WHAT - WHY - HOW of Systems Thinking

What is systems thinking?

"What do we mean when we say "systems thinking"? We can use the phrase to refer to a set of tools - such as causal loop diagrams, stock and flow diagrams and simulation models - that help us map and explore dynamic complexity. We can also use it to mean a unique perspective on reality - a perspective that sharpens our awareness of whole and of how the parts within those wholes interrelate. Finally, systems thinking can refer to a special vocabulary with which we express our understanding of dynamic complexity. For example, systems thinkers often describe the world in terms of reinforcing and balancing processes, limits, delays, patterns of behavior over time, and so forth." - Barry Richmond, High Performance Systems

What is a systems thinker?

A systems thinker is one who has internalized the habits of systems thinking.   The Habits of a Systems Thinker are supported by a set of: 
           A. concepts           
           B. vocabulary           
           C. visual tools

These visual tools are used to increase understanding and communication about situations in both the short term AND long term, looking at the details AND the big picture. It is a language of relationships, which is used to help students understand the forest AND the trees, and how and why the forest and the trees are continuously changing over time.

What is a Systems Citizen?

Systems citizens strive to understand the complexities of today's world and have the capability to face into problems with an informed capacity to make a positive difference.

What are the habits of a  systems thinker?

Click here to order Habits of a Systems Thinker cards and posters.

What are the systems thinking tools?

Behavior-over-time graphs:                        

Used to visualize how variables change over time. 

Causal Loop Diagrams:

Used to visualize causal relationships and circular feedback. 

 

Stock/Flow Diagrams:

Used to concretely visualize how and why variables change in a system, and as a first step in making dynamic computer models.

 

Dynamic computer models:             

Used to allow students to visualize and to test their thinking via computer simulation

What are key systems thinking concepts?

Mental Models

Our beliefs, assumptions, and ideas about how things work. Mental models are often hidden, even from ourselves.
    

Dynamic System

Systems, which change over time, are dynamic.  Growth, decay, and oscillations are the fundamental patterns of systems.

Change Over Time            

There are patterns in the world that we can understand, with a little effort. These patterns are usually generated by interconnectedness.

Feedback            

The real world often operates in circular causality, not just cause and effect.

Leverage

How can I generate viable options and solve real problems in a complex and interconnected world?

What is dynamic modeling?

"Model building is central to our understanding of real world phenomena. We all create mental models of the world around us, dissecting our observations into cause and effect. Such mental models enable us, for example, to successfully cross a busy street. Engineers, biologists, and social scientists simply mimic their observations in a formal way. With the advent of personal computers and graphical programming, we can all create more complex models of the phenomena in the world around. As Heinz Pagels (1988) has noted, the computer model process is to the mind what the telescope and the microscope are to the eye. We can model the macroscopic results of microphenomena, and vice versa. We can lay out the various possible futures of the dynamic process. We can begin to explain and perhaps even to predict." -Bruce Hannon and Ruth Matthias, Dynamic Modeling

What We Know so Far Based on five years of Waters Foundation teachers' action research studies,  there is evidence to support the following compelling trends:

Making Thinking Visible

Students use systems thinking tools to clarify and visually represent their understanding of complex systems.  This visual approach allows the students and others to interact with and explore thoughts, perceptions, and mental models with precision and clarity. Students use behavior-over-time graphs (BOTGs) to depict their understanding of patterns and trends.  BOTGs are visual tools that help students describe orally and in writing what and how they are thinking. Connection circles and causal loop diagrams help students describe their understanding of the connections and interdependencies of complex systems including  historical systems, scientific systems, economic systems, cultural systems, political systems, and literary systems, both fiction and nonfiction. Students for whom English is a second language have demonstrated marked improvements communicating their thinking both orally and in writing as a result of using behavior-over-time graphs, causal loop diagrams, and the other systems tools. When students make their thinking visible through the use of systems tools, teachers can immediately identify misconceptions that students may have about curricular content.

