Layla’s take-aways from Systems Thinking

I have struggled with the issues lying behind the Education System in China. The contributors are not just government, educators and students, also include parents. Given the natures of a communist society, the “parents” also means the grandparents and relatives of the family. In another word, everyone is serving the “organization” of the education system and making contributions. Reflecting on the knowledge of systems thinking, I decided to post my realization of “worms” in “organization” of the education system and the possible ways to deal with the issues.

1. Level one: “Today’s problems come from yesterday’s solutions. ” (Atha, 2018, para 5)

Fifty years ago, China just got rid of poverty and moved the focus to education. At that time, the educational slogan was “producing identical nails for the entire machine” and lasted for decades. The collective goal of the education system was to make sure the students reached the relatively same academic level after graduation from high school or university. It was the fastest and most convenient way to fulfil the empty positions in the job market, such as workers of factories and assistants in the mall.

Now, those students growing up with the mindset of being a nail in the society have become educators, parents, managers in organizations, and leaders in the education system. They bring the merits from the old days, perseverance and emphasizing academic performance, and require the children to be low-key during school years. But the children in the current age also suffer a higher level of fierce competition and greater expectations with the desire to be individualized. Therefore, the education environment is not friendly to the young generations and puts seemingly political-correct pressure on them. In another word, the students should be identically normal and have the spirit of sacrifice in schools, yet with distinctively inspired thoughts when they are working.

2. Level two: There is no one to blame (Senge, 2006).

Applying System Thinking to the education system, I found out we were all wrong about the “enemy”. Senge (2006) brings to light “We tend to blame outside circumstances for our problems” (p. 65). Chinese parents and educators are accustomed to blaming the whole society and education system when feeling helpless in making changes. Therefore, the majority of people convince themselves they have no choice and keep adopting the traditional parenting and teaching norms. We should realize our negative thinking and action will not improve the educational situation, and it is us should stand up and take responsibility to make the change happen in the future. Also, the blind accusation also creates gaps between crafting strategic changes for the education system and executing the strategies (Lepsinger, 2010).

3. Level three: The Education System lack the capacity of self-organization. 

Self-organization is the capacity for a system to keep learning, diversifying,  complexifying, and evolving (Meadows, 2008). Partly due to the will of the political party, the Education System stays simple, and the thinking modes imparted to students are single. Basically, there is only one top priority in students’ life: achieving higher and higher grades for all subjects from elementary schools to universities. Besides, both teachers and parents keep nagging about the importance of academic performance to them. Therefore, Chinese students, although with impressive transcripts, commonly lack innovation and the desire to be creative when they move into the workplace. Clearly, the self-organizing capacities “are sacrificed for short-term productivity and stability” which are the “usual excuses for turning creative human beings into mechanical adjuncts to production processes” (Meadows, 2008, p. 87).

4. Level four: The giant elephant in the education room – negativity

In our team discussion concerning the issues of the education systems in different cultures, I found the problem of negativity was one of the few we shared. Although the negativities may come from various aspects, the set of negativities are the bad weeds which indeed need to be rooted out from the school culture (DuFour & Burnette, 2002).

Unlike the Western education system, we solely focus on the results. This overarching intention creates all kinds of negativities in the relationship between teachers and students, the relationship between teachers and parents, and the relationship between parents and children. For example, the teachers will post the rank after each exam in the parents’ group and publicly criticize the parents whose children get lower grades. In turn, the parents accuse their children for feeling insulted and dissatisfied. Consequently, the students suffer the negative emotions and pressure from both teachers and parents. One detrimental result of this vicious chain is the mental health issues found after the children have grown up.

Then, what can we do to improve these terrible situations?

1. Step one: Seeking collaborations within the education system.

There are several reasons can illustrate the significance of creating a collaborate community to make a change in the education system. First, “systems cannot be fully perceived with one set of eyes” (Atha, 2018, para 33). The more perspectives we can collect, the more ideas and understanding we can grasp for the big picture. Second, the collaboration could function as teams to make changes, such as making logical analysis and comparisons to testify the necessity of changing the focus of the entire education system. It is much better than striving individually to make an improvement, and there would be a greater influence as well. Third, the collaboration can provide faith and confidence for the people who want to improve the education situation. Making changes takes time, and people can gain strength from the collaboration.

2. Step two: Creating a shared vision and mental model within the teams.

Senge states “A correct understanding of who we are will enable us to visualize where to go and how to develop further” (Zeeman, 2017, para 7). Moreover, a shared mental model can make every team members clear about the common vision, mission, and value and align their behaviours with them (Lepsinger, 2010). The critical point for building a shared vision is to well balance the organization’s vision with the individual’s vision (Zeeman, 2017). The overarching goal for the education system “organization” is to promote academic performance; the desired vision of educators is to see their students become competitive and creative for the future; the vision of students is to relatively reduce the pressure they are taking and confidently show their individuality. The best way to reach a shared vision is to help all of them realize the profound influence of long-term results and properly comprise the short-term academic performance.

3. Step three: The educators should walk the talk and become life-long learners.

I believe the most vital thing for teachers and especially parents is to become the model for children. If a teacher wants to preach about the benefit of learning to students, he or she should be qualified to say that. If the parents want to cultivate good learning habits for their children, they have to demonstrate first. Furthermore, the more we have learnt, the deeper we understand the grades and academic performance are not the only way for the students to survive in the future. Consequently, the pressure circulating in the vicious chain can be reduced, and all teachers, parents, and students could be less negative towards learning.

References

Atha, D. (2018). Systems Thinking.  Course Learning Notes. Retrieved from https://create.twu.ca/ldrs501/unit-3-learning-activities/

DuFour, R., & Burnette, B. (2002). Pull Out Negativity by Its Roots. Journal of Staff Development, 23(3), 27-30.

Lepsinger, R. (2010). Closing the execution gap: How great leaders and their companies get results. John Wiley & Sons.

Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in systems: A primer. Chelsea Green Publishing.

Senge, P. (2006). The fifth discipline. New York: Doubleday.

Zeeman, A. (2017). Senge’s Five Disciplines of Learning Organizations. Retrieved from ToolsHero: https://www.toolshero.com/management/five-disciplines-learning-organizations/