Session covered modern management theories and contrasted them with the classical theories. These theories are aimed less at the organisational structure and focus more on the concept of getting the right person for the job. The theories (Drucker, Peters & Covey) focus on what managers should be doing and the pactices that they should adopt - eg Covey's 7 habits.
A useful session. Again the class discussion was a stimulating and useful part of the session. We wandered off topic a little again, but even that was useful - organisation anicdotes help me to think about my own organisation in different ways.
These were mostly around the ways that different leaders have made changes in organisations that people felt had made a difference. Also how the theories struck chords in the participants though there was a felling that some of the theorists (notably Covey) strayed too far into the "guru" with maxims and sayings - all a bit David Brent!
30 March 2005
References: DfES White Paper
The new White Paper on skills has been released. More grist for the mill...
DfES: Skills: Getting on in business, getting on at work White Paper
DfES: Skills: Getting on in business, getting on at work White Paper
22 March 2005
MA Course 3
The last session covered classical management theory and began with the types of businees organisation and then worked through the theorists between 1910 - 1976. The classical theories focussed on getting the organisation right and was mostly about structure and function.
Writers covered included Fayol, Taylor (scientific management) and the Gilbreth's, Gantt, Mayo & the Hawthorne studies, Urwick (from Fayol), Brech (social process), and Weber (legitimate authority and bureaucracy).
On the teaching side of things I'm beginning to think that the Cisco course is too prescriptive and not really that well suited for adult learners. I've decided that in order to help the students integrate the theoretical knowledge better the course work and practical work needs to be better integrated into the sessions. Too often the students try to avoid the practical work until the end of the course.
The case studies also need to be re-written to focus on the problem solving aspects of the work rather than concentrating on too many specifics. It would probably also help to make this a group excercise to allow students to interact with each other as this could reinforce learning and enable students to share experience. It would also free up the equipment for general lab work and skills tests which do work through the specifics and allow more individual and group work time with the hardware.
The format of the course could also use some revision - from discussions with the students it seems clear that twilight sessions aren't necessarily the best option. The concensus is that a day session would be more productive and allow the students to get to the session more easily as it is always harder to get out of work than to travel directly to a course.
Again insight into the barriers to lifelong learning from my excellent students. Other barriers seem to be around finding time to study and with keeping up to date with the curriculum. Given that the course was originally designed to be taught to US high school students it is aimed at a large number of short sessions, something that just isn't possible for adult learners, it requires the students to do a large amount of reading in their own time and this seems to be the area that causes problems for students. They then use the taught sessions to catch up on the reading rather than the practical lab work.
The nature of the assessment tends towards being closed - a multiple choice final assessment on the theory content. The case study does allow for some creativity and problem solving, though the skills test is again an exam although a practical one. As an instructor the only leeway is in the way that these components, and any other additional ones, add up to the final pass/fail for each semester.
Writers covered included Fayol, Taylor (scientific management) and the Gilbreth's, Gantt, Mayo & the Hawthorne studies, Urwick (from Fayol), Brech (social process), and Weber (legitimate authority and bureaucracy).
On the teaching side of things I'm beginning to think that the Cisco course is too prescriptive and not really that well suited for adult learners. I've decided that in order to help the students integrate the theoretical knowledge better the course work and practical work needs to be better integrated into the sessions. Too often the students try to avoid the practical work until the end of the course.
The case studies also need to be re-written to focus on the problem solving aspects of the work rather than concentrating on too many specifics. It would probably also help to make this a group excercise to allow students to interact with each other as this could reinforce learning and enable students to share experience. It would also free up the equipment for general lab work and skills tests which do work through the specifics and allow more individual and group work time with the hardware.
The format of the course could also use some revision - from discussions with the students it seems clear that twilight sessions aren't necessarily the best option. The concensus is that a day session would be more productive and allow the students to get to the session more easily as it is always harder to get out of work than to travel directly to a course.
Again insight into the barriers to lifelong learning from my excellent students. Other barriers seem to be around finding time to study and with keeping up to date with the curriculum. Given that the course was originally designed to be taught to US high school students it is aimed at a large number of short sessions, something that just isn't possible for adult learners, it requires the students to do a large amount of reading in their own time and this seems to be the area that causes problems for students. They then use the taught sessions to catch up on the reading rather than the practical lab work.
The nature of the assessment tends towards being closed - a multiple choice final assessment on the theory content. The case study does allow for some creativity and problem solving, though the skills test is again an exam although a practical one. As an instructor the only leeway is in the way that these components, and any other additional ones, add up to the final pass/fail for each semester.
14 March 2005
References: DfES
Some DfES and related references on LLL
The 14 - 19 Gateway
Online Publications for schools: Product details
How e-learning fits into the other DfES strategies.
e-learning Strategy
The 14 - 19 Gateway
Online Publications for schools: Product details
How e-learning fits into the other DfES strategies.
e-learning Strategy
MA Course 2
Organisational Culture and Managerialism
Wow heavy title, but essentially in two parts (in reverse order). Managerialism is the wayin which public sector organisations like ours have been forced to adopt some of the practices and trappings of the private sector - finacial control, the idea of best value, performance indicators and the breaking down of organisations into ever smaller units.
