> 2. Question two covers the relations within the higher ed
> institution. To become a LO requires functioning well as an
> integrated system. Where are higher education's biggest
> weaknesses with this? Greatest strengths?
>From personal experience, integration blocker #1:
At many "top" schools, a prerequisite to tenure and advancement is
being recognized as an outstanding contributor in your field. The
person who wants tenure must author the contribution.
This creates strong incentives for people NOT to work together, but
rather to carve out their own niche [being increasingly reductionist
and narrow, if necessary!]. Then they devote their time and energy
to that niche.
The more faculty 'niche-ify,' the less they communicate. The less
they communicate, the less they learn.
+-> faculty specialization ->
| less use of learning from other fields ->
| less teaching of subjects in holistic context ->
| less demand on students to evolve holistic understanding ->
| more student specialization ->
| less demand for holistic courses --+
| |
+--------------------------------------+
My theory is that the more people's job is specialization, the more
they get trained to think linearly, rather than systemically and
cross-contextually.
Integration blocker #2:
Feelings, emotion, and "right brain" stuff is nonexistent in
academia. When the standard of truth is "hard" scientific or
statistical evidence, feelings are under valued.
[That's one big thing I'm dealing with now... I am working at a
university and even if there's a "soft" concept we want to integrate
into the curriculum, it must be framed and packaged as a hard,
left-brain idea. "It's not an exercise in learning to understand
other people; it's an exercise in gathering the data you'll need to
make a high quality decision.."] Lots of consultants DON'T do this
reframing, and end up losing contracts or making no impact. ]
- Stever
---------------------------------------------------------------
Stever Robbins stever@mit.edu stever@verstek.com
Accept no substitutes! http://www.nlp.com/NLP/stever.html
"You're only young once, but you can be immature forever."