Literature extract from: Jay W. Forrester: Learning through System Dynamics as preparation for the 21 st century (original) (raw)
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System dynamics education: becoming part of anticipatory systems
Purpose – This paper aims to present an overview of deep issues flanking the ideas of system and complexity, and an overview of the mentioned course as a proposal for systems thinking. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a discursive overview of systems and philosophical concepts related to the described course. Findings – The review offers a perspective of a super-system that includes the students, the lecturers and the context of their interaction, in which one may recognize a relational framework for social learning of a systemic sustainability. Research limitations/implications – The overview concerns only the actual intervention in the University of Trento. Practical implications – The described concepts and related philosophical discussion may contribute to the integration of system thinking in the future studies. Originality/value – The described intervention is a new Italian context and the integration of systems concepts with futures studies seems not to be commonly established.
Communication The Design of Educational Programs in System Dynamics at
2015
Educational programs leading to degrees in system dynamics are rare and thus of critical importance to the future of the field of system dynamics. However, to a large extent such programs have not yet been made transparent to the system dynamics community as a whole. The present article describes the design and rationale for undergraduate and graduate programs at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). The goal of the article is to invite feedback from the system dynamics community about our specific programs as well as to facilitate wider discussion about the appropriate content, design, and pedagogy of degree programs and courses in system dynamics.
puntOorg international Journal
The biggest challenge for today's organisations is to address the growing complexity of their internal and external environment while gaining a competitive advantage. To do this, the leaders of the organisations must be able to understand this complexity through the knowledge of the environment and the implementation of a governance system based on a decision-making process that considers the enormous amount of data available. Such data must lead to the availability of information that guides the organisations themselves in the learning process. Sustainable development requires organisations to rethink their goals and/or business models, with effects on their day-today activities. Pursuing to become more sustainable is not only a need for marketing reasons but also an opportunity for growth and alignment with emerging trends. However, managing the complexity of sustainability is not straightforward and requires cognitive and practical tools that are able to capture and jointly consider a wide variety of interrelated factors. Modelling the processes that characterise complex organisations is not an easy task. The aim of this contribution is thus to identify a methodology that helps managers in tackling the challenges that organisations have to adopt when faced with a growing complexity of their internal and external environment, and that might help managers at all levels when analysing various business and management situations, to account for non-linearities, path-dependency and time lags, and that may allow also for organisational and social learning. The System Thinking and System Dynamics approach may prove a useful combined tool for next-generation decision-makers, but this approach needs to be understood and learned in order to develop the necessary skills. In particular, this study will show the results of a test conducted with the collaboration of undergraduate university students, who have attended a course about System Dynamics, in order to test their ability to understand the dynamics underlying counterintuitive system behaviour.
The Design of Educational Programs in System Dynamics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)
Systems, 2014
M.J.R.) † Based on -Doyle, J.K.; Eberlein, B.; Ford, A.; Hines, J.; Lyneis, J.M.; Parsons, K.; Pavlov, O.; Radzicki, M.J.; Saeed, K.; Warren, K. Design of a Master
Reply to Jay Forrester's “System dynamics—the next fifty years”
System Dynamics Review, 2007
This is the hopeful future I see for system dynamics. Not attempting to strike it rich with a big private donor, but rather establishing credibility through good, diligent work so that our funding sources become many and varied. Not creating new schools of system dynamics, but rather expanding our opportunities within existing collegial networks. Not expecting junior faculty to write politically incorrect books, but encouraging them to learn their craft as researchers and teachers respected by their colleagues in related fields.
The future of system dynamics and learner-centered learning in K-12 education
, a small group of schoolteachers and professional system dynamicists convened in Essex, Massachusetts under the guidance of Jay Forrester to plan the future of system dynamics in kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12) education. Based on early experience in schools, the group articulated a vision of what an education based on the principles of system dynamics could provide to students. The group then drew up a strategy to achieve that vision and a detailed plan to implement the strategy.
The Design of Educational Programs in System Dynamics at WPI
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
M.J.R.) † Based on -Doyle, J.K.; Eberlein, B.; Ford, A.; Hines, J.; Lyneis, J.M.; Parsons, K.; Pavlov, O.; Radzicki, M.J.; Saeed, K.; Warren, K. Design of a Master
How the System Dynamics Society came to be: a collective memoir
System Dynamics Review, 2007
In this paper several of the early workers in the field of system dynamics tell both a consensus story of how the System Dynamics Society came into being over 25 years ago and some of the early history of the Society itself. Several slightly different versions of this story have been told over the past several years and we thought it would be interesting to involve a broader group in this kind of modified oral history project. The paper is based on a series of separate written recollections that have been posted in full on the web at