Systems Education for a Sustainable Planet Books Special Issue Editors Ockie Bosch Robert Y
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Systems Books Education for a Sustainable Planet Edited by Ockie Bosch and Robert Y. Cavana Printed Edition of the Special Issue Published in Systems www.mdpi.com/journal/systems MDPI Systems Education for a Sustainable Planet Books Special Issue Editors Ockie Bosch Robert Y. Cavana MDPI • Basel • Beijing • Wuhan • Barcelona • Belgrade MDPI Special Issue Editors Ockie Bosch Robert Y. Cavana Keio University Victoria University of Wellington Japan New Zealand Editorial Office MDPI AG St. Alban-Anlage 66 Basel, Switzerland This edition is a reprint of the Special Issue published online in the open access journal Systems (ISSN 2079-8954) from 2014–2018 (available at: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/systems/special_issues/education_for_sustainable_planet). For citation purposes, cite each article independently as indicated on the article page online and as indicated below: Lastname, F.M.; Lastname, F.M. Article title. Journal Name Year, Article number, page range. Books First Edition 2018 ISBN 978-3-03842-789-6 (Pbk) ISBN 978-3-03842-790-2 (PDF) Cover photo courtesy of Prof. Dr. Ockie Bosch Although we as humans are often very small in the systems we manage, we play an enormous role on how these systems are affected and how to sustainably manage them for generations to come. Who would have thought that removing the bush for farming in Australia would lead to salinisation of very large parts of the country! Hence the need for comprehensive systems education to help ensure the sustainability of the planet for future generations! Articles in this volume are Open Access and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY), which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. The book taken as a whole is © 2018 MDPI, Basel, Switzerland, distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). MDPI Table of Contents About the Special Issue Editors . .................................... v Preface to ”Systems Education for a Sustainable Planet”...................... vii Robert Y. Cavana and Vicky E. Forgie Overview and Insights from ’Systems Education for a Sustainable Planet’ doi: 10.3390/systems6010005 . 1 Ray Ison and Chris Blackmore Designing and Developing a Reflexive Learning System for Managing Systemic Change doi: 10.3390/systems2020119 . 13 Amanda Gregory and Susan Miller Using Systems Thinking to Educate for Sustainability in a Business School doi: 10.3390/systems2030313 . 28 P˚alI. Davidsen, Birgit Kopainsky, Erling Moxnes, Matteo Pedercini and I. David Wheat Systems Education at Bergen doi: 10.3390/systems2020159 . 41 Oleg V. Pavlov, James K. Doyle, Khalid Saeed, James M. Lyneis and Michael J. Radzicki The Design of Educational Programs in System Dynamics at Worcester Polytechnic Books Institute (WPI) doi: 10.3390/systems2010054 . 48 Wayne Wakeland Four Decades of Systems Science Teaching and Research in the USA at Portland State University doi: 10.3390/systems2020077 . 68 Michael Deegan, Krystyna Stave, Rod MacDonald, David Andersen, Minyoung Ku and Eliot Rich Simulation-Based Learning Environments to Teach Complexity: The Missing Link in Teaching Sustainable Public Management doi: 10.3390/systems2020217 . 78 Philipp Geyer, Jochen Stopper, Werner Lang and Maximilian Thumfart A Systems Engineering Methodology for Designing and Planning the Built Environment— Results from the Urban Research Laboratory Nuremberg and Their Integration in Education doi: 10.3390/systems2020137 . 95 Janice Gray, Jennifer Williams, Prasanthi Hagare, Abby Mellick Lopes and Shankar Sankaran Lessons Learnt from Educating University Students through a Trans-Disciplinary Project for † Sustainable Sanitation Using a Systems Approach and Problem-Based Learning doi: 10.3390/systems2030243 . 114 Daowei Sun, Paul Hyland and Haiyang Cui A Designed Framework for Delivering Systems Thinking Skills to Small Business Managers doi: 10.3390/systems2030297 . 