"Teaching students to think in complex systems and design is presumably intricate, creative, and nonlinear," write the authors. True enough. But as I have followed Doug Belshaw's course notes in systems thinking I've had this thought as well: "due to the overwhelming number of standardized tools and frameworks, the process sometimes ends up being procedural and deductive. Conformity to rigid procedures loses the intention of creative problem-solving towards tackling wicked problems." Quite so. But how to teach systems thinking in a way that doesn't just replicate the teaching of any other logic or deductive framework. This paper (17 page PDF) describes a partially successful project-based approach with integration for real-world applications. But the workload! I don't think you can just do it in a single course; it's an approach that needs to inform the whole of learning. (P.S. one of my earliest experiences of self-directed learning was my disassembly of a Christmas present, specifically the Big Bruiser, to see how it worked.)
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