第1章教育技术的历史与基本理论§6.doc

6 A Systems View of Education教育系统观Systems inquiry and systems applications have been applied in the worlds of business and industry, in information technology, in the health services, in architecture and engineering, and in environmental issues. However, in educationexcept for a narrow application in instructional technologysystems inquiry is highly under-conceptualized and underutilized, and it is often manifested in misdirected applications. 系统调查和系统应用在工商业界、信息技术、健康服务、建筑工程、环境方面得到了广泛的运用。然而，在教育界除了在教学技术领域小范围的应用外系统调查还处于高度的未充分概念化和未充分利用的状态，并且事实显示系统调查方法经常被错误地应用。With very few exceptions, systems philosophy, systems theory, and systems methodology as subjects of study and applications are not yet on the agenda of our educational professional development programs. And, as a rule, capability in systems inquiry is not yet in the inventory of our educational research community. 几乎没有例外，作为学习和应用的学科，系统哲学、系统理论和系统方法论还没有列到教育专业发展项目的日程中来。并且，通常情况下，系统调查的作用也没有列入我们教育研究领域的目录里。It is my firm belief that unless our educational communities and our educational professional organizations embrace systems inquiry, and unless our research agencies learn to pursue systems inquiry, the notions of “systemic” reform and “systemic approaches” to educational renewal will remain hollow and meaningless buzzwords. 但我确信我们的教育团体和教育专家组织会认同系统调查的作用，我们的研究机构会贯彻系统调查，否则，教育复兴的“整体化”改革和“整体化视角”仍是空洞的，是毫无意义的空喊。The notion of systems inquiry enfolds large sets of concepts that constitute principles, common to all kinds of systems. 系统调查观念包含大量组成原理的概念，这是所有类型系统的共同点。Acquiring a “systems view of education” means that we learn to think about education as a system, we can understand and describe it as a system, we can put the systems view into practice and apply it in educational inquiry, and we can design education so that it will manifest systemic behavior. 要获得一个“教育系统观”意味着我们要学会把教育看成一个系统，我们能够把它作为一个系统来理解和描述，我们能够在实践中和教育调查中运用系统观，而且我们能设计教学让它显示整体化功效。Once we individually and collectively develop a systems view, thenand only thencan we become“systemic” in our approach to educational reform, only then can we apply the systems view to the re-conceptualization and redefinition of education as a system, and only then can we engage in the design of systems that will nurture learning and enable the full development of human potential. 一旦我们单独地和共同地形成了一种系统观，只有那时，我们的教育改革方式才变得“整体化”，我们才能应用系统观重新概念化和重新定义教育这个系统，也只有那个时候，我们才能致力于系统设计以促进学习和全面开发人类的潜能。During the past decade, we have applied systems thinking and the systems view in human and social systems. As a result we now have a range of systems models and methods that enable us to work creatively and successfully with education as a complex social system. We have organized these models and methods in four complementary domains of organizational inquiry (Banathy, 1988) as follows: 过去的十年中，我们在人类和社会系统里应用了系统思想和系统观。于是，现在我们有了一系列的系统模式和方法，可以使我们在教育这个复杂的社会系统中创造性地、成功地完成工作。我们已把这些模式和方法组织成了如下四个互补的组织调查领域：The systems analysis and description of educational systems by the application of three systems models: the systems environment, functions/structure, and process/behavioral models; Systems design, conducting comprehensive design inquiry with the use of design models, methods, and tools appropriate to education; Implementation of the design by systems development and institutionalization; Systems management and the management of change. 通过运用三个系统模式系统环境、功能/结构和过程/行动模式来系统分析和描述教育系统； 系统设计，通过运用适于教育的设计模式、方法和工具进行综合的设计调查；通过系统开发和制度化来实施设计；系统管理和变革管理。Figure 1 depicts the relational arrangement of the four domains of organizational inquiry. In the center of the figure is the integrating clusterthe core values, core ideas, and organizing perspectives constitute bases for both the development of the inquiry approach and the decisions we make in the course of the inquiry. 图 1 显示了组织调查的四个领域之间的位置关系。图的中央是整合群核心价值、核心思想和组织观点，它们既构成了开发调查方法的基础，也构成了调查过程中所做决定的基础。Three Models That Portray Education as a System 把教育作为系统来描绘的三个模式Systems-Environment Model. The use of the systems-environment model enables us to describe an educational system in the context of its community and the larger society. 系统环境模式。运用系统环境模式使得我们能在教育界和更大的社团背景下描述教育系统。The concepts and principles that are pertinent to this model help us define systems-environment relationships, interactions, and mutual interdependencies. A set of inquiries, built into the model, guide the user to make an assessment of the environmental responsiveness of the system and, conversely, the adequacy of the responsiveness of the environment toward the system. 与这个模式相关的观点和原理能够帮助我们定义系统与环境的关系，是相互作用和相互依赖的关系。基于这个模式建立的一系列调查，可以指导使用者评估系统对环境的响应，反过来，也可以指导使用者评估环境对系统的响应是否适当。Functions/Structure Model. The use of the functions/structure model focuses our attention on what the educational system is at a given moment of time. 功能/结构模式。功能/结构模式的运用使我们把注意力集中于某个特定时间教育系统是什么的问题上。