Making Connections

Systems thinking tools help students make connections between curricular areas and relevant life experiences. When students use systems thinking concepts and tools, teachers have noted an increased number of incidences of transfer from classroom lessons to students’ real-life experiences. An understanding of system structures enables students to see the similarities between seemingly different systems.  For example, the understanding of how a contagious disease infects a population helps students understand how a rumor spreads or a fashion trend grows.

Solving Problems

Students of all ages learn and independently use systems thinking problem-solving strategies. Students experienced in recognizing and using systems thinking concepts and tools seek out new and varied perspectives when solving problems. Students use systems thinking vocabulary and concepts to question and challenge seemingly obvious solutions to complex problems.  For instance, students use systems thinking archetypes like Fixes that Fail and Shifting the Burden to identify and analyze both short and long-term effects of actions. Systems thinking concepts and tools help students understand their own beliefs/mental models and behaviors.  Students use BOTGs for self-assessing how behaviors and emotions change over time; ladder of inference for understanding the development of inferences; and causal loop archetypes for retelling the dynamics of particular situations.

Developing Readers and Writers

Systems thinking concepts and tools help students develop as readers and writers.  When students use the concepts and tools of systems thinking, they are better able to retell and summarize a piece of writing; analyze character, plot, setting and theme and the relationships between these literary components; identify point of view and the author's/characters' mental models; describe cause and effect relationships; express themselves descriptively.

Increasing Engagement

When using systems thinking concepts and tools, many students show increased motivation, engagement, and self-esteem. When using systems thinking tools as a prewriting strategy, students who had been producing below-average writing wrote more (quantity) and developed more thoughtful, insightful content (quality) than they had previously. When asked to "tell the story of a line" (BOTGs), "tell the story of a loop" (causal loop diagrams), or "describe a stock-flow map," many usually reluctant students were more willing to participate in front of others, using visual diagrams as they described ideas or theories.  Students in special education classes voiced satisfaction at being able to understand challenging concepts typically presented to their non-special educations peers but not to them.

Tool-Specific Findings

Behavior-over-time graphs (BOTG)

Behavior-over-time graphs (BOTGs) helped students increase their skills with the mechanics of coordinate graphing. In math, when students were given a story describing linear growth or decay, BOTGs helped them graph accurately, interpret the graph as a function, and interpret the relationship between rate and slope. BOTGs helped students accurately compare and contrast two different linear functions and to compare a linear function with an exponential function. BOTGs helped students visually describe change over time that was occurring in a system (a story, an historical period of time, a math word problem) that also helped them effectively write about their interpretation of the patterns and trends within a given system.

Causal Loop Diagrams

Causal loop diagrams helped students identify cause and effect connections and feedback relationships within systems.  For example, in music appreciation, students were able to draw connections between changes in society and the evolution of rock and roll in the United States. Causal loop diagrams and causal loop archetypes helped students apply their understanding of generic system structures and real-world situations.   Causal loop diagrams helped to increase student awareness of various factors that contribute to cause and effect relationships (e.g. the environmental and social causes and effects that characterized the Dust Bowl).

Stock-Flow Mapping

Stock-flow mapping helped students express their ideas both orally and in writing.   For example, in language arts students drew stock-flow maps to identify important accumulations (stocks) and other influencing structures when reading and analyzing literature.  In social studies students demonstrated understanding of the developmental process of an invention.   In social studies, stock-flow mapping, as a pre-writing exercise, helped students enhance the quality of their written explanation of underlying reasons for events occurring in various historical periods.

Dynamic Computer Modeling

Dynamic modeling provided students a greater ability to analyze graphs (the output of a computer model) and to look for the parts and interactions that make up a system.   Dynamic modeling positively influenced the level of student discussion as students communicated insights and perceptions that represented higher level thinking.   When using dynamic computer simulations, traditionally under-performing students nearly equaled the performance of their classmates.  Dynamic modeling helped students differentiate among the various structures that contribute to linear growth, linear decay, and nonlinear patterns of change (e.g. exponential growth).    Dynamic modeling provided students with opportunities to make predictions about how a system might change given certain conditions, and then test their predictions by running the model.

