About Teaching Systems Thinking

This paper discusses the introductory teaching of systems thinking. It puts forth an approach that emphasizes the application of systems thinking in real world settings. This approach focuses on five major elements of systems thinking; system studies, general systems behaviour, complexity, general systems tools, and systems approaches (methodologies), as well as the issues of design, synthesis, epistemology and ontology. Finally, the role of traditional disciplinebased education in the context of teaching systems thinking is considered.

[1]  Peter Checkland,et al.  Soft Systems Methodology in Action , 1990 .

[2]  James J. Kay,et al.  An ecosystem approach for sustainability: addressing the challenge of complexity , 1999 .

[3]  G. Weinberg.  An Introduction to General Systems Thinking , 1975 .

[4]  Ewart R. Carson,et al.  Dealing with complexity: an introduction to the theory & applications of systemsscience , 1988 .

[5]  S. Funtowicz,et al.  Science for the Post-Normal Age , 1993, Commonplace.

[6]  I. V. Blauberg,et al.  Systems theory : philosophical and methodological problems , 1977 .

[7]  W. Weaver.  Science and complexity. , 1948, American scientist.

[8]  T. Allen,et al.  Hierarchy Theory: A Vision, Vocabulary, and Epistemology , 1996 .

[9]  Arthur Koestler,et al.  Janus: A Summing Up , 1978 .

[10]  Susan Leigh Star,et al.  The Structure of Ill-Structured Solutions: Boundary Objects and Heterogeneous Distributed Problem Solving , 1989, Distributed Artificial Intelligence.

[11]  John L. Casti,et al.  Complexification: Explaining a Paradoxical World Through the Science of Surprise , 1994 .

[12]  Thomas B. Starr,et al.  Hierarchy: Perspectives for Ecological Complexity , 1982 .

[13]  James J. Kay,et al.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------Embracing Complexity : The Challenge of the Ecosystem Approach , 1994 .

[14]  E. D. Schneider,et al.  Complexity and thermodynamics: Towards a new ecology , 1994 .

[15]  A. Goldberg.  General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications. , 1969 .

[16]  Bruce Hannon,et al.  Dynamic Modeling , 1994, Springer US.

[17]  Peter Checkland,et al.  Systems Thinking, Systems Practice , 1981 .

[18]  Paul A. Samuelson,et al.  The Summing Up , 2016 .

[19]  R. Rosen.  Life Itself: A Comprehensive Inquiry Into the Nature, Origin, and Fabrication of Life , 1991 .

[20]  P. Senge.  The fifth discipline : the art and practice of the learning organization/ Peter M. Senge , 1991 .

[21]  I. Woodburn.  The teaching of soft systems thinking , 1991 .