139 iii MDPI Kevin R. Ronan and Briony Towers Systems Education for a Sustainable Planet: Preparing Children for Natural Disasters doi: 10.3390/systems2010001 .....................................152 Savithiri Ratnapalan and Elizabeth Uleryk Organizational Learning in Health Care Organizations doi: 10.3390/systems2010024 .....................................171 Daniel E. Campbell and Hongfang Lu † Emergy Evaluation of Formal Education in the United States: 1870 to 2011 doi: 10.3390/systems2030328 .....................................179 Sam Wells and Josie McLean One Way Forward to Beat the Newtonian Habit with a Complexity Perspective on Organisational Change doi: 10.3390/systems1040066 .....................................210 John Richardson Taking on the Big Issues and Climbing the Mountains Ahead: Challenges and Opportunities in Asia doi: 10.3390/systems2030366 .....................................226 Books iv MDPI About the Special Issue Editors Ockie Bosch B.Sc M.Sc D.Sc Professor—Following Headship of the School of Integrative Systems for ten years at The University of Queensland, Ockie has been Leader of the internationally linked Systems Design and Complexity Management Alliance in the University of Adelaide Business School. His high international reputation is evidenced by his Vice Presidency since 2009 of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS), President of the ISSS for 2016/17 and Vice-President of the prestigious International Academy for Cybernetics and Systems Sciences. He was honoured in 2015 by Keio University in Japan as a Distinguished Guest Professor of Systems Design and Management. He has been Editor-in-Chief of Systems since April 2016, and serves on the Editorial Boards of several international journals. Professor Bosch’s current activities in systemically dealing with complex issues cut across a wide range of disciplines and themes such as management, governance, environmental management, economic development, poverty alleviation and systems education. His more than 80 publications, three book chapters and a book on Systems Thinking for Everyone are evidence of his strong focus and passion to make systems sciences relevant in practice. Robert Y. Cavana, MCom (Econ), PhD (System Dynamics), is a Reader in Systems Science with Victoria Business School, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Previously he was Corporate Economist with NZ Railways Corporation. Bob is a past President of NZ Operational Research Society, a past Vice-President of International System Dynamics Society and a former Managing Editor of System Dynamics Review. He was a NZ representative and Company Secretary on the Executive Board of Australia & New Zealand Academy of Management and is currently a Fellow of ANZAM. He received the Hellenic Society for Systemic Studies Honorary Award as “Distinguished Scientist in the Scientific Books area of Systems Approach” in 2009. He has published in a wide range of international journals, and is a co-author of Systems Thinking, System Dynamics: Managing Change and Complexity 2nd ed (Pearson Education, Auckland, 2007) and Applied Business Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods (Wiley, Brisbane, 2001; Chinese edition 2004). v MDPI Books MDPI Preface to “Systems Education for a Sustainable Planet” Because the world is so highly interconnected, complexity characterises all human endeavours. The issues facing us have become increasingly complex due to the fact that they are embedded in a global web of ecological, economic, social, cultural and political processes with dynamic interactions. Such complex problems and challenges cannot be addressed and solved in isolation, or, by applying the single dimensional mindsets and tools of the past. One of the most challenging conceptual and practical issues today, for our society and economy, is to craft innovative approaches that allow us to thrive in the new world we live in. The capacity to conceptualise and redesign, in systems and sustainability terms, will increasingly be what society and employers require. This “requirement” is globally one of the biggest challenges for education. Educators have to ensure they meet the growing need for graduates, from all areas of interest, who not only have an understanding of how they fit into societal and global systems, but also know how to operate in an environment where humanity is exceeding planetary limits. Systems thinking and dynamic approaches offer a holistic and integrative way to assess the major dimensions of complex problems. Together, they contribute needed skills and knowledge to help achieve the attributes industry wants from future graduates. The demand for people that can operate within a systems-based framework and across disciplinary areas is very rapidly increasing in global society. However, it creates a significant pedagogical challenge in that the current university institutional structure tends to be focused on discipline-specific teaching, with limited scope for wider systems approaches. Didactic autonomous discipline-based courses fail to foster the social networking culture that has been proven to enhance the process of deep learning, nor do they promote interactions with other students in other disciplines. To address this problem, we need innovative curriculum designs and learning environments that address academic paradigms as well as industry requirements.