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Chapter 2 - Dimensions of Educational Change

1. Successful change initiatives clearly communicate their substance and convince staff of their value, gaining acceptance. Initiatives seen as lacking substance face resistance. 2. Staff reluctance can hinder changes, so initiators must understand staff perspectives and address capacity needs through training. 3. Organizational capacity and culture impact change. Initiatives matching existing capacity succeed better than those exceeding current abilities, and willingness matters more than ability alone.

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81 views

Chapter 2 - Dimensions of Educational Change

1. Successful change initiatives clearly communicate their substance and convince staff of their value, gaining acceptance. Initiatives seen as lacking substance face resistance. 2. Staff reluctance can hinder changes, so initiators must understand staff perspectives and address capacity needs through training. 3. Organizational capacity and culture impact change. Initiatives matching existing capacity succeed better than those exceeding current abilities, and willingness matters more than ability alone.

Uploaded by

PPD KUCHING-CM20 Moe
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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HPEM7023: Educational

Change & Innovations


Dr. Nagalingam Karuppiah
[email protected]
019 7598209
Chapter 2

Dimensions of Educational Change


Learning outcome:
• Identify the implementation of educational change and the tasks
of transition;

• Locate the substance in educational change which involves new


ideas and agendas

• Analyse the aspects of reluctant staff and the organizational


capacity
What have we learned so far?
• Educational change processes has left us with a mixed legacy.
• On the one hand, studies of what works and what does not have created a
truly powerful knowledge base about the processes, practices and
consequences of educational change.
• Studies have shown educational change moves through distinctive stages
of initiation, implementation and institutionalization
• It has also shown how people who encounter changes go through
successive “stages of concern” about how those changes will affect them;
and how people respond very differently to educational change initiatives
depending on what point they have reached in their own lives and careers.
How are we coping with current changes?

• Our experiences of educational change today is stretching far beyond our experience,
knowledge and investigations of it in times gone by.

• While the existing knowledge-base of educational change is impressive, it is no longer


really sufficient to address the unique change problems and challenges that educators
confront today.

• Contemporary patterns of educational change present educators with changes that are
multiple, complex and sometimes contradictory.

• The change demands, with which educators have to deal, seem to follow one another at
an increasingly fast speed. Educational organizations have become very chaotic due to
numerous changes at local, regional and international level.
Are there theories to help us face the chaotic,
complex and contradictory environment?
• There are not sufficient theories to address these challenges. This is
because
I. rational theories of planned change that move through predictable stages of
implementation or ‘growth‟ are poorly suited to schools where unexpected
twists and turns are the norm rather than the exception in the ways they
operate.
II. The conventional academic and behavioural outcomes that defined the core of
what an effective school should produce in the past are outdated in an age
where many people now clamour for schools to develop higher-order
thinking skills, problem-solving capacities, and the habits of
collaboration and teamwork.
III. Complex as the world of education is, people expect more and more from it,
and the effective schools of the past cannot deliver what many expect of
schools today.
Are theories sufficient …

Theories and models that helped educators know how (and how not) to
III.
implement single curriculum innovations are of little use to schools where
innovations are multiple and priorities compete.
How can we move forward?
• Not to pay attention to islands of changes in school improvement but to
archipelago of improvement with emphasis on whole school improvement.
• Implementation of a change initiative is important. Of course without the
implementation and a proper one that is, the change initiative will perhaps remain
as an idea, at best. So the tasks of transition are important and how well this is
executed in the process.
• For any change initiative to be accepted in the first place, it should convince the
parties affected that it does have a sound substance. Ideas without substance
are a sure way of facing lots of resistance
1. Staff as implementers
• If the staff finds lack of substance in the idea, they may reject it outright or
show reluctance in various ways if they were to be forced or coerced into
implementing the said change.
• It pays for the change initiators to get the feel of how would the people in
the organisation receive the new change initiative.
2. Setting of the organization
• Is there any capacity building required prior to the initiatives being
introduced?
• Are some organisations ever so zealous in implementing change that they
end up putting the cart before the horse in what may seem as a hasty move
towards achieving the agenda of the change?
• The change initiative may seem to be better accepted and implemented
when the existing capacity in the organization is able to cope with the new
demands.
• We could also have situations whereby people are willing but need some
help in coping with the new techniques or procedures. But organisations with
able staff but reluctant to take on the changes might face a tougher time.
Reflections

Think of a change initiative that has been implemented or


being implemented in your organization.
What are the critical factors that helped in its
implementation or what possibly caused its poor
acceptance among the members of organizations?

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