Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

730 The Praeger Handbook of Education and Psychology
educational change. Others associated with the theories and practices of educational systems
design include Charles M. Reigeluth and Patrick M. Jenlink. All three claim that the traditional
assembly-line view of creating educational systems is consistent with the industrial-age model
of education and not appropriate for the information age. They each express an eagerness to see
the approach change for educational systems as it has for other social systems. What Banathy,
Reigeluth, and Jenlink offer has much in common with the thinking of proponents of situated
cognition, communities of practice, and enaction theory.
EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS DESIGN
From a systems view, expert knowledge is only one of the many dimensions of the design
process. The educational system is seen as nested within and interconnected with other social
systems in which an individual may have many overlapping memberships. Local interactions
create meaning and action by stakeholders in each of those systems. In this view, the design
of the educational systems is the result of the interaction of the stakeholders in that system
grappling with their respective needs, values and desires. Those with professional experience in
designing educational systems are a subset of the broader system of stakeholders, contributing to
the process, but not controlling or dictating it.
While there has been a great press for reform of education systems since the late 1980s, most
agree there has been little fundamental change. For at least two decades educational systems
researchers and practioners have called for educational systems to make adjustments, improve, or
restructure. Instructional design has traditionally focused on well-designed, efficient, and effective
instruction as the source of learning and change. Banathy’s work drew the attention of education
theorists and practioners to the comparison of school-based practices with practices in the broader
social system. He compares the idea of focusing on teaching with focusing on learning. When
teaching is in focus, you enhance teaching: the key performer is the teacher. When learning is in
focus, the key performer is the learner. Energy is brought to bear on the learner interacting with
the problem or issue. Banathy uses this as an analogy for the system: focus must be placed on
the stakeholders that define the system. Banathy says that stakeholders must design the system
rather than outside experts. He claims we have reached the end of the era of social engineering by
outside experts. Instead, we have entered an age of user- designers: people designing their own
systems.
For Banathy the fact of self-reflective consciousness makes it the responsibilty of humans to
guide their own social evolution. He calls for communities to develop this evolutionary competency
by envisioning and working toward an ideal image of themselves. He considers it a basic
right of people to guide their own destinies by taking part in decisions that have an impact on their
lives, to take responsibility for the creation of communites that are caring, nurturing and healthy.
To design one’s own future is a fundamental human right. He further holds that it is only once
these rights are ceded to stakeholders in communities that a truly democratic civil society will
emerge. This democratic civil society will continually reproduce within its practices the same
rights that brought it about.
THE INTERSECTION WITH EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
The idea of stakeholder design is key to understanding how educational psychology’s current
views of learning, cognition and development intersect with educational systems theories and
practices. The theories of situated cognition, communities of practice, and enaction place the
learner and task in the context of social practices. Theorists propose that learning is situated in
the social experience of learners and continuously emerges from this activity. It is not the end
result of knowledge transmitted by an outside expert. Those who are working for fundamental