Subject: Emprical research about how to teach/learn systems thinking skills

Posted by Richard Plate on 3/9/2007
In Reply To:Emprical research about how to teach/learn systems thinking skills Posted by Jay W. Forrester on 2/24/2007

Message:

I sympathize with Dr. Forrester’s concerns in that systems thinking can be a somewhat fuzzy term. I recently finished my dissertation, focusing on the effect that systems-oriented instruction has on students’ ability to understand a complex environmental system. I defined systems-oriented instruction as instruction designed to foster systems thinking, which left me with the task of defining systems thinking as an operationalized way.

I attempted to do this by defining systems thinking as awareness and basic understanding of the prevalence of non-linear causal structures--an alternative to our tendency to think in purely linear causal structures--and I used several of the systems archetypes to illustrate some common ways in which non-linear causal structures affect system behavior. To measure this, I used cognitive mapping exercises in which the participants read a brief article about a hypothetical fishery controversy involving ecological, economic, and social processes and then expressed associations and causal connections between keys aspects of the situation (as identified by each participant). By converting these maps to matrices, I was able to show quantitatively that the students who had received systems training were more likely to be aware of ecological and social aspects of the fishery described and included a higher level of non- linear causality in their mental maps of the issue.

In addition, I had experts, including systems ecologists, an ecological modeler, and a fisheries specialist go through the same exercise. Comparison of these expert maps to the participant maps showed that the students who had received systems-based instruction created causal maps that were more similar to the expert maps than were the control group’s maps.

Admittedly, as these maps are static, they do not necessarily show better understanding of the dynamics that complex systems exhibit. Nonetheless, these results, I think, provide evidence that there is indeed value to having basic systems-thinking skills, even in the absence of formal modeling skills. The students who had received systems training were able to create more sophisticated and more accurate (based on expert maps) mental models of a situation on which they had no prior training.

While teaching modeling to students is certainly a worthy endeavor, my own focus is on the value of systems thinking in education for sustainability, and I suspect that teaching basic systems thinking skills is more likely to gain broad acceptance than more formal modeling skills. Some may argue that too much is sacrifice to gain that acceptance, even basic systems thinking skills represent a marked improvement over purely linear thinking.

Cheers,
Richard

Follow Ups:

Teaching/learning systems thinking - Daniel D Burke 3/14/2007 
Emprical research about how to teach/learn systems thinking skills - Patrick Kunz 3/9/2007