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An Abstract of the Thesis Of AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Seth Taylor for the degree of Master of Science in Industrial Engineering presented on August 23, 2019. Title: A Method for Measuring Systems Thinking Learning Abstract approved: _____________________________________________________ Javier Calvo-Amodio The myriad of problems facing the world today are increasingly complex, dynamic, and transcend multiple domains necessitating the need for an equally complex and transdisciplinary approach to solve these problems. Systems thinking promises to provide the skills necessary for all citizens of the world, not just the experts, to handle these types of problems. The challenge is fostering the awareness and understanding of systems thinking necessary to cultivate a systems-literate society. Systems literacy is a promising and ongoing effort to establish a common systems language among all people, which requires establishing both the concepts and the path necessary to reach systems literacy. Systems thinking is founded on a set of four underlying concepts, or skills, that every systems thinker uses (distinctions, systems, relationships, and perspectives). The systems thinking learning path follows a process comprised of three levels – sensibility (awareness of systems), literacy (knowledge of systems), and capability (understanding of systems) – repeated across multiple phases. Recent educational curriculum has been developed to directly and indirectly teach these concepts to initial learners, or non-experts. However, no method to measure whether these initial learners are learning the underlying systems thinking concepts according to this learning process has been attempted. Hence, this research defines and measures the initial systems thinking learning process for non-experts. An experiment was conducted with 97 middle and high school students from the Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences (SMILE) Program at Oregon State University to measure initial learning using the four systems thinking concepts across the three systems thinking learning levels. During the experiment, students were asked to complete a fish-tank system drawing while considering elements, interactions, and roles/purposes (Drawing A). Students were then taught about the systems thinking concepts and asked to complete a second fish-tank system drawing (Drawing B). Drawing A and B for each student were analyzed using a classification structure that classified each element, interaction, and role/purpose drawn according to the three systems thinking learning levels. Experimental results provide evidence to conclude that there is a statistically significant difference in the number of elements, interactions, roles/purposes, and the total of all three drawn by students from Drawing A to B. This indicates that teaching students to apply the systems thinking concepts as skills increases student learning of systems thinking. These exploratory results have the potential to support both future research efforts on systems thinking learning and educators who design systems thinking curriculum. ©Copyright by Seth Taylor August 23, 2019 All Rights Reserved A Method for Measuring Systems Thinking Learning by Seth Taylor A THESIS submitted to Oregon State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Presented August 23, 2019 Commencement June 2020 Master of Science thesis of Seth Taylor presented on August 23, 2019 APPROVED: Major Professor, representing Industrial Engineering Head of the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering Dean of the Graduate School I understand that my thesis will become part of the permanent collection of Oregon State University libraries. My signature below authorizes release of my thesis to any reader upon request. Seth Taylor, Author ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge those who have supported and guided me along this thesis journey: Thank you to my parents, John and Judy, and our three dachshunds, Henry, Sofie, and Kasper, for the love and for always letting me come home to Colorado when I need to. Thank you to my major professor, Dr. Javier Calvo-Amodio, and to my thesis committee, Dr. Ean Ng, Dr. Jennifer Wilby, and Dr. John Sessions, for the unwavering support and for helping me see this thesis through until the end. Thank you to each member of the CaRSEM Research Lab that I have worked with over the past two years (Aaron, Thomas, Molly, Sage, Siqi, Siddhesh, Chinmay, Malaia, AnneMarie, Jennifer, and Neal) for helping me through the challenges of graduate school… especially all those 7 AM morning meetings for Toastmasters. Thank you to Jeremy, John, Carly, Sarah, Ian, Malaia, Daniel, AnneMarie, and Mary Marshall for your meaningful contributions to the SMILE systems thinking project. A special thanks to Malaia Jacobsen for spending two days helping me teach students about systems thinking and collecting data for this thesis. Also, a special thanks to Malaia and Sage Kittelman for helping me code data and improve my methodology. Lastly, thank you to all the students, teachers, staff, and our project advisor, Jay Well, at the SMILE Program for your help over the last three years on this project. Without your willingness to become systems thinkers and challenge your ways of thinking, none of the work in this thesis would have been possible. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Problem Statement ........................................................................................ 3 1.3 Research Questions ....................................................................................... 5 1.3.1 First Question ............................................................................................ 5 1.3.2 Second Question ....................................................................................... 5 1.3.3 Third Question .......................................................................................... 6 1.3.4 Fourth Question ........................................................................................ 6 1.4 General Hypotheses ...................................................................................... 6 1.4.1 First Hypothesis ........................................................................................ 6 1.4.2 Second Hypothesis .................................................................................... 6 1.4.3 Third Hypothesis ....................................................................................... 6 1.4.4 Fourth Hypothesis ..................................................................................... 7 1.5 Research Purpose .......................................................................................... 7 1.6 Research Objectives ...................................................................................... 7 1.7 Delimitations ................................................................................................. 7 1.7.1 Limitations ................................................................................................ 7 1.7.2 Assumptions .............................................................................................. 8 1.8 Relevance of this Study ................................................................................ 8 1.8.1 Need for this Research .............................................................................. 9 1.8.2 Benefits of this Research .......................................................................... 9 1.9 Research Outputs and Outcomes ................................................................ 10 TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) Page 2 Literature Review................................................................................................ 11 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 11 2.2 Background ................................................................................................. 11 2.2.1 What is a System? ................................................................................... 11 2.2.2 What is Thinking? ................................................................................... 12 2.2.3 What is Systems Thinking? .................................................................... 13 2.3 Systems Thinking Education ...................................................................... 15 2.3.1 Systems Thinking in Educational Standards ........................................... 15 2.3.2 Systems Thinking Education for Non-Experts ....................................... 15 2.3.3 Systems Literacy ..................................................................................... 17 2.3.4 The Gap in Systems Thinking Education ............................................... 19 2.4 Systems Thinking Curriculum Development Framework for Non-Experts 19 2.4.1 Framework Origins ................................................................................. 19 2.4.2 Human-Activity Systems ........................................................................ 20 2.4.3 DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) ........................ 20 2.4.4 Soft Systems Methodology ....................................................................
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