Part 1: paradigms, mental models, and mindsets in-use  (Page 3/8)

What makes paradigm-shifting in education even more challenging is that there are, I believe, four paradigms that must change:

Paradigm 1 : the way teachers teach and how kids learn (shift from group-based, teacher-centered instruction to personalized learner-centered instruction); and, the way support services are designed, managed, and delivered (designed to assure that they are aligned with the requirements of personalized learning);

Paradigm 2 : the design of the internal social infrastructure of school systems (shift from an authoritarian, bureaucratic organization design to a collaborative, democratic design; and, transform organization culture, the reward system, job descriptions, and so on, to align with the requirements of personalized learning);

Paradigm 3 : the way school systems interact with external stakeholders (move from a crisis-oriented, reactive approach to an opportunity-seizing proactive approach);

Paradigm 4 : educators’ approach to change (shift from piecemeal change strategies to whole-system change strategies).

However, if we want to get the entire profession of education to adopt four new paradigms this will require moving educators and policymakers toward a tipping point where the required changes gain unstoppable momentum. The field of change management suggests that tipping points are reached when about 25% of a population enthusiastically embraces proposed changes (Jones&Brazzel, 2006, p. 346; Rogers, 1995). Since there are more than 14,000 school systems in America, more than 3,500 of them would need to embrace the four new paradigms and their related mental models in order to reach a tipping point that would create and sustain the four required paradigm shifts in the field of education. Impossible? No. Challenging? Extraordinarily so!

Paradigms, mental models, and mindsets: the rock-solid foundation of resistance to change

The literature on systemic change frequently includes information on paradigms, mental models, and mindsets. The distinctions among these three phenomena, however, are not clear and it is easy to become confused trying to sort out the meaning and importance of each one. I offer an interpretation of what these phenomena mean to me, why they are important, and how to change them. Having a clear understanding of their meaning, importance, and changeability is very important because as a single phenomenon each one is a powerful barrier to transformational change. As an interconnected triad, these phenomena can become an insurmountable and impenetrable barrier to change.

I am proposing that paradigms, mental models and mindsets are tightly intertwined, but different. I also believe they interact to influence educators’ behavioral strategies for how to succeed within their profession and in their school systems. The behavioral strategies result in observable behaviors that represent the core tenets of the controlling paradigm, mental models, and mindsets. These three phenomena, therefore, represent theories of action for how to succeed within a profession, within a school district, within a team, and as an individual.