CAMP SNOWBALL PHILIPPINES

SYSTEMS THINKING IN L.I.F.E

How well equipped is the Filipino Youth to solve the complex problems of the future?

Beyond local citizenship, how well prepared is the Filipino Youth to participate responsibly in the global
 community?   What is the role of Filipino education in today’s fast-changing world?

Context


One can make a long list of reasons for the deteriorating quality of education in the country but this will simply highlight the complexity of the problem.  The most important question, however, is how can we help prepare the Filipino youth to develop the knowledge and competencies for today’s challenges and tomorrow’s world?

We propose training the Filipino teacher how to apply the pedagogical intervention of Systems Thinking.  Systems Thinking is the capacity to see the interconnectedness of the parts of a whole and to see how our actions create the problems we experience.  For more than 50 years, continuous practice and research on Systems Thinking has developed a whole body of knowledge, tools and language that equips us with a new perspective to help address the ever increasing complexities facing the world today.  The good news is experiments with children show that they learn systems thinking easily!

Dr. Peter Senge, author of Schools that Learn and The Fifth Discipline – The Art of the Learning Organization, refers to Systems Thinking as the fifth discipline for learning organizations.    The title of the first chapter of The Fifth Discipline is a quote from Greek philosopher, Archimedes, “Give me a lever long enough….and single-handed I can move the world.”  For the members of the global Camp Snowball community, that lever is Systems Thinking.

Why Systems Thinking?

For 20 years, pockets of school systems across the U.S. have been gaining traction in preparing students to take on tomorrow’s complex challenges.  Educators in these districts have found that the tools of systems thinking and systems dynamics give them a way to engage reluctant learners, boost academic achievement, and foster a generation of “system citizens.”  The Waters Foundation, a private charitable foundation founded in 1957 by Jim and Faith Waters, has been a moving force behind this effort. Quoting from a document of the foundation, the “Benefits of Systems Thinking in K-12 Education” are as follows:

Benefits to the Students

• Improves the ability to connect learning to real-world situations
• Develops a framework for solving complex problems
• Creates awareness and consideration of short-term, long-term, and unintended consequences
• Enables more thoughtfulness in negotiating life choices
• Increases motivation and enthusiasm for learning
• Facilitates English language learners communication of their thinking and understanding through the visual non-linguistic nature of the tools

Benefits to Teachers

• Increases student engagement
• Fosters a learner-centered environment
• Facilitates the integration of rigorous thinking in instruction which is a key to achieving proficiency
• Enhances an educational environment that is cooperative, interdisciplinary, and relevant
• Correlates to 21st Century Skills, STEM goals, and Common Core Standards
• Provides structure for social and emotional development leading to a decrease in disciplinary problems

Benefits to Community

• Systems Thinking in a school system will develop citizens who approach civic problems from a holistic view, not a reactionary one, and understand they are a part of the community (system) and as such have an effect on the success of the community. These citizens empowering leads to increased personal responsibility.
• Systems Thinking in a school system will develop civic leaders who have the ability to communicate ideas in a framework that the community understands and can contribute to.

What is the Camp Snowball community?

Today, the Waters Foundation Systems Thinking in School project is applying lessons learned to scale up its efforts within U.S. local communities and around the world.  Thus was launched the first Camp Snowball in Tucson, Arizona last July 21-25, 2011.
The five-day learning festival showcased the successful application of the concepts, methods and tools of Systems Thinking in K-12 schools in Arizona, Washington and Oregon, spanning more than 20 years.  It was attended by 230 school heads, parents, teachers and students from the U.S., Canada, Netherlands, Mexico, Singapore and 9 delegates from the Philippines. With the coming together of Systems Thinking for School advocates, the Camp Snowball community was born.  Objectives of the Camp Snowball community are the following:

1.  to develop educators’ capacity for systems thinking and sustainability to their students;
2.  to empower students to become leaders in their schools and communities by exposing them to these powerful ways        of thinking and acting:
3.  to develop local teams that are working to implement these tools and perspectives in their own school systems;
4.  to build local community support for schools by engaging business and government leaders, educators, parents,         students, community members in jointly creating the conditions for ongoing innovation
5.  to foster relationships and create long-term connections regionally, nationally, and internationally; and
6.  to elevate awareness of the positive outcome of systems thinking and sustainability education locally, nationally, and internationally.

What is the Camp Snowball Philippine community?
During his visit to the Philippines last April, 2011 on invitation of the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL), Philippines, Dr. Peter Senge gave a talk to a small group of  Philippine educators at the National Book Store Best Sellers outlet at Robinson’s Galleria. Dr. Senge shared how the current educational system was conceptualized to serve the jobs created by the Industrial Revolution, the assembly line.  With technological breakthroughs in the past decades, we now find ourselves in the Information Age, thus, it is crucial for our school system to become learning communities. 
Dr. Senge extended an invitation to the Philippine educators to attend the Camp Snowball conference.  Nine Filipinos accepted the invitation.   Since their return from Tucson in July 2011, the Camp Snowball Philippine trainers have rolled-out 3 public runs and 1 in-house workshop.  Evaluation of the training event has been consistently high with participants hoping that the module could be shared to all teachers. 
Members of the Camp Snowball Philippine community met with the Department of Education on two occasions last year to promote the pedagogical intervention of Systems Thinking for our teachers.  Br Armin A. Luistro, FSC has expressed his enthusiasm for the public-private initiative.   For 2012, Camp Snowball Philippines is organizing twin-events in April in support of DepEd’s educational reforms.  These are:

Participants at the end of the workshop would have –

• developed skills and knowledge in the use of systems thinking concepts and tools;
• experienced, practiced, and discussed interactive, inquiry-based instructional and school improvement strategies;
• used systems thinking tools to analyze complex issues and identify high leverage interventions;
• developed skills in providing systems thinking training to colleagues;
• developed and shared a plan of application relevant to their work; and
• granted a certificate of completion.

