The Fifth Discipline

Jennifer ServissEDTC 625

August 21, 2014

IntroductionPeter Senge believes that there are five new component technologies are gradually converging in innovate learning organizations. Each provides a vital dimension in building organizations that can truly learn that can continually enhance their capacity to realize their highest aspirations (Senge, 1990).

Systems Thinking

Personally Mastery

Mental Models

Building Shared vision

Team Learning

The Five Disciplines

Shared Vision: A shared vision is what you and the other members want to create or accomplish as part of the organization. A shared vision is not imposed by one or a few people as an organizational mandate.

Mental Models: Ideas that individuals have deeply ingrained in assumptions, generalizations, that influence how we understand the world and how we take action.

Personal Mastery: Personal mastery is the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively

Team Learning: Team learning focuses on the abilities of a group working together. It involves the interaction of people learning from each other as well as from the task at hand.

Systems Thinking: Systems thinking utilizes habits, tools and concepts to develop an understanding of the interdependent structures of dynamic systems (Senge, 1990).

UDL

UDL and Shared Vision

UDL provides a blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that work for everyone--not a single, one-size-fits-all solution but rather flexible approaches that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs.

The researcher for this project utilized UDL for the purpose of having students improve on their fluency by creating a voice thread with the use of an application. The shared vision for this project would be student growth and improvement. Utilizing a different approach opposed to having students read out loud and not hearing how and what they have read.

UDL and Mental Models

Education should help turn novice learners into expert learners—individuals who want to learn, who know how to learn strategically, and who, in their own highly individual and flexible ways, are well prepared for a lifetime of learning.

As a mental model this allows the students to work in teams and create a learning environment which students can create a mental model of positive interactions for students.

UDL and Personal Mastery

Personal Mastery and the ability to set a goal go hand in hand. The goal of the UDL project was to increase fluency. Every student had a number to obtain for their own Personal Mastery. This data was retrieved through a pre-assessment that was administered prior to the group lesson was administered.

UDL and Team Learning

Student s for this UDL project were broken into teams. They were coded based on their individual needs. The fluency paper was administered whereas each student had their own different reading assessment. The students each had their own data that showed where they are and where they need to be. The worked as a team with individual feedback provided by their peers and by their own self-reflection.

UDL and Systems Thinking

Regarding Systems Thinking the researcher knows the strategic plan for the district. The fluency rate for the district is at an all time low. This method allowed students to achieve an attainable result. The district noted the improvement with this method regarding these students who have special needs and are ESL learners.

Constructivism and Shared VisionThe use of animation and multimedia for learning is now further extended by the provision of entire Virtual Reality Learning Environments (VRLE) (Huang, Rauch, & Liaw, 2010)

Google Cardboard is a VR tool that is constructed for the purpose of utilizing Virtual Reality. The researcher suggested that the construction of these devices will allow the learners to visit virtual field trips. This shared vision allows users to go places that can create a learning environment that are financially appropriate for the district.

Constructivism and Team LearningLearners working in an Afterschool

Technology Club on the construction of the Google Cardboard can create a learning team whereas the teacher becomes the facilitator of the project while the students become the learners.

Constructivism and Personal

MasteryOnce a goal has been created, whereas the students will construct a VR headset, the completed project allows learners to feel accomplished through personal mastery. This gives the students the sense of self accomplishment and individual pride. In the end they then becomes the masters of the creative project and it allows others to learn from them.

Constructivism and Systems

ThinkingConstructing ones own knowledge through building something creates system thinking. This allows the learners to create and become critical thinkers within a system of knowledge. In the end a much larger system is put into place which includes the district, the state and society.

Constructivism and Mental

ModelsWhen interacting with our environment, we form internal mental models of ourselves, others, and the artifacts of technology with which we interact (Norman, 1983).

Creating a Google Cardboard allows the students to create a mental model of the artifact to interact through the Virtual World in which they choose to view.

Flipped Classroom and Shared VisionThe Flipped Classroom started with a simple observation: Students need their teachers present to answer questions or to provide help if they get stuck on an assignment; they don’t need their teachers present to listen to a lecture or review content (Bergmann & Sams, 2012).

The shared vision is that the teacher becomes the facilitator of instruction whereas the students become independent learners. This vision is needed for students to become self-learners. The researcher proposed a flipped MakerSpace by which all participants would create three separate projects based on microcontrollers.

Flipped Classroom and Mental

ModelsThe researcher suggested a Flipped MakerSpace to learn about Microcontrollers and to create projects with the use of Aurdinos.

This type of learning creates a mental model of what the learner expectations are prior to being in the MakerSpace itself. This gives the learners the ability to create a mental model of what would be taught.

Flipped Classroom and Personal

MasteryIn a Flipped Classroom environment students attain personal mastery by creating the specified projects that are intended for the sole purpose of the MakerSpace. The leader then creates an environment conducive to learning, tracks the progress and then assists in individual needs.

Flipped Classroom and Team LearningImplementing videos for instructional

purposes offers the students to collaborate in a team learning environment. The flipped MakerSpace would offer learners to not only learn from the instructor but also learn from each other in a team learning environment.

Flipped Classroom and Systems

ThinkingFlipped MakerSpace allows individuals to gain problem solving skills. These skills are necessary when it comes to systems thinking.

ConclusionThe three projects that the researcher created for this course can all be connected to the five disciplines that Senge speaks of.

These theories can assist a teacher in clarifying their goals on both a person level and that of their students. Self-reflection and self-evaluation allows us all to overcome obstacles and grow to create new futures.

Referenceshttp://watersfoundation.org/systems-thinking/what/

http://2012-leadership-forum.iste.wikispaces.net/file/view/ISTE+Leadership+conference+10202012.pdf

http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/whatisudl

http://www.udlcenter.org/implementation/fourdistricts

Huang, H. M., Rauch, U., & Liaw, S. S. (2010). Investigating learners’ attitudes toward virtual reality learning environments: Based on a constructivist approach. Computers & Education, 55(3), 1171-1182.

Referenceshttp://www.cnet.com/news/googles-cardboard-vr-headset-is-no-joke-its-great-for-the-oculus-rift/

Norman, D. (1983). Some observations on mental models. In D. Gentner & A. Stevens (Eds.), Mental models. (pp. 7-14). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Senge, P. M. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Doubleday/Currency.