Understanding Educational Systems

Understanding Educational Systems

Once a new technology rolls over you, if you’re not part of the steamroller, you’re part of the road

Stewart Brand

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. That’s a clear prescription for disaster

Carl Sagan

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity

Albert Einstein

Systems Thinking

Computational Thinking

Design Thinking

Futures Thinking

Strategic Thinking Solutions Thinking .

Global Warming

Armed Conflicts

Food Scarcity

Clean Water

Ageing Population

Obesity

Overpopulation

Alternative Energy

Education

Health Care

Epidemics

Housing and Shelter

Big Problems

Systems Thinking

Systems Thinking makes it possible to analyse and understand complex phenomena

Systems Thinking

Instead of isolating smaller and smaller parts of the system being studied, systems thinking works by expanding its view to consider larger and larger

numbers of interactions as an issue is being studied

Systems Thinking

Thinking consists of two activities: constructing mental models and then simulating them in order to draw conclusions and make decisions

Barry Richmond

Understanding the concept of a tree requires more information than is available through sensory experience alone. It’s built on past experiences and knowledge.

Mental Models

The image of the world around us, which we carry in our head, is just a model. Nobody in his head imagines all the world… they have only selected concepts, and relationships between them, and uses those to represent the real system

Jay Forrester

The problems we have created in the world today will not be solved by the level of thinking that created them

Albert Einstein

We are limited in our capacity to form and reform mental models. Systems modelling allows us to move from “what” to “what if” and make our thinking visible

The basic building blocks of dynamic models are stocks, flows, and loops

Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful

George Box

A supermarket can be seen as any of the following kinds of systems, depending on the perspective:

a "profit making system" … from the perspective of management and owners

a "distribution system“… from the perspective of the suppliers

an "employment system“… from the perspective of employees

a "materials supply system“… from the perspective of customers

an "entertainment system“… from the perspective of loiterers

a "social system" …from the perspective of local residents

a "dating system" …from the perspective of single customers

Students need learn to identify the properties of the various subsystems they explore, for example of a bicycle,

and examine how they relate to the whole. Children tend to think of the properties of a system as

belonging to individual parts of it rather than as arising from the interaction of the parts. A system property that

arises from interaction of parts is therefore a difficult idea.

Students should already know that if something consists of many parts, the parts usually influence one another.

Also they should be aware that something may not work as well (or at all) if a part of it is missing, broken, worn out,

mismatched, or misconnected.

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Students can learn about the choices and constraints that

go into the design of a bicycle system. Depending

on whether the bicycle is intended for racing,

mountain roads, or touring, influences its design and

such choices as the type of tires, frame and materials,

and drives and gears.

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Subsystems could include:

The Wheel Drivers & Gears

Frames & Materials Brakes & Steering

Aerodynamics Power System

Behaviour (changes) over time

Weather

Weather

Attendance

Tying Shoes

Experiments

Literature

Tortoise vs the Hare

Identifying Change Over Time in Text

Behaviour over time

Behaviour over time

Behaviour over time

Stocks and Flows

Stocks are the foundation of any system and are the elements that you can see, feel, count, or measure Stocks do not have to be physical

Stocks

Reservoirs

Reservoirs

Reservoirs

Money

Air Quality

Air Quality

Air Quality

Animal Populations

Animal Populations

Human Populations

Stock changes over time

IncreasingDecreasingOscillating

Stable

Stocks change over time through the actions of a flow A stock is the present memory of the changing flows within a system

Flow

A feedback loop is formed when changes in a stock affect the flows into or out of that same stock Balancing feedback loops are stability seeking and try to keep a stock at a certain level or within a certain range Reinforcing feedback loops occur when a system element has the ability to reproduce itself or grow at a constant fraction of itself

Loops

Marker Pen Scarcity

Population Change

Endangered Animals

Professional Development

Symbols

A converter holds information or

relationships that affect the rate of the flows, or that

affect the content of another converter

A connector indicates that

changes in one element cause

changes in another element; only

changes a stock by going through an

accompanying flow

A flow represents actions or processes; transports “stuff”,

concrete or abstract, that directly adds to or takes away from accumulation in a stock;

the verbs in the system

A stock represents an accumulation,

concrete or abstract, that increases or

decreases over time; the nouns in

the system

Feedback Loops

Rumours

Increasing or compounding Reinforcing Feedback

Avalanche


Epidemics


World Population


Soil Fertility

Decreasing or collapsing Reinforcing Feedback

Predator / Prey

Equalising / Oscillating Balancing Feedback

Fire Management

Equalising / Oscillating Balancing Feedback

Growing Plants

Causal Loops

Immunisation

Causal Loops

Friendships

Reinforcing Causal Loops

Types of loops

Balancing Feedback

Connection Circle

Connection Circle

Causal Loop

Connection Circle

Causal Loop

Connection Circle

Causal Loop

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