What We're Reading

By John Ayers

Sometimes learning something new and valuable first requires unlearning comfortable routines. Old dogs stumbling through new tricks often would do well to discard the old repertoire in order to gain the agility to do the new one effectively.

Mike Rother’s compelling book, Toyota Kata (McGraw Hill, 2010), provides a roadmap for us old dogs.

COMMUNITY COLLEGE RESEARCH CENTER (CCRC) RELEASES NEW POLICY BRIEFS

A New Look at Scale and Opportunity to Learn

Times article and book reinforce Carnegie approach

Education Has Much to Learn From Healthcare Reform Efforts

Clay Shirky evaluates the effect of the Internet on modern group dynamics.

When looking for comparisons, people who want to change education often consider health systems.

In his book The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, scientist and organizational-theory expert Peter Senge describes a learning organization as a place "where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together."

For social scientists starting their careers, creating research models that work is crucial. A new book suggests that they may be unaware of problems they face in part because scholars don't share stories of what didn't work on their projects, and how to deal with particular challenges.

Hot off the press is the Jossey-Bass/Wiley New Directions for Higher Education’s publication, : The First Wave of Carnegie Classified Institutions. Amy Driscoll, who worked with us on this voluntary Carnegie Classification, said that it was “the talk of a recent Association of American Colleges and Universities’ meeting.”