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Re: [Phys-l] Innovation and change vs. the status quo

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Pamela Jull, in her Evaltalk post of 12 Jun 2006 14:58:20-0700 titled "Innovation and change vs. the status quo," wrote:

"I'm looking for resources that describe or theorize about human resistance
to innovation and change. I have several clients who are doing some cutting
edge programming, but finding that in surveys people are resisting the
ideas. I wonder if there's a body of research out there about how publics
transition to new institutions, and if there are any ways that program
managers can facilitate that change."

Since I've been tilting at the windmills of traditional education for about two decades I have had a few thoughts about the difficulties of innovation.

For example, Lesson 13 of "Lessons from the physics education reform effort" [Hake (2002)] is [bracketed by lines "HHHHHHHHH. . . ."]:


HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
L13. THE MONUMENTAL INERTIA OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM MAY THWART LONG-TERM NATIONAL REFORM.
The glacial inertia of the nearly immovable U.S. educational system is not well understood. A recent issue of "Daedalus" (1998) contains essays by researchers in education and by historians of more rapidly developing institutions such as power systems, communications, health care, and agriculture. The issue was intended to help answer a challenge posed by physics Nobelist Kenneth Wilson: "If other major American 'systems' have so effectively demonstrated the ability to change, why has the education 'system' been so singularly resistant to change? What might the lessons learned from other systems' efforts to adapt and evolve have to teach us about bringing about change - successful change - in America's schools?" As far as I know, no definitive answer has yet been forthcoming.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

My latest suggestion that the physics education reform effort might serve as a model for the improvement of higher education Hake (2005)] created a tsunami similar to that created by a pebble dropped into Lake Michigan.

For some quotes on the stability of the status quo see "Eleven Quotes in Honor of Inertia" [Hake (2006].

A few good books relevant to the study of innovation and change are asterisked ** in the REFERENCES below.

As far as I know, there are as yet no educational counterparts of the transistor {Riordan & Hoddeson (1998)] or Laser (Townes (2002)] that will usher in the "Education Age."


Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>


REFERENCES [Tiny URL's courtesy of <http://tinyurl.com/create.php>.]
**Branscomb, L.M. & J.H. Keller, eds. 1999. "Investing in Innovation: Creating a Research and Innovation Policy That Works." MIT Press. Amazon.com information at <http://tinyurl.com/p6zrl>. Note the "Search inside this book feature.

**Branscomb, L.M. 1995. "Confessions of a Technophile." AIP Press. Amazon.com information at <http://tinyurl.com/m3epy>. Note the "Search inside this book feature.

**Christensen, C.M. 2003. "The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail." Collins. Amazon.com information at <http://tinyurl.com/nsqso>. Note the "Search inside this book feature.

Daedalus. 1998. "Education yesterday, education tomorrow." Daedalus 127(4). The online description, formerly at
<http://daedalus.amacad.org/inprint.html> has rotted and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences <http://www.amacad.org/>, former publishers of Daedalus, have seen fit to list only the *titles* of past issues at <http://www.amacad.org/publications/back_issues.aspx>. The MIT press, current publishers of Daedalus, list at <http://www.mitpressjournals.org/loi/daed> only issues back to 1 September 2003 :-(.

Hake, R.R. 2002. "Lessons from the physics education reform effort," Ecology and Society 5(2): 28; online at
<http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol5/iss2/art28/>. Ecology and Society
(formerly Conservation Ecology) is a free online "peer-reviewed journal of integrative science and fundamental policy research" with about 11,000 subscribers in about 108 countries.

Hake, R. R. 2005. "The Physics Education Reform Effort: A Possible Model for Higher Education," online as ref. 37 at <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake> or download directly by clicking on
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/NTLF42.pdf> (100 kB). This is a
slightly edited version of an article that was (a) published in the National Teaching and Learning Forum 15(1), December 2005, online to subscribers at
<http://www.ntlf.com>, and (b) disseminated by the Tomorrow's Professor list
<http://ctl.stanford.edu/Tomprof/postings.html> as Msg. 698 on 14 Feb 2006.

Hake, R.R. 2006. "Eleven Quotes in Honor of Inertia," online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0606&L=pod&O=D&P=10198>. Post of 13 Jun 2006 15:01:14-0700 to AERA-L, PhysLrnR, and POD.

**Hughes, T.P. 2004. "American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm: 1870-1970." University of Chicago Press. Amazon.com information at <http://tinyurl.com/lezvd>. Note the "Search inside this book feature.

**Rogers, E.M. 2003. "Diffusion of Innovations," 5th edition. Free Press. Amazon.com information at <http://tinyurl.com/o33jg>. Note the "Search inside this book feature.

**Riordan, M. & L. Hoddeson. 1998. "Crystal Fire: The Invention of the Transistor and the The Birth of the Information Age." W.W. Norton. Amazon.com information at <http://tinyurl.com/laujh>. Note the "Search inside this book feature.

**Townes, C.H. 2002. "How the Laser Happened: Adventures of a Scientist." Oxford University Press. Amazon.com information at <http://tinyurl.com/ncd89>. Note the "Search inside this book feature.