Foundations and It Starts with Me - Research Paper Example

Foundations and It Starts with Me The foundation that could have the most impact in my educational community Senge, in an attempt to improve learningorganization, describes five foundations that have great effect on a learning community. These foundations include personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, and system thinking (Swanson & Holton, 2001). If these foundations are well practiced, they influence an education community differently. The one that would have most impact in my learning community is system thinking.

According to Lentz (2010, p. 227), “system thinking is a conceptual framework, a body of knowledge, and tools developed to make patterns clearer.” This could make the learning process used by my educational community to be more systematic. Moreover, this foundation would reduce the complexity of educational activities undertaken by this learning community. As a result, this foundation would have the most impact in this educational community. Introducing the foundation suggested above to my educational communityIntroduction of this foundation in this educational community is a challenging task.

This is because the educational community consists of several people with different abilities and roles. Several ways exist that can be used to introduce this foundation in an educational community. One of them is thinking processes involved in learning to educational activities. This method has been identified as an effective way of introducing system thinking among individuals involved in the learning process (Tilbury & Wartman, 2004). This could be done using thinking projects. If thinking projects and activities undertaken by educators and students were linked, the educators and students would be required to employ systematic thinking in the process of learning.

This would have introduced system-thinking foundation to our learning community. As a result, the learning process in this community would be greatly improved. Action taken towards building personal masteryBuilding personal mastery among individuals in an educational community is essential. Senge describes building personal mastery as deepening personal vision, focusing energies, developing patience, and viewing reality objectively (Green & Stonkosky, 2010). This requires action to be taken. The action to take in building personal mastery in my educational community is encouraging members of this educational community to apply their creativity in the learning organization.

This could be done by use of motivational tools and other incentives. These motivational tools and incentives would be employed to both educators and students. It is suspected that this would encourage individual’s creativity thus deepen their personal vision and increase their focusing energy. As a result, personal mastery as described by Senge will have been built. Predict the outcome the action stated above Success of the action stated above depends on several factors. Some of the factors are type of motivational tools and incentives chosen and the characteristics of individuals in this educational community.

These two factors would greatly affect the people around this educational community. Educators would need to be cautious in handling these factors. Students would also need to bring out their suggestions on how these factors could be handled. If the action is well implemented it would have a positive outcome on both the students and educators in my learning environment. This would be through promoting personal mastery among individuals in this learning community. Moreover, the action would have improved the learning organization thus improving the learning process in this learning environment.

ReferencesGreen, A., & Stankosky, M. (2010). In Search of Knowledge Management: Pursuing Primary Principles. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.Lentz, C. A. (2010). The Reflective Thinker: Ethics, Leadership, and Globalization, Volume 4. Las Vegas, NV: The Refractive Thinker Press.Swanson, R. A., & Holton, E. F. (2001). Foundations of Human Resource Development. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.Tilbury, D., & Wortman, D. (2004). Engaging People in Sustainability. Cambridge: International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.