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EDUM 001 REPORT

3. The School as a System


Systems theory provides a way of thinking about physical, biological and social systems (Slee &
Shute, 2003). It has been particularly influential for thinking about child development and family
relationships, but has the potential to be applied to other settings, such as teachers in schools. The
key principle to be taken from systems theory is that of mutual interdependence, or reciprocity,
within and between levels of interaction.
If we consider Bronfenbrenner's (1979, 1989, cited in Berk, 1993) early explanation, systems theory
views the person as operating within a complex system of relationships affected by both the
immediate settings, such as family or school, and broader cultural values and programs. The
following diagram captures the essence of the different levels of a school system, placing the
teacher as the central focus.



(Adapted from Berk, 1993, p. 27)
At the inner circle - the microsystem - is the teacher. This circle encompasses the activities and
interactions in the teacher's immediate surroundings, keeping in mind that all relationships are bi-
directional and reciprocal. At the mesosystem level are the microsystems that connect with each
other, such as other teachers and students' families. The exosystem refers to settings that do not
necessarily contain teachers, but that have an effect upon teachers' lives and work, such as
professional and community organisations. At the outer level are the laws and customs that operate
in society as a whole.

The value of systems theory is that it highlights that interventions at any level of the environment
can affect the system as a whole (Berk, 1993). For example, changes in social values relating to
education at the macro-level may lead to changes in budget allocations at the exo-level, to class size
at the meso-level and to a teacher's workload at the micro-level. In reverse, a teacher's voice at the
micro-level may lead to changes in school policy at the meso-level, to representations to
government and community at the exo-level, and to a change in values at the macro-level. This
highlights another fundamental premise of systems theory - that of change. 'Organisms change and
develop over time, and a key aspect of the theory is that constituent parts may come together to
produce new, emergent properties; the whole is thus more than the sum of its parts' (Slee & Shute,
2003, p. 168).
References
Berk, L. E. (1993). Infants, children and adolescents. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Slee, P. & Shute, R. (2003). Child development: Thinking about theories. London: Hodder Arnold.

4. Equal Educational Opportunity
"There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people."
Thomas Jefferson
The concept of equal educational opportunity should extend to all children, including those
identified as gifted, and provisions should be made to enable each child to reach his/her highest
potential. Equal educational opportunity does not mean providing the same education for every
child but providing the opportunities through which every child can maximize his or her individual
potential. True equality is providing equal opportunity to benefit from education according to ability.
To use the same methods and materials for all children is not providing equal educational
opportunity. Setting expectations too high may frustrate some students and create an environment
for failure. The same is true of a student with high ability who will not reach his/her potential if
required to perform at exactly the same level as all other students.
In the present social, political, and educational systems based upon democratic principles, the
refusal to provide gifted children the right to an educational opportunity appropriate to their level of
development is not acceptable. To assume that one level of educational opportunity meets the
needs of all students is unfair. A variety of learning opportunities at many different levels must be
provided for all children.
When entering the educational system, many gifted children have already developed the basic skills
other students have yet to be taught. Their ideas and interests may be very different from that of
their age peers, and they may begin to develop a sense of isolation or feel different from others.
Because their educational needs are being ignored, many students with giftedness fail to achieve
their potential, set low goals for themselves, and achieve at levels significantly lower than their
intellectual capability. Without access to special resources and intensive instruction early in their
educational experience, the highly gifted are most at risk for under achievement.
Gifted and talented students develop a sense of competence and self-confidence when they are
provided services designated to meet their unique needs. Students with giftedness who receive
special services tend to make significant gains in achievement. They learn to work more effectively
and efficiently and develop strong problem-solving skills. These students absorb a vast amount of
information and utilize this knowledge to produce a variety of possible solutions. They become
producers of knowledge and ideas instead of just consumers.
Loss of talent through educational neglect can be a tragic waste for both the individual and in turn
for society. Students who are gifted and talented have much to contribute to society and in turn can
benefit society by solving a range of complex problems facing humanity today. Society needs these
gifted individuals and needs to expect much from them. As adults, today's gifted students are
needed to play more demanding and innovative roles as humanity faces future complex problems.
Leaders, problem solvers, and complex thinkers are vital for society's progress in this millennium.
The United States Congress recognized the value of these talented individuals in a declaration made
in 1972 (P.L.l 95-561, Title IX, Part A, Section 901):

"The Nation's greatest resource for solving critical national problems in areas of national concern is
its gifted and talented children. Unless the special abilities of gifted and talented children are
developed during their elementary and secondary school years, their special potential for assisting
the Nation may be lost. Furthermore, gifted and talented children from economically disadvantaged
families and areas are often not afforded the opportunity to fulfill their special and valuable
potential, due to inadequate or inappropriate educational services."
Because many students with giftedness do not continue to achieve without attention to their unique
educational needs, the losses of individual potential and the benefits of gifted services are difficult to
calculate. As James Gallagher wrote in 1978,failure to help the gifted child reach his potential is a
societal tragedy, the extent of which is difficult to measure but which is surely great. How can we
measure the sonata unwritten, the curative drug undiscovered, the absence of political insight? They
are the difference between what we are and what we could be as a society."
I. THE SCHOOL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS
We are apt to look at the school from an individualistic standpoint, as something between teacher
and pupil, or between teacher and parent. That which interests us most is naturally the progress
made by the individual child of our acquaintance, his normal physical development, his advance in
ability to read, write, and figure, his growth in the knowledge of geography and history,
improvement in manners, habits of promptness, order, and industryit is from such standards as
these that we judge the work of the school. And rightly so. Yet the range of the outlook needs to be
enlarged. What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want
for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys
our democracy. All that society has accomplished for itself is put, through the agency of the school,
at the disposal of its future members. All its better thoughts of itself it hopes to realize through the
new possibilities thus opened to its future self. Here individualism and socialism are at one. Only by
being true to the full growth of all the individuals who make it up, can
society by any chance be true to itself. And in the self-direction thus given, nothing counts as much
as the school, for, as Horace Mann said, "Where anything is growing, one former is worth a thousand
re-formers."
Whenever we have in mind the discussion of a new movement in education, it is especially
necessary to take the broader, or social, view. Otherwise, changes in the school institution and
tradition will be looked at as the arbitrary inventions of particular teachers; at the worst transitory
fads, and at the best merely improvements in certain detailsand this is the plane upon which it is
too customary to consider school changes. It is as rational to conceive of the locomotive or the
telegraph as personal devices. The modification going on in the method and curriculum of education
is as much a product of the changed social situation, and as much an effort to meet the needs of the
new society that is forming, as are changes in modes of industry and commerce.
It is to this, then, that I especially ask your attention: the effort to conceive what roughly may be
termed the "New Education" in the light of larger changes in society. Can we connect this "New
Education" with the general march of events? If we can, it will lose its isolated character ; it will
cease to be an affair which proceeds only from the over-ingenious minds of pedagogues
dealing with particular pupils. It will appear as part and parcel of the whole social evolution, and, in
its more general features at least, as inevitable. Let us then ask after the main aspects of the social
movement; and afterward turn to the school to find what witness it gives of effort to put itself in
line. And since it is quite impossible to cover the whole ground, I shall for the most part confine
myself to one typical thing in the modem school movementthat which passes under the name of
manual traininghoping if the relation of that to changed social conditions appears, we shall be
ready to concede the point as well regarding other educational innovations.

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