Other Visual Tools

The use of visual tools such as the ladder of inference and the iceberg were found to positively impact reading comprehension.  The tools helped students as they were asked to explain their understanding (both orally and in writing) of what they read.  This finding was supported in both language arts and social studies.   The use of visual systems thinking tools such as the ladder of inference and the iceberg were helpful as students engaged in classroom discussions.  The tools serve as organizing thinking maps that enabled students to construct and communicate their understanding of subject matter.   In social studies, the iceberg helped students understand detail, explain cause and effect, see patterns, and grasp the value and impact of historical events.

Click here to view a list of helpful resources. 

For more information regarding action research please contact Tracy Benson.

Telephone:  520.745.4588
Fax: 520.745.5396
Email:  t.benson@watersfoundation.org

Why should I learn about systems thinking?

People who practice systems thinking often report that it sharpens and clarifies their entire world view. Confusing, disconnected snapshots of life start to make more sense when understood as patterns of change over time. The effects of undesirable patterns may be lessened and the influence of beneficial patterns may be increased by deeper understanding of the system causing the behavior. The sudden surprises, hidden resistance, and underlying harmony generated by feedback relationships become less mysterious. Experience with understanding the world in terms of stocks and flows leads to simple, powerful questions such as: What is accumulating here? Why does it inflow or outflow? Where exactly does it come from and where does it go?  Many of us have some sense that everything is connected to everything else. Systems thinking provides tools to better understand and communicate these connections.

Why do K-12 educators believe systems thinking is  important?

Dynamic systems predominate in the world. Understanding dynamic systems is crucial to successful learning and living. Demonstrated understanding of dynamic systems is an integral part of local, state, and national standards in many curricular areas. Practicing the habits, concepts and tools of systems thinking/dynamic modeling allows students to develop and demonstrate understanding of dynamic systems.
For over ten years now, K-12 educators have been utilizing systems thinking/dynamic modeling in classrooms across the United States. Applications vary greatly and have been implemented in many areas of the curriculum and at every grade level. No matter the topic or the age of the students, reports of success are consistent. What is the basis for these enthusiastic reports? Is it the use of technology? Students certainly enjoy the unique use of computers. However, the attention to task and the learning results seem to occur even in connected activities that do not require the computer.
Exploration of dynamic complexity is a highly motivating learning experience for students. Their learning is enhanced by the "real" nature of the problems that they explore and the sense that they are developing skills that will prove useful throughout their lives. The merging of system dynamics and the characteristics of effective instruction creates tremendous potential for engaging students in powerful learning experiences.
Research shows that instructional settings that optimize learning should be student-centered, experiential, holistic, and authentic. In addition, students should be provided opportunities to utilize many forms of expression, to reflect, to interact with other students, and to collaborate. Learning should be developmental and should involve the construction of ideas and systems. Effective applications of systems thinking/dynamic modeling include all of these characteristics. What appears to be most successful is an essential combination of the powerful concepts and tools of system dynamics with best practice in instructional strategies.
(Mary Scheetz, Panel Presentation - International Conference of the System dynamics Society, Bergen, Norway, 8/00)Research Source: Best Practice - New Standards for Teaching and Learning in America's Schools Steven Zemelman, Harvey Daniels, Arthur Hyde (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1998)

How do K-12 educators use systems thinking?

Quotations from educators using systems thinking and dynamic modeling:"Behavior-over-time graphs are a concrete representation of student thinking that leads into a student-run discussion. The kids LOVE it when I issue each group an overhead transparency for their graph and explanations."
"STELLA® is a tool that gives students a concrete means to explore their thinking and to test its validity. As they create models, students think through the relationships inherent in a piece of literature."
"By using the models, it's possible to see the problem more clearly, have deeper understanding. It's an extension on lab experiences."
"We used to make up things for interdisciplinary units, this is real. We are looking for universal patterns that transcend disciplines."
"It makes math and science a part of everything else."
"Systems thinking and dynamic modeling teach us how important it is to look for feedback in all systems and how it affects those systems, and where the leverage points might be."
"It allows me to approach problems in classrooms that are beyond the normal scope of the course and the normal skills of high school students AND the results include greater student understanding."
"I am seeing the interconnectedness of all things, especially in light of how my actions affect those around me, whether they be my family, my students, or my fellow travelers on the interstate."
"As students cycle back and forth between hands on data from real events and STELLA® models which attempt to simulate those events, they grow in their confidence to build and refine models to better approximate reality. This is an empowering experience for them as they begin to understand concepts to a greater depth."
"Using SD must fit in a curricular context, not just be added, but it should be integrated within a planned framework."

