Acting as a change agent

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Session 2

• Acting as a change agent

2
Acting as a change agent

• It is one thing to create a new curriculum but
  you cant assume that teachers in schools will be
  enthusiastic about using it.

3
Common dilemmas faced by teachers

• Organising the children on an individual basis
• Giving children a degree of control over their
  use of time, their activities and their work
  standards
• Seeking to motivate the children through
  intrinsic involvement and enjoyment of activities
• Attempting to integrate various elements of the
  curriculum
• Trying to build up co-operative and social skills

4
A recent researcher indicated that teachers have
the following teaching styles

• Reproduction teachers they are concerned
  directly with the improvement of performance
  they use cut and dried methods that work
• Meaning teachers are aware that their own
  interpretations are limited. They try to enable
  students to obtain better understandings. They
  try to clarify their experiences to students

5
Teaching styles continued

• Open teachers are those who acknowledge to
  themselves and others that there are problems of
  communication to be resolved. They do not create
  the impression that they know all
• Closed teachers are those who do not
  communicate to others about their inadequacies.
  They are relatively narrow in their
  communications
• Survival teachers are those who are not just
  really concerned about learning. They just want
  to survive in difficult classrooms

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Some definitions

• Diffusion is the spontaneous, unplanned spread of
  new ideas. It involves a special type of
  communication between individuals and groups
  because the messages are concerned with new
  ideas. Diffusion is really a one-way process.
  Most frequently it is affected by an exchange of
  ideas and information between individuals

7
Definitions continued

• Dissemination has a narrower focus and applies to
  the specific procedures used to inform
  individuals and groups about an innovation and to
  gain their interest in it. Some people see
  dissemination as mainly a marketing activity.
  Others see it within a cultural framework. They
  maintain that you need to be aware of a school
  systems attitudes and administrative structure
  and use dissemination activities that are
  suitable for it

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Change strategies and tactics

• A strategy is a plan for replacing an existing
  program by an innovation. There are a number of
  strategies but as a general guide the following
  three are typically used
• Power coercive strategies are based on the
  control of rewards and punishments and are
  relatively easy to apply. That is, they are
  extrinsic in nature.

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Change strategies and tactics continued

• Normative/re-educative strategies refer to
  actions intended to manipulate recipients so that
  they can see the situation differently. This can
  be achieved by biased messages, persuasive
  communications and by training workshops. The
  recipients are trained or re-educated to
  appreciate the beneficial aspects of a particular
  innovation

10
Change strategies and tactics continued

• Empirical-rational strategies rely upon the
  recipients realising that they should change to
  the new innovation in their best interests. The
  strategies rely upon providing detailed knowledge
  about an innovation by holding workshops,
  seminars and demonstrations

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Change strategies

• Power-coercive
• Use rewards and punishment
• NormativeRe-educative
• Persuade persons to see things differently
• Empirical-Rational
• Use detailed knowledge/evidence

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Tactics

• Tactics are specific actions that are taken to
  reinforce the impact of a strategy. There are
  many possible tactics that might be used. They
  can include the following
• Impersonal information
• Personal demonstration
• Interpersonal field agents

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Tactic Components

• There are 5 components for each tactic, namely
• Relative costs
• Relative coverage
• Relative impact
• User convenience
• Feedback

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Tactics and their potential effects
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Tactics and their potential effects continued
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Tactics and their potential effects continued
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Tactics and their potential effects continued
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To take an example, consider the following

• Impersonal information e.g. direct mail to schools

Relative costs Relative coverage Relative impact User convenience Feedback Low High Low Moderate Low
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Do your own summaries for each of the following
tactics, making sure you rate each of the five
components each time as high, medium and low

• Impersonal Direct Mail Mass Media Printed
  Matter Professional Association
• Personal Demonstration On-site Visitation
  Workshop
• Interpersonal field agents Non-commercial
  commercial