Dr. Reigeluth:  “Our industrial-age educational system is obsolete and increasingly inadequate to meet the needs of our communities and our students. We need a new paradigm of instruction, which requires a new paradigm of education. ID and IT cannot help the public schools without systemic change.

What areas of Instructional Design and Development should a student concentrate (e.g. courses, internships, research projects, work experience) in order to be best prepared for a career in educational systemic change?

Dr. Reigeluth:  Unfortunately, most IDD programs do not offer much to prepare students for a career in educational systemic change.  Students are typically going to have to seek out books, information, and experiences on their own.

Dr. Duffy:  You really need to understand what a system is, what dynamics influence its performance, and how to change a whole-system. Instructional design is one of the few fields of study and practice in education where this systems-approach is taught.

What is the future of large-scale educational change?  What do you think needs to happen in order for systemic educational change to gain momentum and avoid the fate of past change initiatives that were unsuccessful?

Dr. Reigeluth:  I think it is inevitable, just as the systemic change from the one-room schoolhouse to our current system was inevitable.  To gain momentum, we need a) more funding for such efforts, b) more knowledge about how to make such efforts successful, and c) an impressive success story that can blaze the trail.

Dr. Duffy:  Whole system change is a hard sell to practitioners who are locked into the school-based improvement paradigm for improving schooling in a district. Whole system change is also a difficult concept for some people to grasp—some of them just don’t get it. Yet, there are examples of whole-system change that are producing results; e.g., the Chugach School District in Anchorage, Alaska.  For systemic change to gain momentum, the experiences of the school districts engaged in whole system change need to be communicated broadly.  The systemic approach also needs to be advocated and supported by education organizations such as the U.S. Department of Education and State Departments of Education.