“This year I learned how to learn,” wrote a first grader reflecting back on his school year.  When asked to explain a bit more, he simply replied, “systems thinking allows me to put my thinking on paper where I can see it.  When I can see my thinking, I can do more of it.”

What would happen if all of us actually did more thinking? There is certainly more to think about than ever before. The concept of a “knowledge development curve” is credited to Buckminster Fuller, who identified that up until 1900 knowledge doubled every century.  By the mid-20th century, the doubling rate had increased to every 25 years.  At the time of his writing he estimated information was doubling roughly every 13 months,  In 2020 it was believed that human knowledge now doubles every 12-hours. This idea of an escalating rate of information makes sense given technology, access to information and the mechanisms we have for sharing information.

AI  enhances the way we use available information. It makes me chuckle to hear my non-profit colleagues sheepishly admit that Claude produced a sophisticated  work plan from their rapidly inputted, highly disjointed list of ideas, or that Chat GPT is able to create an eerily accurate bio for them by simply inputting their own name.  AI is changing the way we interact with information.  It increases our sense of efficiency.  It is an easy way to access all our world’s rapidly growing body of knowledge. The people I talk with are both enamored by the possibilities and terrified by  the repercussions of AI. Even as AI helps us summarize and generate ideas, systems thinking equips us to discern patterns, question assumptions, and consider consequences—skills that no algorithm can fully replace. AI has generative potential yet we still need to think…and like that first grader, to think more.

As we celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Waters Center, we pause to consider what are some of the ways we have delivered benefit to our clients and dare I say, to the world.  Those benefits extend from classroom to boardroom, but with our roots firmly planted in education the number of stories that illustrate the ways systems thinking can impact learning are numerous.  We, at the Waters Center, often use the mantra that we teach people how to think, not what to think.  

As a rookie educator, I was given “programs”  that promised to produce higher levels of thinking in my students.  Those programs were filled with worksheets that can be likened to modern day game apps found on a tablet or cellphone.  They were fun for certain types of learners, but beyond being a good time filler they didn’t really change anyone’s ability to think.  However, as a more experienced teacher, when I discovered the Habits and tools of systems thinking, I saw students thinking more deeply, making connections between disparate pieces of information, and becoming much more aware of their own thinking.  To use a bit of educator jargon, these students became more metacognitive, they could think about their own thinking and yes, they did a lot more thinking.  Systems thinking provided concrete tools and Habits that I could offer students, which they could apply to whatever thinking challenge lay before them.  

A multi-year triangulated research study conducted by the then Waters Foundation,  from 2001-2006 identified five results of using systems thinking in the classroom.  

1. Makes Thinking Visible.   Students use systems thinking tools to clarify and visually represent their understanding of complex systems. This visual approach allows the students to interact with and explore thoughts, perceptions, and mental models with precision and clarity. 

2. Making Connections. Systems thinking tools help students make connections between curricular areas and relevant life experiences. 

3. Solving Problems. Students of all ages learn and independently use systems thinking problem-solving strategies. 

4. Developing Readers and Writers. Systems thinking concepts and tools help students develop as readers and writers

5. Increasing Engagement .When using systems thinking concepts and tools, many students show increased motivation,and  engagement. 

You can access the full write up of that study here.  This study is now almost 20 years old and while many things in education have changed significantly since then, including the advent of AI in everyday use, these five principles continue to be as true in classrooms today where the tools and Habits of Systems Thinking are integrated, as they were when the study was conducted.

A class of second graders engaged in a problem-based learning unit discovered the plight of the vaquita, a small porpoise species, that lives off the coast of Baja California.  WIth a current population under ten, this species is critically endangered.  This class of students used the visual tools to gather information, graphing patterns and trends of the vaquita population considering the events that led to their rapidly declining population, which causes students to eagerly  await the vaquita population report published each year in June.  They made a connection circle to identify causes of this steep decline in population.  They used the Habits of a Systems Thinker to consider perspectives of different parts of the system, consequences of the species becoming extinct and accumulations necessary to create conditions for vaquitas to thrive.  Rather than learning about this topic, students had the tools to delve deeply into understanding the problem and seeking solutions.  The plight of the vaquitas is dire, but when these students share about the problem they do so with great hope, because they have tools to generate probable solutions to the challenge.   

While offering hope was not one of the five major findings of the research study, it does happen repeatedly across classrooms intentionally integrating systems thinking and the importance of hope when facing challenges cannot be underestimated.  When “more thinking” looks like rumination, stewing over problems, rehashing events, or focusing on undesired outcomes, it doesn’t produce hope.  When thinkers have tools to put their thinking on paper, make novel connections and apply some tools for genuine problem solving, it can produce hope.  Bringing clarity to a problem is an essential step for finding resolution.

The problem solving aspects of systems thinking in classrooms is very apparent when tackling big issues like an endangered species or something more specific to the school itself, like determining how to reduce noise in the cafeteria.  AND systems thinking as a tool for problem solving is apparent in how students approach solving more traditional problems.  For example, “word problems” or “story problems” in math can be more difficult for students than mathematical exercises that require straight calculation.  By graphing the level of difficulty of various steps in solving word problems, requiring different mathematical operations and algorithms, students become more “metacognitive” about solving those problems.  This increased understanding of their own thinking process enables students to more accurately solve the problems and builds their confidence because they focus on their strategies and their ability to be a mathematical thinker. 

This same problem analysis is one of the ways systems thinking supports the development of literacy skills.  This same analysis applied to solving math problems can be used to analyze a piece of written text.  Thinking more about the text produces an ability to summarize, but more significantly an ability to see key themes and nuance.  Like the student who after reading the story Goggles, by Jack Ezra Keats, confidently asserted that “action conquers fear.”  She was attending to the fact clearly revealed on the behavior over time graph that every time the main character took action when faced with a threat from the bullies, he was more confident.  Or the second grade class who had to leave unresolved the debate over whether the magic pebble in the the book Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, by William Steig, had more or less power when it was locked in the safe.  Students had compelling arguments for both positions, so applying their problem solving skills, they decided the line of their behavior-over-time graph telling the story of  power of the pebble would have to have go in both directions with their well written justification for each position.

Further in describing the impact of systems thinking on literacy development speaking from a myriad of interactions with students including teaching english composition at the college level, a systems thinking approach produces the most significant revision to writing that I ever witnessed among students.  Using behavior-over-time graphs to map out the structure of a text a model text and then graphing the student writing visually illustrates where changes can be made to revise the text in ways that make significant improvement.  It is another example of “more thinking” but with a specific method that goes beyond a reread and creates another perspective that is highly visible.

Finally, the fifth tenet of the research, systems thinking increases engagement.  YES!  Unequivocally for all the aforementioned reasons, when learners, of any age, do more meaningful thinking about something they care about, they will be more engaged.  This is true not only of students in classrooms, but curious leaders problem solving with their team, executives in boardrooms working to improve fiscal outcomes or parents seeking ways to instill hope in their children. Systems thinking provides specific tools and strategies to do more thinking and when applied in work or in life the tools and Habits of systems thinking allow us not just to do “more thinking” but to think differently, with hope and confidence