Systems Thinking Rubrics

Systems Thinking Instructional Capacity Rubric Focus Areas Novice Basic Proficient Advanced Planning Teacher uses existing lessons obtained from websites, books, training, or other teachers with little to no modification. Teacher is able, with some assistance, to adapt existing lessons to the curriculum, standards, and specific needs of students. Teacher independently adapts existing lesson or unit plan to the curriculum, standards, and specific needs of students. Teacher integrates ST habits, concepts and tools into instruction in multiple contexts over the course of the school year. Application of ST is evident beyond specified lesson plans. Instruction There is no evidence that a lesson incorporating ST concepts and tools has taken place. Teacher requires assistance teaching a lesson incorporating the ST concepts and tools. Teacher independently teaches an ST lesson without assistance. Teacher mentors colleagues by    - inviting other teachers to observe,    - assisting others in planning or      debriefing an ST lesson, and    - observing others and providing      feedback on an ST lesson. Habits of Systems Thinking There is little to no evidence that habits of systems thinking are incorporated into lessons. Teacher refers to habits of systems thinking during instruction. Teacher refers to habits of systems thinking often and helps students make connections between learning goals and specific habits of systems thinking. Teacher fosters student ability to independently refer to habits of systems thinking and make connections between learning goals and specific habits of systems thinking. Systems Thinking Tools (BOTG, CLD, S/F map/model, Iceberg, ladder of Inference, connection circle) Students observe teacher using a systems thinking tool during instruction. Teacher uses guided instruction when using a systems thinking tool during instruction. Teacher uses both guided instruction and independent student practice when using a systems thinking tool during instruction. Teacher fosters students independently choosing and using an appropriate systems thinking tool when participating in learning activities. Transfer Little to no evidence of transfer is observable. During instruction, teacher helps students transfer understanding of how one system operates by comparing it to another system of a different type that operates in a similar manner. During instruction, teacher asks students to transfer understanding of how one system operates by comparing it to another system of a different type that operates in a similar manner. Teacher fosters students independently transferring understanding of how one system operates by comparing it to another system of a different type that operates in a similar manner. Student Work Samples No evidence of ST student work is observable or available. Teacher representation of student work is shared, as when a teacher draws a visual representation of what students describe. Teacher shares samples of work illustrating the students systems thinking abilities. Teacher shares student work with colleagues and actively asks for and offers critique that informs instruction.

Click here to download a PDF of Student Systems Thinking Rubrics

Examples of systems thinking in action?

In history class, students study the inter-dependent relationships between oppression, power, and rebellion in order to better understand the causes of various revolutions.

In literature class, students use a computer simulation of the novel, "The Giver", to discover the possible results of changes in the society represented in the story.

In the community, city planners use causal loop diagrams to study long-term, unintended consequences of a new policy.  They consider potential effects throughout the system – not just in the immediate proximity.

In science class, students graph the growth patterns over time of various populations in a pond and look for possible clues to understanding the extreme level of toxicity in the water.
In a family, parents discuss how the high expectations they have can contribute to their child's under-performance in school.

In a math class, students compare the long-term results of saving money at different rates of interest, patterns of deposits, amounts of time, etc.  Students build computer models to compare results.

In a school, a principal asks staff members to identify the mental models that would be most supportive of student success and enthusiasm about learning.  The staff works together to test these assumptions, design school structures to develop those mental models, consistently checks on results, and makes related adjustments.

In a committee meeting, a member asks, "What assumptions are we making about this problem? How could we test those assumptions?"

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