While I fully agree with the below, in the face of an event it is hard not to lose sight of the behavioural perspective. There are some interesting journalistic approaches to this – Slow Journalism and magazines like Delayed Gratification, for example, purposefully delay their publications so that the behavioural view is easier to see.
I wonder how we could do this in schools? The obvious event (perhaps especially given the time of year) is the exam result. GCSEs, entrance exams and the like are clearly ripe for fast news, event-type thinking: emotive, well-signalled, and sometimes high-stakes. Typically, too, the teacher at the time will get the blame or praise, or at least far more of it than those who have taught the subject in the years prior.
What techniques do schools have to encourage the behavioural, slower, structural view?
(I should add: Meadows’ book on systems is a brilliant primer.)
