Date of Submission
8-8-2021
Document Type
OIP
Degree
Doctor of Education
Department
Education
Keywords
learning culture, cognitively diverse, innovative, agile thinking, continuous improvement, dual operating system
Abstract
This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) addresses the problem of practice (PoP) of how leaders in the International School of Central Eastern Europe (a pseudonym) elementary school might foster and sustain a cognitively diverse and inclusive learning culture that promotes innovative and agile thinking. The plan is theory-based, research-informed, and looks to transfer learning into practice. It is built on a foundation of social constructivism and pragmatic-idealism and is firmly grounded in constructivist, ethical, and distributed leadership. Contextually oriented, the PoP grew in response to the need for schools to re-envision teaching and learning so students can thrive in an ever-changing, globalized society. It views change through continuous improvement. Bound by time constraints and the desire to empower faculty to lead change, an integrative approach was generated. The OIP intertwines an eight-step process with the organization’s inquiry cycle and key principles focused on maintaining a strengths-based approach to change. The framework connects the traditional hierarchy with a network structure. The dual operating system supports the cultivation of self-efficacy and collective efficacy fostering innovation in support of continuous change that focuses on improving teaching and learning. The resulting integrative framework, the accelerated improvement cycle, will be leveraged within the elementary division. The implementation of this approach will engage participants in reflective, reciprocal learning opportunities that encourage members to challenge one another’s assumptions to bring about positive, meaningful, and sustainable change. A critical examination of policy and the impact of the school’s dominantly Western philosophy and a workforce that does not personify the underrepresented minorities requires future investigation.
Recommended Citation
Zavits, K. (2021). Fostering and Sustaining an Inclusive and Cognitively Diverse Learning Culture that Promotes Innovative and Agile Thinking. The Organizational Improvement Plan at Western University, 205. Retrieved from https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/oip/205