Incremental vs Conceptual Change

I recently heard Mary Cullinane give a keynote address at the Learning Forward Summer Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. One of her key points that stuck with me was regarding change in the education system. She used the example of ATMs to illustrate the difference between incremental and conceptual innovation. The implementation of ATMs was a conceptual change from tellers, whereas the change to deposit a cheque without having to input information into the ATM is an incremental change. It is different, but it is more of a slight process change, it doesn’t require a whole different mindset. If you understand the solution, it is incremental. If you understand the problem, it is conceptual.

Most of the change that has occurred in education in the past few decades has been incremental, where there has been tweaking and other changes, but it more or less is the same as it was fifty years ago (at least as a generalization). Students are in desks, usually in rows and most of the learning is teacher directed, especially for upper elementary and higher. Although most of these changes have been good, they haven't really been enough, based on how different the students that we see in our classrooms today are. What we need to happen is conceptual change. For this, we need a better understanding of the problems in education. This is not an easy task, it is a huge undertaking, but if we want to make a real difference, that is what needs to be done.

Some of the necessary conditions that Cullinane outlined are:

·        People maintain a tight connection between new technology and education value.

·        People aren’t bound by the traditional constraints of their industry or market, encourage innovation.

·        People don’t face career destruction if an idea fails; it cannot be a punitive environment.

·        People should have clear and direct incentives for success.

What resonated with me the most was the idea that people should feel safe to make educated mistakes.  If we don’t allow this, people will not take responsible risks, which is how we can get further down the road to conceptual change in education.

Based on the keynote presentation at Learning Forward 2011, by Mary Cullinane - July 19, 2011 - Indianapolis, Indiana

Mr. Bean on Educational Change

It's amazing the places that you can learn about educational change, especially if you look at things from a different perspective. At a recent conference, we were tasked with discussing how the clip of Mr. Bean at the swimming pool could be a metaphor for educational change.

At first, Mr. Bean attempts to use the small slide, scaffolding his 'learning' by starting small, only to be stymied by the lifeguard. Whitaker (2003) writes about how great principals influence change in their schools, "effective leaders don’t waste their time or energy trying to persuade everyone that the new system will work better than the old. Instead, they provide a scaffolding of procedures and techniques that helps the timid to feel secure. They structure the change so that the reluctant do not have the option to balk or turn back."The life guard would be an ineffective principal, for not allowing the scaffolding, or encouraging Bean to move to the smaller platform. After his lack of support, Bean feels that he is so far behind, that he must do something drastic such as the highest diving platform, in order to 'catch-up'. Sometimes we as teachers may feel this way, that the only way to make change is to do something fairly extreme. For some, it might look like an easy thing 'from the bottom of the ladder', which can be the cause for the drastic change.

As can be predicted by many of our own experiences and observations of educational change, Mr. Bean does not have much success with the diving platform. In fact, when the two boys reach the top behind him and he clearly is not capable of jumping on his own, he deals with it with bluff and bravado. The last thing he would want is for someone to think that he doesn't know what he is doing or is incapable of doing it. Too often, when educators are trying something new, they attempt it alone and are wary of letting anybody know that they are struggling and could use some help or support.

Another metaphor that was suggested is the fact that Bean continues to 'hang on', despite the fact that it clearly is not working. There are many educators who are 'hanging on' to something that needs to be released. For some, this is a certain text book or novel, for others it may be using an overhead projector or a certain reading program. Some of us teachers will 'let go' on our own, but others, like Bean, will need someone to push (or stomp) us to do it.

Finally, we all need to do a few belly flops along the way to making successful educational change.

There are many more metaphors that could be taken from this video clip and I encourage you to share any that you may make by commenting below.

Whitaker, T. (2003). What great principals do differently: Fifteen things that matter most. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.

Based on the presentation "The Keys to Being a Successful Principal" by Del Litke and Kurt Sacher at Leading for Learning, July 8, 2011 (Olds, Alberta)