Developing Capacity for Systems Thinking in Schools

摘要

The Systems Thinking in Schools programs, supported by the Waters Foundation, serve to build systems thinking and modeling capacity in teachers and students nationwide. The Creative Learning Exchange also serves to increase system dynamics and systems thinking capacity in school communities through dissemination of curricular materials and a biannual conference. Because the field of systems thinking in education is so new and substantive research findings are limited in scope, there is a need to expand programs and curricular applications to gather evidence of improved learning outcomes. Before more research can be done towards measuring learning outcomes, there is a need to understand the barriers for both new Systems Thinking in Schools movements being initiated, and for established movements maintaining support and capacity. To best address this discrepancy in understanding, the author finds it most productive to create visualizations of the situation with the help of stakeholders and literature. Through a system dynamics framework, the author will construct a model to empower schools looking to include systems thinking in their curriculum and programs.