0.2 Part 3: behavioral strategies and observable behaviors  (Page 3/3)

Phase 4: Expand

1. Gradually expand the successful initiatives created for Phases 1 and 2 to include more programs within each school systems with the goal of achieving a tipping point for the initiatives adopted in #9 so that they will displace the old paradigms and their mental models.

Phase 5: Tip

1. Replicate the above process in an increasing number of school systems. Use educators from transformed school districts as emissaries and advocates of the new paradigm and its mental models. This action employs Gardner’s (2004) resonance lever.

Phase 6: Shift

1. Always keep in mind that the paradigm-shifting goal is to reach a tipping point in the field of education (about 25% of all school systems) that will then trigger a cascade of school systems shifting rapidly to the new paradigms, which will be perceived as a sudden and dramatic revolution in thinking, believing, and doing.

Conclusion

The terms paradigm, mental models, and mindsets are commonly used in the area of school improvement. The terms are often used as synonyms; but I believe they are not synonymous. Although not synonymous, they are interconnected and they are mutually reinforced in ways that forge stiff resistance to new ways of thinking about teaching and learning, new ways of designing the internal social infrastructure of school systems, new ways of managing relationships with external stakeholders, and new ways of creating and sustaining change. This article described why I think these phenomena are distinct, but interconnected; how they influence thinking, believing, and doing; and, how to change them.

As described in this article, a paradigm is a set of theories, beliefs, assumptions, and so on, that drive an entire profession. This seems to be the way that Thomas Kuhn (1962) first used the term to describe the phenomena that significantly influenced the hard sciences of which he was a part. There are, I believe, four dominant paradigms driving school system performance and improvement:

• Paradigm 1: group-based, classroom-situated teaching and learning and command and control support services (core and support work).
• Paradigm 2: bureaucratic organization design , organization culture, reward systems, and so on (internal social infrastructure).
• Paradigm 3: reactive, crisis-oriented relationships with external stakeholders.
• Paradigm 4: incremental, school-based, piecemeal change.

Mental models are created to support the four dominant paradigms. For example, the mental model of group-based, classroom-situated teaching and learning was created to support the Industrial Age paradigm for educating children. When mental models are used frequently and relatively successfully they are reinforced and educators develop hardened attitudes (mindsets) about the value and effectiveness of the paradigms and mental models.

Mindsets are attitudes hardened by beliefs and values. Mindsets about the four controlling paradigms and their mental models influence educators’ willingness to consider new ideas. If their mindsets are hammered solidly into their hearts and minds, they will resist new ideas that challenge their paradigm and mental models. Therefore, any effort to create and sustain frame-breaking transformational change must first focus on opening the hearts and minds of educators so they become willing to consider new ways of teaching and learning, new ways of designing the internal social infrastructure of their school systems, new ways of interacting with external stakeholders, and new ways of creating and sustaining change.

The controlling paradigms and their mental models influence mindsets. The paradigms, mental models, and mindsets, in turn, influence the design or selection of behavioral strategies that guide educators’ performance in their systems. When implemented the behavioral strategies create observable behavior.

When the behaviors are successful and if they are clearly aligned with the dominant paradigms and mental models, educators are rewarded. The rewards stimulate intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to continue thinking, believing, and doing things in ways that are aligned with the dominant paradigm and mental models. This creates an anti-change immune system within individuals, groups, and entire school districts.

The power of dominant paradigms and their concomitant mental models and mindsets should not be underestimated. These phenomena are significant sources of resistance to ordinary change. They are turbo-charged resistors when confronted with proposals for transformational paradigm change.