TB872: Key concepts in Critical Social Learning Systems (CSLS)
Note: this is a post reflecting on one of the modules of my MSc in Systems Thinking in Practice. You can see all of the related posts in this category.
The table below is adapted from the course materials (The Open University, 2021) and is a guide to help me with my End of Module Assessment (EMA) in which I have chosen Critical Social Learning Systems (CSLS) as an approach.
| Concept | Useful page references (Blackmore, 2010) |
|---|---|
| Critical (Social) Learning System | Intro to Part II – Hawkesbury approach focused on systemic praxis (p.36) Chapter 3 – Distinguishing ‘system’ from everyday usage (pp.40-41) – Justificiation for CSLS (pp.42-43) – Learning community as CSLS (p.47) Chapter 5 – Design considerations for learning systems (p.85) Chapter 6 – ‘Social’ not explicitly included in description of development of Critical Learning Systems (p.89) – Five key assumptions to the emergence and character of how Critical Learning Systems evolved at Hawkesbury (pp.89-90) – CSLS as developmental project (p.90) – Hawkesbury approach focuses on nature and development of systems of learning (p.93) – Analysis of four words of CSLS and why each necessary (p.93) – Essential functions of a system based on CSLS (p.94) Chapter 12 – Differences between social learning and social learning systems (pp.203-204) – Mapping a landscape of social learning systems praxis (pp.207-216) |
| Social Learning | Chapter 1 – Public learning (pp.6-9) Chapter 2 – Social learning as ‘two streams’ (p.20) Chapter 3 – ‘Lost competency’ of social learning and need for reflexivity (p.43) – List of key aspects of social learning (p.54) Chapter 4 – Need for a ‘third way’ of governance (p.62) – Social learning should build on local community participation (p.62) – Not a new concept (p.63) – Definition (p.63) – Learning includes social norms and values, etc. (p.64) – Social learning requires conscious design and facilitation (p.64) – Social learning requires different actors with different interests engaging in dialogue (p.65) – Institutions as the means to, and outcome of, social learning (p.67) – Social learning depends on decision-making and responsibilities resting at the appropriate scale (p.68) Chapter 5 – Opportunities for social learning are squandered (p.74) – Social learning as an emergent property of collaboration (p.78) – Social learning requires the development of shared platforms for decision making and action (p.79) – Social learning involves communicative action, so an understanding of how human communication occurs, is key (p.79) – The role of dialogue in social learning (p.81) – Definition of social learning (p.84) Chapter 6 – CSLS as an experiential approach to social learning for collective development (p.90) |
| First- and Second-order Change | Chapter 5 – First-order R&D is the most common, with the researcher remaining outside the system being studied – as if it’s a closed system (p. 75) – Second-order R&D involves the researcher or practitioner being part of the interactions being studied (p.75) – Questions by von Foerster (1992) capturing the difference (p.77) – First-order characteristics – including belief in an ‘objective reality’ (pp.77-78) – Second-order characteristics (pp.78-79) |
| Sustainability | Chapter 4 – Modern industrialised society deeply unsustainable (p.57) – More radical democracy as essential precondition of creating environmental sustainability (p.60) – Three propositions r.e. connection between democratic participation and sustainability (pp.60-61) |
| Design of Learning Systems | Chapter 5 – Table showing independent sets of design considerations for learning systems (p.85) |
| Institutional Design | Chapter 4 – Constraints ranging from investment to governance (p.58) – Broader institutional dilemmas (p.59) – Spectrum from tradition through to questioning assumptions (p.63) – Critique of economic and political power is vital (p.64) – One of three elements of facilitating social learning – along with philosophical reflection and methodological pluralism (p.64) – Simple question: what types of institutions would facilitate social learning and participatory democracy? (p.66) – Eight principles for facilitating institutional design (pp.67-69) |
| Traditions of Understanding | Chapter 5 – Crisis in “how we claim to know what we know” (p.74) – Based on Maturana and Varela’s (1979) biological theory of cognition (pp.76-77) – Role of metaphor – incl. work of McClintock (1996) (pp.80-81) |
| Learning Community | Chapter 3 – A kind of definition (pp.39-40) – First step towards creating one is learning to learn about learning (p.47) – List of key aspects of a learning community (p.54) |
| Worldviews | Chapter 3 – Systemic worldviews are a prerequisite for treating the world in a systemic (holistic) way (p.42) – Epistemic learning helps with learning about worldviews which contextualise what is being learned. (p.47) – Introduction of a worldview matrix based on Burrell and Morgan (1979) and Miller (1983) (pp.48-49) – Critical learning process must include discourse about the nature and influence of worldviews on process of learning (p.49) – Normative worldview window (pp.49-50) – Integrated critical learning system diagram, including worldview elements (p.53) Chapter 6 – Intellectual and moral perspectives = worldviews (p.89) – Worldview perspectives are capable of development (p.89) – Worldviews as epistemes (Foucault, 1970) which leads to epistemic development (p.91) – We are “abysmally ignorant” that we even hold particular worldviews (p.91) – CSLS involves challenging worldviews (p.92) – Differences in worldviews are often the cause of tensions between people seeking consensus (p.94) – Impossible to over-emphasis the significance of worldviews when dealing with any kind of learning (p.95) – Worldviews act as filters to our understandings and foundations for our morality (p.95) – List of personal presuppositions that worldviews contain (p.96) |
| Levels of Learning | Chapter 6 – Three levels: learning, meta-learning, and epistemic learning (p.94) Chapter 12 – Reference to Kitchener (1983) and level 3 learning (p.212) |
References
- Blackmore, C. (ed.) (2010). Social learning systems and communities of practice. London: Springer. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-133-2.
- The Open University. (2021). ‘3.5.2 Working with CSLS concepts’, TB872: Managing change with systems thinking in practice. Available at https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=2171593§ion=3.5.2 (Accessed 6 March 2024).
