EVALUATION OF SYSTEMS THINKING SKILLS WİTH CASE STUDIES

[Michael Hayes]

EVALUATION OF SYSTEMS THINKING 

SKILLS WİTH CASE STUDIES

From Chapter 9, Pages 194/195:

"1. Introduction 

As the world becomes more global, issues in daily life have become 

more complex and multidimensional (Grohs et al., 2018). Complex 

systems contain many interrelated sub-levels. Therefore, it is necessary 

to establish a network of relationships between lower levels. But these 

connections are not always obvious and it makes hard to perceive (Hmelo-Silver 

& Pfeffer, 2004). Complex systems are defined by its patterns, cyclical nature 

and relationships in the system. Systems thinking skill (STS) can be a tool to understand cyclical and integrated relationships in complex systems (Hung, 2008). System thinking is generally a high-level thinking skill (Lee, 2015; Zoller, 2011; Hung, 2008). With this feature, it makes easy to understand the different elements, the relationships among sub-elements. It is also a cognitive ability that expands the sense of event and facilitates the understanding of complex correlations that occur within the framework (Zoller & Nahum, 2012). Solutions to the problems in the system are produced by successfully understanding the 

relationships and cycles within the system (Wylie et al., 1998). The development of STS is considered a critical skill in solving interdisciplinary problems. This capability is necessary to solve socio-technical and socio-scientific issues that often need knowledge over their distinctive discipline and applications (Johnson et al., 2022; Mazzurco & Daniel, 2020). STS enables dealing with large amounts of information. Thus, it improves decision-making skills (Raved &Yarden, 

2014). In the literature, STS performance is grouped as a deep unifying structure consisting of ruptures and remedial maintenance. The National Research Council (NRC) has recognized the STS as one of the 21st century’s education trend topic (NRC, 2010). STS includes analysis, evaluation and memorable information about the advancements in the system and their distribution. It is important to develop answers to science and society (Wylie et al., 1998). 

Scientific, technical and contextual information is needed to solve complex life problems (Mazzurco & Daniel, 2020). This information includes 

technology, stakeholders, society, culture, politics, economy and environment (Evans, 2018; Leydens et al., 2018; Davis et al., 2021; Skokan et al., 2021). STS is also defined as a decision-making procedure that takes into account the interactions of different dimensions with each other and over time (Dugan et al., 2021). Therefore, there is a need to develop students with knowledge and 

awareness about the interaction between interdisciplinary fields and subsystems to solve complex problems (Grohs et al., 2018). To meet the need for systems thinkers, educational programs that help students improve STS have been developed (Bedillon, 2021; Leydens, 2018). These programs aim to develop students’ systems thinking skills (Mazzurco & Daniel, 2020). It is necessary to measure whether students have developed their STS. Various approaches have been used in the literature to evaluate STS, including surveys, interviews, concept maps, and scenarios. Valid processes have generally failed to accurately 

measure STS. Scenario-based assessments make learning more visible than other approaches. At the same time, interviews can be analyzed faster than open-ended questions (Mazzurco et al., 2014; Grohs et al., 2018; Gray et al., 2019; Mazzurco & Daniel, 2020; Davis et al., 2020; Dugan et al., 2021)."

MH] Systems thinking is involved in all individual CDR systems design work, yet development of system of systems thinking may help in isolating the most promising system of systems for vast scale deployment. We may need the CDR equivalent of silver buckshot, not just one CDR tech as a silver bullet, yet that silver buckshot needs to have the impact and accuracy of a single CDR silver bullet.