Margaret J. Wheatley’s Leadership and the New Science ( San Francisco, CA: Berret-Koehler Publishers, 1999) is one of those books I picked up for a pull quote reference but which wound up as a “keeper” on my bookshelf. It’s a compact work (200 pages) that I return to on occasion and dip into for exploration or as a reminder of deep concepts.

By “new science,” Wheatley means the “new” branches of quantum physics, chaos theory, and biology that are overturning centuries-old models of science. The older science, reflecting the physics of Isaac Newton and the engineering principles developed in the industrial revolution, conceived of the universe as a kind of machine, with its various working parts animated by specific energy sources. It is a mechanistic model of the universe—and of business and, sad to say, congregational organizations—that remains with us today.

[Read more...]

I was engaged in a conversation about on-line learning recently, with someone who has never taken an on-line course nor taught in that mode. I must confess that some of those conversations were interesting at one time. But after teaching on-line courses for eight years now I find myself weary of addressing the same rudimentary questions from the uninformed. My impatience usually is with those who are quick to dismiss on-line learning without having done the responsible work of investigating it. My interest in talking further wanes when it becomes evident that they’ve thought as little about the pedagogy of the classroom courses they teach.

[Read more...]

After a formal group conversation about educational theory at a recent event a theology professor and I took our break outside the conference building. As we sat on rocking chairs looking over the vista the professor apologetically shared his frustration at hearing people talk about the “creative” methods they used in their teaching. His frustration was, in part, his inability to see how some of those creative methods applied to his field of discipline. If there is a stinging assessment of one’s teaching that hurts most, it may be the comment, “He’s not a very creative teacher.” So I appreciated the source of his angst.

[Read more...]