by Molcis
In April 2012, my colleague and I attended a seminar on Systems Thinking
which was conducted by Dr.Tracy Benson and Miss Joan Yates of Waters
Foundation. Most of the participants were school administrators, owners,
principals, and a few private and public school teachers who came from
different regions in our country. There were also participants and observers
from Indonesia and Australia. Miss Bel Villavicencio of the OCCI was with our
group throughout the seminar. She helped and guided us during the
workshop.
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| The participants while reading the lectures on systems thinking. |
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| The seminar-workshop speaker, Dr. Tracy Benson with our group. |
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| The speaker while listening to our facilitator. |
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| Performing the group's activity. |
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Taken during the SNOWBALL graduation. The
participants, speakers
Dr.. Benson and Ms. Yates having a good time posing with the systems thinking paraphernalia. |
We conducted an echo
seminar-workshop when the two of us, Ms Eligio and I got back to school on the
last week of May, 2012.
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| Pointing out the structure of a
systems thinking tool, the Stock/Flow Diagram |
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| Giving pointers to a colleague
in using the Ladder of Inference, a systems thinking tool. |
When our classes began last June 2012, I began to realize that if I don't do it
now, when shall I do it? Making the first move was the hardest thing for me. It
was like experimentation on my part. The idea was all new to my students and
me. If I failed, the students wouldn’t know it. If I succeed, they would be
proud of their accomplishment. Having General Science as my minor subject in
college is an advantage on my part. Equipped with my knowledge in scientific
method, I compared between the steps in solving problems scientifically and
steps of the Ladder of Inference, one of the visual tools used in developing
systems thinking. I found out that the two methods are almost the same, and
they just differ in the terminologies and approach in coming up with a certain
solution or result.
As of now, my only concern is that not all students are familiar with systems
thinking. Only a few teachers have integrated this in the classroom. And I have
to start all over again with introducing the habits and tools every time I meet
new students, so the progress seems to crawl. If the teachers could be
consistent in integrating this in the lessons, then it would be easier for all
students to grasp systems thinking and improve their study habits.
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| Explaining one of the
visual tools used in systems thinking, the Iceberg. |
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| Miss Eligio, the school's
assistant principal and the faculty members while listening attentively to the facilitator. |
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| The faculty members on
their workshop-seminar. They were grouped according to their subject area. |
At first, I was hesitant to integrate systems thinking in my subjects. I
was at lost and could not imagine how to start with the idea of introducing a
new lesson to my already complicated lessons. During the seminar, one of the
participants reiterated that the teachers just can't integrate
systems thinking in all subjects especially in Mathematics. If they can't do
it, how can I? After a four-day seminar with speakers Tracy and Joan, and a
two-day echo seminar with the QCA faculty, my doubt of incorporating this into
my subjects had vanished. My statement became "If they can do it, then so
can I.”
During the first day
of classes, a customary introduction of teachers-to-students and
students-to-teachers usually begins the day. But this time, I tried to be
different. Instead of asking them to introduce themselves to the class and
to get to know them well, I introduced systems thinking. We started with
three different habits and corresponding visual tools. I asked the students to
observe how their academic performance has changed over time from when they had
started going to school up to the present year. I told them that they can only
do it by using a visual tool, the Behavior Over Time Graph or BOTG. After
coming up with the graph, I asked them to explain the pattern created by their
performance.
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| Artistic BOTG using the Macromedia Flash program. |
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| Stock/Flow Diagram |
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| Another visual tool, Ladder of Inference |
The patterns of their
performance varied from ascending, to descending, to plateauing. Then I asked
the students. "Is this enough that you have determined the pattern of your
performance?”What will you do after learning that your pattern is descending?
Ascending? Plateauing? Somebody raised a hand and said "My pattern or
graph is descending so I have to study more so that my graph becomes
ascending." Then I asked again "How about those that have ascending
patterns or graphs? One student replied that "I have to study more also to
maintain or surpass my performance so that my graph or pattern becomes higher
and higher." And how about students with the plateauing pattern or graph?
Unfortunately, nobody had that kind of graph, but I still reminded them that
regardless of their patterns they should not be contented with what they have
at the moment. I asked them what they would do to improve their performance.
The students said that they should always strive hard to improve their
performance no matter how difficult it is to do or perform the assigned tasks
or lessons.
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| Behavior Over Time Graph |
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| The graphs made by students show also their creativity. |
Then my next question
just popped out. "What made your level of performance become ascending,
descending, or plateauing?" I immediately went to the board and took the
opportunity to introduce another systems thinking habit and its corresponding
visual tool. I let the students recognized that a systems structures generates
its behavior by using the Stock/Flow Diagram. To make it simpler and easier
understood by my students, replacing the words Inflow and Outflow with
Increasing and Decreasing respectively, had made the students understand the
diagram better and the Converter replaced with the word Factors. So I
instructed my students to identify the factors (converter) that might have
contributed to the increasing (inflow) or decreasing (outflow) of their
performance.
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| Stock/Flow Diagram |
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| No one can resist taking a second look at this artistic diagram. |
The results were
overwhelming, because some students had "laid down all their cards on the
table" as the saying goes. After the activity I asked them to explain
their graph. I had mixed emotions while listening to the stories; some
kids were too vulnerable and too transparent about their lives, a few held
back, ashamed to tell the reasons especially if the performance was affected by
personal or family problems. This made me learn about their lives and
understand them better as persons. The same activity was administered to all my
classes the following day. And the results were as overwhelming as my first
attempt of integrating systems thinking.
My first move to
integrate systems thinking in the lesson was when I taught the history of
sewing to my third year students. As usual, to make the graph looked attractive
I used emoticons (smileys) to represent the levels of behavior; very happy
face, happy face, neutral face, sad face and very sad face. The term
I used to represent behavior was the invention and the time was represented by
the period or year of invention. I realized that observing how elements within
systems change over time and recognizing how systems structure generates
behavior always go together. Although both habits can be developed individually,
these two are better understood if taken one after the other with only one
topic taught.
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| The graph shows the level of success and failure of inventions. |
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| The Stock/Flow Diagram shows the reasons of success and failure of inventions. |
Integration of systems
thinking has so far made some of my advanced students think more logically and
creatively. For the less advanced students, there is really a need to reinforce
and to double my time in teaching them the habits and tools. Several factors
must also have to be considered like individual differences and their
willingness to share their life story to teacher and classmates. It takes a lot
of encouragement and patience for them to speak their minds.
Thanks to Lauren and my QCA family <3
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