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The Theoretical Design and Empirical Experimentation of a Systems Thinking Education Package Intended to Improve Learner Incentive

Ghili, Soheil | 2011

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 42044 (44)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Management and Economics
  6. Advisor(s): Mashayekhi, Ali Naghi
  7. Abstract:
  8. Systems Thinking is a key to improve the quality of decision making in various situations such as social, political, economic and managerial ones. Systems Thinking is considered a foundation of Organizational Learning and currently has a crucial and cultivating role in the management literature. Therefore, it is now critical for organizations to have people within them who are able to think systematically. This need for possessing Systems Thinkers in organizations highlights the importance of the education of Systems Thinking. An evidence for this is the growing importance of Systems Thinking Education in the Systems Thinking Literature. On the other hand, one of the most important issues in the field of Education Psychology is incentives for learning whose importance has been clear from long ago and whose share of the Education Psychology literature has been always significant. However, although incentive issues receive a central attention by Education Psychologists, they have not been paid attention to as much in Systems Thinking Education. The research question for this thesis is, therefore, “how could we fill the gaps in Systems Thinking Education regarding incentive issues?” In order to accomplish this goal, the first step was a study of the Systems Thinking literature and also of the Education Psychology literature in incentive issues. According to this study, three incentive-barriers were identified, which have not been paid enough attention to in Systems Thinking Education: First, the learner might incorrectly assume she has mastered Systems Thinking. Second, the learner might incorrectly assume that to master Systems Thinking is worthless. And, third, the learner might incorrectly assume that to master Systems Thinking requires her of an exceptional talent which she does not possess. Based on the three above mentioned points, a Dynamic Hypothesis along with a Causal Model were developed, hypothesizing how the three incentive-barriers could stop or hinder the process of learning Systems Thinking. The model and the dynamic hypothesis served as the theoretical foundations for the design of a Systems Thinking Education Package that could eliminate the barriers. Thus, the next step was to design that Educational Package (including a pamphlet and a method for teaching it) with the purpose of eliminating the three barriers identified. In order to empirically test the developed theoretical model, the educational package design out of this model was compared to a standard Systems Thinking Education Package. And, then, the results of this comparison were statistically analyzed. The statistical analyses show that the Systems Thinking Education Package proposed and developed in this research does better than the standard one in terms of motivating the learners to learn Systems Thinking, while not negatively affecting the quality of the education itself.
  9. Keywords:
  10. System Thinking ; Education ; Learning ; Motivation ; Systems Thinking Skills

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