Systems thinking: critical thinking skills for the 1990s and beyond

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114 System Dynamics Review Volume 9 Number 2 Summer 1993light on what wehave to bestow andon the educationsystem that is toreceive our bounty.Its intended audienceis both systemthinkers andeducators, and thehope is to helperadicate thedistinction betweenthe two.Barry Richmond ismanaging directorand founder of HighPerformance Systems,an organizationproviding softwareand consultingservices to build thecapacity of people tounderstand and improvethe workingsof dynamic systems.Dr. Richmond is theimpetus behind theiThink and STELLAII modeling andsimulation softwarepackages. He hastaught at ThayerSchool of Engineering,Dartmouth College,and holds a Ph.D. degree in systemdynamics from SloanSchool ofManagement, MIT,and degrees fromSyracuse, Columbia,and Case WesternReserve universities.Address: High PerformanceSystems,45 Lyme Rd.,Hanover, NH 03755,U.S.A.realities." In these electronic realities, people will be able to participate increating powerful, visceral experiences for themselves. But, no matterhow advanced the technology gets, it will always be only part of thesolution. If people are to make sense of their experiences in virtualrealities, they must have the capacity for understanding the underlyingclosed-loop framework that is generating these experiences. They mustbe capable of thinking both systemically and dynamically. In short, theymust be systems thinkers. This, in turn, brings us back to along-unanswered question, which has plagued system dynamics from itsoutset some 30 years ago at that venerable technical university on theCharles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The question is, How canthe framework, the process, and the technologies of systems thinking betransferred to the rest of the world in an amount of time that isconsiderably less than what it currently takes to get a master's or Ph.D.degree in our field?I will argue that to successfully answer this question it isnecessary to confront two aspects of the transfer process. We first mustbetter understand the evolution of the education system into which thetransfer must be made (this system offers the best potential forlarge-scale transfer). Second, we must better understand the "thing" weare seeking to transfer. Specifically, we must understand that this "thing"is multifaceted. As such, for people to swallow and digest it, it must bebroken down into more consumable pieces.Aspect 1: the evolution of the education systemLike any viable system, our system of formal education isevolving over time. The last several decades have seen numerousinnovative experiments in educational progress and technology. Openclassrooms, computer-aided instruction, and interdisciplinary courseofferings are but a few of the initiatives that have been and are beingtried. It is my perception that the time is now ripe for three evolutionarythreads to come together to form a new learning gestalt. The threethreads, illustrated in Figure 1, are educational process, thinkingparadigm, and learning tools. The evolutionary fusing of these threethreads can successfully create a permanent change in the way peoplelearn. The evolution of each thread, taken independently, cannot.Thread 1: educational processI will refer to the newly emerging educational process as learnerdirectedlearning. I like this phrase because it positions the process insharp relief against the process that has dominated teaching for at leastthe last 200 years: teacher-directed learning.
Richmond: Systems Thinking 115Fig. 1. Threeevolutionarythreads ineducationWe are all, to varying degrees, products of a teacher-directedlearning process. In this process, the classroom is arranged with studentsfacing the front, in rows or nested U's. At the front is "Herr Professor."Herr Professor's job is to transmit what he or she knows to the students.The student's job is to take in as much of this transmission as possible.This is why it is important for students to "be quiet and pay attention" inthe classroom. A schematic representation of the teacher-directed learningprocess appears at the left in Figure 2.It is important to reveal the implicit assumption about learning thatunderlies a teacher-directed learning process. It is that learning is primarilyan assimilation process. This assumption, in turn, defines appropriateroles for both teacher and student. Teacher is transmitter, or contentdispenser. Student is receiver, or content receptacle. The objective of theeducational process, then, is for the teacher to "fill up" the student.Measuring performance in this system is straightforward. Simply ask thestudent to retransmit what has previously been transmitted by the teacher.If the student can "dump" a full load, he is performing well. It'sinteresting to note that the teacher-directed learning process tacitly assumesthat the students do not have much to contribute to each other's learningexperience. Otherwise, they would not be arrayed in a physicalarrangement in which they face the back of each other's heads.Contrast the teacher-directed learning process with alearner-directed approach, illustrated at the right in Figure 2. Thelearner-directed approach assumes that learning is fundamentally aconstruction rather than an assimilation process. This means that to learnthe student must reconstruct what is being taken in. Meaning andunderstanding are "making" processes, not "imbibing" processes.Extending this assumption leads to the conclusion that because there aremany strategies for "making," learning cannot be standardized. Peopleconstruct in different ways, at different paces, and in different
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