System dynamics in K-12 education
Posted: Sun Apr 05, 1998 6:45 pm
Last week the "Systems Thinking and Dynamic Modeling--A Conference for K-12
Education" was held in Durham, New Hampshire, USA.
I have never before attended a conference with such a high level of
excitement, confidence, sense of past accomplishment, and hope for the
future. About 270 people attended, mostly teachers, with a scattering of
administrators and people with a professional background in system dynamics.
We are especially grateful to Lees Stuntz and her staff at the Creative
Learning Exchange for an excellent program and an ideal location to hold a
conference.
Especially notable was the progress reported by teachers in primary schools
and in middle schools. In one place, kindergarten students identify stocks
and flows in their environment. In at least one first-grade class the
students draw behavior-over-time graphs of changes they identify in stories
that are read to them (dynamics before they are doing their own reading).
My favorite sound bite from the conference was from a high school teacher
who said, "High school teachers who know what it going on are terrified.
They can see the day coming when the primary and middle schools will be
delivering little monsters that can THINK!!!"
Several teachers have said in various ways that they had no idea the
children could do so much. As the primary and middle school teachers
reported on what they are doing, various people, including the experienced
system dynamics people, said they would never have thought that such
learning could occur at so young an age.
So, I have a question for people on this list. What aspects of the present
existing knowledge about system dynamics do you believe can not be
understood by 8th grade (about ages 13 to 14)? Of what we now know about
the dynamics of systems, which techniques, insights about systems,
principles, and understanding of behavior can not be mastered before
students get to high school? I would like to compile a list of material
that people think must be deferred until high school or college.
---------------------------------------------------------
Jay W. Forrester
jforestr@MIT.EDU
Professor of Management, Emeritus
and Senior Lecturer, Sloan School
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Room E60-389
Cambridge, MA 02139
tel: 617-253-1571
fax: 617-258-9405
Education" was held in Durham, New Hampshire, USA.
I have never before attended a conference with such a high level of
excitement, confidence, sense of past accomplishment, and hope for the
future. About 270 people attended, mostly teachers, with a scattering of
administrators and people with a professional background in system dynamics.
We are especially grateful to Lees Stuntz and her staff at the Creative
Learning Exchange for an excellent program and an ideal location to hold a
conference.
Especially notable was the progress reported by teachers in primary schools
and in middle schools. In one place, kindergarten students identify stocks
and flows in their environment. In at least one first-grade class the
students draw behavior-over-time graphs of changes they identify in stories
that are read to them (dynamics before they are doing their own reading).
My favorite sound bite from the conference was from a high school teacher
who said, "High school teachers who know what it going on are terrified.
They can see the day coming when the primary and middle schools will be
delivering little monsters that can THINK!!!"
Several teachers have said in various ways that they had no idea the
children could do so much. As the primary and middle school teachers
reported on what they are doing, various people, including the experienced
system dynamics people, said they would never have thought that such
learning could occur at so young an age.
So, I have a question for people on this list. What aspects of the present
existing knowledge about system dynamics do you believe can not be
understood by 8th grade (about ages 13 to 14)? Of what we now know about
the dynamics of systems, which techniques, insights about systems,
principles, and understanding of behavior can not be mastered before
students get to high school? I would like to compile a list of material
that people think must be deferred until high school or college.
---------------------------------------------------------
Jay W. Forrester
jforestr@MIT.EDU
Professor of Management, Emeritus
and Senior Lecturer, Sloan School
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Room E60-389
Cambridge, MA 02139
tel: 617-253-1571
fax: 617-258-9405