriculum --
Toward: Manageable class, student loads, and expectations.
Away From: Overloads of students, time and expectations.
School Change: Changing the Conditions of Teaching

20. School Change: Changing the Conditions of Teaching
Toward: collaboration, professional dialogue
Away From: physical and psychological isolation.
Toward: Democratic school communities.
Away From: Bureaucratic regulations and paperwork.
School Change: Changing the Conditions of Teaching

21. School Change: Changing the Conditions of Teaching
Toward: Policies that value teachers as part of the solution.
Away From: Policies that blame
teachers for the problems.
Toward: Teaching as a career in
which teachers are given opportunities for growth and leadership.
Away From: Teaching as an un-staged career with minimal extrinsic rewards.
School Change: Changing the Conditions of Teaching

22. School Change: Changing the Conditions of Teaching
Toward: A vision of practice that values and honors respect and dignity as well as shared power and decision making.
Away From: Diversity as a combination of colors and symbols.
Toward: Making schools centers of democracy, inquiry and dialogue.
School Change: Changing the Conditions of Teaching