In our case we seem to have gained some of the freedoms and power of a private company whilst retaining much of the baggage of the public sector. We are expected to be fully traded (we get no direct money from council tax, we can only raise money by selling our services. Great except that we aren't allowed to make a profit or carry money from one year to another. Also a real private company is responsible only to it's shareholders and customers (if it wants to stay in business). We have to be responsible to the council tax payers who concerns are generally with getting as much as possible for no cost. Hmmm...
Worse, a private company knows how well it is succeeding by its turnover and how much profit it makes. We have to jump through expensive, time-consuming hoops to show that we are spending money wisely. And we get CPS and Ofsted inspections - and we are one of the few departments that is supposedly fully trading with the commercial sector. I guess that's managerialism at it's worst.
We also looked at various organisational cultures, both the writers that examined them and the types of culture they identified - power cultures, role cultures (silos, that's us) person cultures and task cultures.
Wow heavy title, but essentially in two parts (in reverse order). Managerialism is the wayin which public sector organisations like ours have been forced to adopt some of the practices and trappings of the private sector - finacial control, the idea of best value, performance indicators and the breaking down of organisations into ever smaller units.
In our case we seem to have gained some of the freedoms and power of a private company whilst retaining much of the baggage of the public sector. We are expected to be fully traded (we get no direct money from council tax, we can only raise money by selling our services. Great except that we aren't allowed to make a profit or carry money from one year to another. Also a real private company is responsible only to it's shareholders and customers (if it wants to stay in business). We have to be responsible to the council tax payers who concerns are generally with getting as much as possible for no cost. Hmmm...
Worse, a private company knows how well it is succeeding by its turnover and how much profit it makes. We have to jump through expensive, time-consuming hoops to show that we are spending money wisely. And we get CPS and Ofsted inspections - and we are one of the few departments that is supposedly fully trading with the commercial sector. I guess that's managerialism at it's worst.
We also looked at various organisational cultures, both the writers that examined them and the types of culture they identified - power cultures, role cultures (silos, that's us) person cultures and task cultures.
07 March 2005
Another Week...
I've been so lax in not updating this site. Then, when I finally get chance the browser and my stupidity consign the post to digital oblivion.
On the teaching side the Cisco courses are coming along, though I'm concerned about the two students who are starting to fall back slightly. One took a long break and the other has had trouble with binary maths and subnetting and neither have completed Semester 1 yet. I've been patient, I realise that they are both very busy at work, but if I don't start cracking the whip soon it could begin to affect the other students.
I also took did some electronic whiteboard training this week. I was disappointed by the lack of people the would get up and use the board. I guess I need to be more pro-active in encouraging student participation, but I'm aware that they may be like me and hate to be called up in front of others. Still my compromise was to offer short 10 minute refreshers to them when they had presentations ready to deliver.
I'm also not very good at questioning students and getting them to help with the learning of others. I don't do it frequently enough, though when I do I find that the silent strategy does work - leave a long enough gap and someone will fill it! I think I also need some other strategies though. Back to the books.
On the learning fron the first MA session was on Asignment writing - still useful even though I've done a similar session 3 times now - there's always a new idea or thought that comes out.
The second session was the beginnings of the course proper - "managerialism and organisational types". The group work was very useful in seeing how others perceive their organisations and made me think a bit about how I see my organisation.
The second half of the session looked at organisational types and we were asked to draw a picture (NOT a diagram) of how we saw our organisation and its structure. I think this was a little like therapy for some, but I found it a little hard to come up with a pictorial version of how I think and feel about my organisation. The best I could come up with was a gunfight with the different parts of my organisation vying for power and with external influences constantly pressuring us.
I still can't draw though.
On the teaching side the Cisco courses are coming along, though I'm concerned about the two students who are starting to fall back slightly. One took a long break and the other has had trouble with binary maths and subnetting and neither have completed Semester 1 yet. I've been patient, I realise that they are both very busy at work, but if I don't start cracking the whip soon it could begin to affect the other students.
I also took did some electronic whiteboard training this week. I was disappointed by the lack of people the would get up and use the board. I guess I need to be more pro-active in encouraging student participation, but I'm aware that they may be like me and hate to be called up in front of others. Still my compromise was to offer short 10 minute refreshers to them when they had presentations ready to deliver.
I'm also not very good at questioning students and getting them to help with the learning of others. I don't do it frequently enough, though when I do I find that the silent strategy does work - leave a long enough gap and someone will fill it! I think I also need some other strategies though. Back to the books.
On the learning fron the first MA session was on Asignment writing - still useful even though I've done a similar session 3 times now - there's always a new idea or thought that comes out.
The second session was the beginnings of the course proper - "managerialism and organisational types". The group work was very useful in seeing how others perceive their organisations and made me think a bit about how I see my organisation.
The second half of the session looked at organisational types and we were asked to draw a picture (NOT a diagram) of how we saw our organisation and its structure. I think this was a little like therapy for some, but I found it a little hard to come up with a pictorial version of how I think and feel about my organisation. The best I could come up with was a gunfight with the different parts of my organisation vying for power and with external influences constantly pressuring us.
I still can't draw though.
Seredipitous Learning
Something else I learned today... If you've just finished typing a blog entry, but the browser won't upload it to the site, DO NOT copy the text to the clipboard and then "end process" the browser! Bye-bye browser, bye-bye clipped text...
I hate technology sometimes.
I hate technology sometimes.
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