One of the main issues in education and society is the lack of teaching systems thinking.
We’re programmed throughout our education to search for unitary or limited- view causes. And so long as our education system treats us this way, we’re none the wiser. It’s akin to the saying: “Don’t ask a fish what the temperature of the water is?” It wouldn’t have a scooby; its whole life has been in that environment.
On occassions there are simple solutions, but in human related problems that’s rarely the case. But we’re not taught that.
On a programme I’ve been running with colleagues for a decade we attempt to instil in our cohorts problem-solving (simple to compound) by considering different variables (often hidden) using systems.
We pose a number of problems in which we try and let them train themselves in understanding how different answers they may not have considered come into play.
For instance climate change is not just about climate and business, but a raft of other factors which must work together. The myth is people are not designed to think that way. Not true. It’s training that’s needed. It’s effortfull so requires training.
Here’s another interesting thought process that emerges in some guise in Sat tests. Which one is the odd one out? Pick one!
When the test was carried out on villagers in what was the USSR some years back, the answers astounded researchers. But what we now know is that the conceptual framework being used by the researchers was no better than those used by the villagers.
In other words, and to stretch it broadly, if you’re urban interacting with a villager to solve a problem, you’re no more smarter than they are by using conceptual thinking, such as the above.
This above patterning will work differently on differently people and cultures. Yet somehow researchers have convinced the world that these serve a great examples to decide a person’s intelligence.
