Fostering Systems Thinking Within Engineers Without Borders Student Teams Using Group Model Building

摘要

Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-USA) developed the Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (PMEL) framework to confront the complex challenges inherent in international community development projects. The first critical step of the PMEL framework requires thoughtful exploration of `` pathways'' to community change: a series of proposed actions that lead to a set of positive outcomes within the community. In this study, we investigate the benefit of using Group Model Building (GMB) as a way to improve the outcome of brainstorming sessions, a key aspect of team decision making within this first step of the PMEL framework. Here we posit an important mechanism for an improved outcome in brainstorming sessions would be a shift in student mental models towards system thinking. In order to assess the value proposition of GMB in project decision making, a two-session GMB workshop was held with a EWB-USA student team working on a rural water project in Peru. A mixed-methods approach was used to extract and analyze participant mental models before and after the workshop to measure growth in systems thinking. The results of the study indicate compelling shifts in participants' mental models towards those of systems thinkers, including an understanding of important factors and how they influence as a system to impact project sustainability. Marked changes in project planning action items were also observed along with an alignment of their proposed change pathways. Overall, the project team gained a more complete understanding and appreciation of project complexity and of the factors that contribute to project success. Thus, GMBprovides a useful technique to teach engineering students systems thinking, while possibly improving the quality, and thus sustainability, of EWB community development projects.