It projects a “still-picture” image of the system, it enables us to (a) describe the goals of the system (that elaborate the purposes that emerged from the systems-environment model), (b) identify the functions that have to be carried out to attain the goals, (c) select the components (of the system) that have the capability to carry out the functions, and (d) formulate the relational arrangements of the components that constitute the structure of the system.它拟出了系统的“静态”图像，能帮助我们（a）描述系统的目标（细化了出现在系统环境模式中的目标），（b）识别为达到目标而应执行的功能，（c）选择能够执行这个功能的（系统的）组成部分，（d）阐明组成系统结构的各部分的排列关系。A set of inquiries are built into the model that guide the user to probe into the function/structure adequacy of the system. 基于此模式建立的一系列调查可以指导使用者探索系统功能/结构的适当性。Process/Behavioral Model. The use of the process/behavioral model helps us to concentrate our inquiry on what the educational system does through time. 过程/行动模式。运用过程/行动模式可以帮助我们集中调查教育系统随着时间的推移究竟做了什么。It projects a “motion-picture” image of the system and guides us in understanding how the system behaves as a changing and living social system; how it (a) receives, screens, assesses, and processes input; (b) transforms input for use in the system; 它给出了系统的“动态”图像，指导我们理解一个不断变化的、有生命的系统是怎么运转的；它怎样（a）接收、反应、评估和加工输入；（b）转换输入以被系统所用；(c) engages in transformation operations by which to produce the expected output; (d) guides the transformation operations; (e) processes the output and assesses its adequacy. （c）进行转化操作以产生期望输出结果；（d）指导转化操作；（e）加工输出并评估它的适用性。The model incorporates a set of inquiries that guides the user to evaluate the systems from a process perspective.这个模式结合了一系列调查，可以指导使用者从过程的角度来评估系统。 What is important for us to understand is that no single model can provide us with a true representation of an educational system. Only if we consider the three models jointly can we capture a comprehensive image of education as a social system. 对于我们非常重要而且需要理解的一点是，没有一个单一的模式能够完全真实地代表一个教育系统。只有综合考虑这三个模式，我们才能获得教育作为一个社会系统的全面印象。Systems Design: The New Imperative in Education 系统设计：教育中的新需要There is a growing awareness that our current design of education is out of sync with the new realities of the information/knowledge era. We now call for a metamorphosis of education. It has become clear to many of us that educational inquiry should not focus on the improvement of existing systems. 人们日益意识到我们目前的教育设计与新的现实信息时代/知识时代是不同步的。我们呼吁一次教育的变革。我们中很多人已清醒地认识到，教育调查不应集中在对现存系统的改进上。Staying within the existing boundaries of education constrains and delimits perception and locks us into prevailing practices.囿于在现有的教育领域内，会拘束与限定我们的观念，把自己封闭在普遍的实践中。At best, improvement or restructuring of the existing system can attain some marginal adjustment of an educational design that is still rooted in the perceptions and practices of the 19th-century machine age. 改进与调整现有的系统至多只能获得一些教育设计的边缘调整，这些教育设计仍植根于 19 世纪机器时代的观念与实践中。But adjusting a designrooted in an outdated imagecreates far more problems than it solves. We have already found this out. 但是调整一个植根于过时年代的设计，会产生远比它所能解决的更多的问题，我们早已察觉了这一点。The escalating rhetoric of educational reform has created high expectations, but the realities of improvement efforts have not delivered on those expectations. 逐步升级的对于教育改革的浮夸使人们对教育改革产生了过高的期望，但是努力改进的真实情况并没有实现这种期望。Improving what we have now does not lead to any significant results, regardless of how much money and effort we invest in it. 不管我们投进多少资金与努力，改进我们现有的系统不会产生任何重大的成效。Our educational communitiesincluding our Educational Technology Communityhave reached a juncture in our journey toward educational-renewal. We can continue to travel on the well-known road of our past and present practices with some attention paid to improving the road, so that we can travel faster. 我们的教育界包括我们的教育技术界已经走到了教育复兴进程中的关键时刻。我们可以继续沿着过去熟知的路走，并且在实践中对这条路进行改进，这样，我们可以走得更快一些。We can even restructure the schedules, the programs of the journey. None of these adjustments will make much difference. Or we can take the risk of choosing the less-traveled road so that we can make a difference in the education of this nation and in the development of our society. 我们甚至可以调整进度表和旅途的计划，所有这些调整都没有大的差别。或者我们可以冒险选择一条捷径，以使我们在国家教育和社会发展上有所改变。But taking the less-traveled road, we must transcend our old ways of thinking and develop new ways. We must reframe our mindset from problem focus to solution focus. We must unload the baggage of our past practices, and must learn new ones. 但是选择走捷径，我们必须超越老的思维方式，发展一些新的方式。我们必须重新构架我们的思维体系，从以问题为中心转变到以解决问题为中心。我们必须卸下过去实践的包袱，学习新的知识。The new thinking is systems thinking; the new mindset is a systems view of education; and the new practice is the application of systems design. 这个新的思想就是系统思想；新的思维体系就是教育系统观；新的实践就是应用系统设计。These are the prerequisites of a purposeful and viable creation of new organizational capacities and individual and collective capabilities that enable us to empower our educational communities so that they can engage in the design and transformation of our educational systems by creating new systems of learning and human development. 这是有目的、有可行性地产生新的组织能力与个人和集体能力来强化教育的先决条件，这样他们才能通过建立新的学习与人力开发系统来设计与改革我们的教育系统。 Author：Bela H. Banathy BHB From：Handbook of Research for Educations and Technology (1996) （1）issue：问题；出版、发行；（报刊等）期、号；论点、问题；结果。 （2）educational communities：教育界。 （3）pursue：从事、贯彻；追赶、追踪、追击；继续、从事。 （4