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Publication date: 6 August 2019

Hernán López Garay and Alfonso Reyes

Present-day engineering education is in dire need to expose would-be engineers to a systemic view of the world. Society’s problems are getting increasingly complex “wicked”…

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Abstract

Purpose

Present-day engineering education is in dire need to expose would-be engineers to a systemic view of the world. Society’s problems are getting increasingly complex “wicked” problems, and they require inter and transdisciplinary approaches to understand and “dissolve” them (that is to solve them systemically). In this context, the purpose of this paper is to invite engineering educators to reflect on the need to teach systems thinking and spark their interest on finding appropriate methods to do so. This paper aims to describe an actual intervention at Universidad de Ibagué (UNIBAGUE), Colombia, where the methodology of teaching systems thinking as a foreign language has been on trial for one year.

Design/methodology/approach

Starting with a simple model of teaching systems thinking, and using an action-research methodology, the teaching model is gradually evolved to a model for teaching systems thinking as a foreign language.

Findings

The authors only have preliminary qualitative results with this systems-thinking teaching model. Although these results are encouraging (the authors think basic systems concepts are better apprehended by the students), further research is needed. One objective of the present paper is precisely to invite engineering educators to experiment with this teaching model.

Research limitations/implications

The authors think it is necessary to exploit further the teaching-a-foreign-language analogy. There is a vast experience on methods for teaching second and foreign languages. They could enrich the method and hint at possible directions for further research.

Practical implications

Teaching systems thinking is a field still open for wide research. The pedagogical model developed in this research to teach systems thinking could benefit other teachers of systems thinking to build upon.

Social implications

As one of the referees pointed out: “The implications of the insides obtained in this research are very significant to society. The problem observed in the systems thinking researchers and practitioner's community about how to disseminate systems thinking knowledge and how to embed this way of thinking into the minds of young people (K-12, university, etc.) is addressed in this research. In it is shown an experience that provides very valuable insides about how this can be done.

Originality/value

The idea of teaching systems thinking as a foreign language has not been widely explored. Furthermore, we feel that inasmuch as systems thinking is more of a skill or competency, than a technique or theory, then the model of teaching which emerges from this case study might be more appropriate than models of teaching based in the old educational paradigm.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 48 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

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Article
Publication date: 1 June 2015

Jorge Villalobos and Mauricio Vargas

The purpose of this paper is to propose a minimal dynamic two-dimensional map for the relation between citizens’ perception of quality of life (y) and their perception of the city…

144

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose a minimal dynamic two-dimensional map for the relation between citizens’ perception of quality of life (y) and their perception of the city Mayor management abilities (F).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use data from the Ciudades cómo vamos? project and test a simple hypothesis: there is a linear positive correlation between y and F. Following the authors propose a two-dimensional map based on ideas from a statistical regression model and a non-linear dynamical map on the [0; 1] interval.

Findings

The authors give evidence that suggests that y and F are not linearly correlated. The authors show that the two-dimensional map, mentioned above, is able to reproduce non-trivial and unsynchronized relations between the variables, as well as the whole range of correlation coefficients.

Research limitations/implications

There is a very limited amount of data to work with, therefore it was not possible to explore other possible relations thoroughly. Regarding the dynamical map, the authors are aware that there are still many venues for its study.

Originality/value

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first reported attempt at modeling the dynamics between two variables obtained via survey on which perception is a key component of the questions.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 44 no. 6/7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

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