"Observers of the World": Primary-Grade Students Imagining Solutions to Broken Social and Environmental Systems

• In Event: Systems Thinking as a Solution to Failed Educational Reform Efforts

Abstract

In a globalized context, educators acknowledge the need for developing a knowledge-based skills set. In a qualitative case study in one primary grade classroom, teachers and students used systems thinking to develop futuristic models to provide solutions to identified broken social and environmental systems within their community. A systems-thinking pedagogy which recognizes the interdependence and interconnected relationships among concrete elements and abstract concepts (Meadows, 2008; Senge et al., 2012) transformed the classroom into a space of observing, theorizing, discovering, and analyzing, thus linking academic learning to the real world.

Authors

• Margaret Sauceda Curwen, Chapman University

• Amy L. Ardell, Chapman University

• Laurie MacGillivray, The University of Memphis