Systems Thinking Skills

From the Center for Ecoliteracy

http://www.ecoliteracy.org/education/sys-thinking.html

In Science for All Americans, the American Association for the Advancement of Science defines a "system" simply as "any collection of things that have some influence on each other....The things can be almost anything, including objects, organisms, machines, processes, ideas, numbers, or organizations. Thinking of a collection of things as a system draws our attention to what needs to be included among the parts to make sense of it, to how its parts interact with one another, and to how the system as a whole relates to other systems."

Individual "things" (plants, people, schools, watersheds) are themselves systems, and are not sustainable separate from the larger systems in which they exist. The Center for Ecoliteracy recognizes that learning to think systemically is critical to education for sustainability. One of the ways that teachers and schools teach systemic thinking is to model it themselves.

Shifts in Perception

According to Fritjof Capra, systems thinking requires thinking in terms of relationships, connectedness, and context. Thinking systemically also requires several shifts in perception, which lead in turn to different ways to teach, and different ways to organize society:

From parts to the whole

Systems are integrated wholes whose properties cannot be reduced to those of smaller parts. Their "systemic" properties are properties of the whole which are possessed by none of the parts. The nature and quality of what students learn is strongly affected by the culture of the whole school, not just the individual classroom. This shift in perception can also lead to moving from curricula based on single subject matters to integrated curricula.

From objects to relationships

An ecosystem is not just a collection of species, but is a community. Communities, whether ecosystems or human systems, are made up of sets, or networks, of relationships. In the systems view, the "objects" of study are networks of relationships. Organizations, including schools, that adopt this perspective are more likely to emphasize relationship-based processes such as cooperation and decision-making by consensus.

From objective knowledge to contextual knowledge

Shifting focus from the parts to the whole implies shifting from analytical thinking to contextual thinking. Since explaining things in terms of their contexts means explaining them in terms of their environments, all systems thinking is environmental thinking. This shift sometimes results in schools' focusing on project-based learning instead of prescriptive curricula. It also encourages teachers to serve as facilitators and fellow learners alongside students, rather than as experts dispensing knowledge.

From quantity to quality

Through much of the history of Western science, many of its practitioners have maintained that only things that can be measured and quantified can be expressed in scientific models. It has sometimes been implied that phenomena that can be measured and quantified are more important—and perhaps even that what cannot be measured and quantified doesn't exist at all. Relationships and context, however, cannot be put on a scale or measured with a ruler. In practice, this shift can lead to seeking more comprehensive forms of assessment besides standardized testing.

From structure to process

Living systems develop and evolve. Therefore, understanding them requires understanding renewal, change, and transformation. In practice, this shift can result in shifting emphasis to how a student solves a problem rather than on whether or not he or she gets the "right" answer. In communities, it can mean that the process for making decisions is often as important as the decisions themselves.

From contents to patterns

When we draw maps of relationships, we discover that certain configurations of relationships appear again and again. We call these configurations patterns. Instead of focusing on what a living system is made of, we study its patterns. This shift leads to discovering that understanding how a pattern works in one natural or social system helps us to understand other systems that manifest the same pattern.

Competencies

In addition to environmental knowledge, education for sustainability includes the acquisition of particular skills, values, and vision needed to put that knowledge into practice.

Education for sustainable living cultivates competencies of head, heart, hands, and spirit to enable children to develop toward becoming citizens capable of designing and maintaining sustainable societies. A few of these competencies:

HEAD

Ecological knowledge

The ability to think systemically

The ability to think critically, to solve problems creatively, and to apply environmental ethics to new situations

The ability to assess the impact of human technologies and actions and to envision the long-term consequences of decisions

HEART

A deeply felt, not just understood, concern for the well-being of the Earth and of all living things

Empathy and the ability to see from and appreciate multiple perspectives

A commitment to equity, justice, inclusivity, and respect for all people

Skills in building, governing, and sustaining communities

HANDS

The ability to apply ecological knowledge to the practice of ecological design

Practical skills to create and use tools, objects, and procedures required by sustainable communities

The ability to assess and make adjustments to uses of energy and resources

The capacity to convert convictions into practical and effective action

SPIRIT

A sense of wonder

A capacity for reverence

A deep appreciation of place

A feeling of kinship with the natural world, and the ability to invoke that feeling in others