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.