SYSTEMS THINKING AND EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN PHILIPPINE BASIC EDUCATION By Godofredo C. Eala



How well equipped is the Filipino Youth to solve the complex problems of the future? Beyond local citizenship, how well prepared is the Filipino Youth to participate responsibly in the global community? What is the role of Filipino education in today's fast-changing world?


Compared to our Southeast Asian neighbours, a recent World Economic Forum report ranked the Philippines a poor seventh in the area of Education and innovation, only faring better than Cambodia.In a forum held in June this year on Philippine education, Br. Armin Luisito FSC, DepEd secretary said, "When media asked me what is the one basic problem in education, it's not building classrooms and hiring teachers. The root cause is really the program and the curriculum. "Br Armin stressed that building classrooms and hiring teachers is important but "we cannot continue to have graduates who are less than competent.If it is basic education, we should provide them all the necessary resources and time so they can master standards and competencies."One can make a long list of reasons for the deteriorating quality of education in the country but this will simply highlight the complexity of the problem. The most important question, however, is the how can we help prepare the Filipino youth to develop the knowledge and competencies for today's challenges and tomorrow's world? Dr. Peter Senge, senior lecturer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Cambridge, founder and current Chair of the Society for Organizational Learning (So), renowned author of The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, and, Schools that Learn, believes that the cause of quality decline of education, whether it be in the USA or in the Philippines is not the lack of talent, but the lack of efficiency in the system. Systems are not set of things-people, molecules, government agencies, etc.-interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern over time. To create healthier systems, one has to be equipped with systems knowledge, critical thinking skills, and most importantly, acquire and practice the habits of a systems thinker.


In a conference held in Tucson, Arizona last July 21-26, 2011 attended  250 educators, students, parents and community leaders from 18 stated and 8 countries including the Philippines. Dr. Senge launched the Camp Snowball initiative together with members organization under the SoL Education and Sustainability Partnership (SolEd). During the 5-day learning event, nine delegates from the Philippines participated in a series of workshops showcasing the remarkable results over the past 20+ years of the Waters Foundation project that initiated systems thinking in Tucson schools. There were four tracks to choose from: Systems Thinking, Systems Modelling, Education to Sustainability and Inter-generational Leadership for Innovation in Education. All the sessions were conducted with adults and youth learning together. There was a field trip to the dessert museum to experience the bio-diversity of the place, and a marketplace of initiatives from progressive schools that were now shifting to a more sustainable educational system."For the past 20 years, schools in Tucson, Arizona and other forward thinking communities in the US, Netherlands, Singapore, and beyond have been teaching their students how to deal with complex, dynamic problems applying the systems thinking approach and success is consistently high. Why is that? Because when students look at the world through a systems lens, they gain insight into the underlying structures that produce certain patterns of behaviour, both in their social work and lives, and learn to test actions for unintended consequence. They also immediately recognize the relevance of their schoolwork, engage with real-world problems, and develop a useful and practical skills set that will serve them throughout their lives." (Camp Snowball/Waters Foundation websites)

Camp Snowball Teachers' Training workshop in the Philippines

As members of SoLEd, trainers and teachers from the OCCI Fullness of Life Foundation, the SAIDI school of OD, Domuschola, Quezon City academy, Lamblight Catholic School (Bacolod), Southpoint School (Davao City), launched Camp Snowball Philippines last September 8-11, 2011 at the OCCi Center for Learning, Ortigas Center Pasig City.

The first run of Camp Snowball Philippines had 65 participants from various public and private schools from Metro Manila, Zamboanga, Iloilo, Nueva Vizcaya, Pangasinan, as well as DepEd's central office. All were unanimous in their feedback about the importance of the programs and promised to cascade it to their respective schools. They excitedly brought it home with them easy-to-run modules and exercises to integrate systems thinking and education for sustainability in their curriculum.

Welcome to Camp Snowball Philippines!

WHAT IS EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY?

Education for sustainability is defined as a transformative learning process that equips students, teachers, and school systems with the new knowledge and ways of thinking we need to achieve economic prosperity and responsible citizenship while restoring the health of the living systems upon which we all depend.

WHAT IS SYSTEMS THINKING?

Systems Thinking offers a powerful new perspective, a specialized language, and a set of tools that can be used to address the most stubborn problems in your everyday life and work. Systems thinking is a way of understanding reality that emphasizes the relationships among a system's parts, rather the parts themselves. It helps us see both the forces that shape change and our role in creating them.

Camp Snowball | Critical skills for 21st Century Basic Education in the Philippine

Website: www.watersfoundation.org