System+Dynamics+Process

Systems Process Benefits
1. The traditional core curriculum delivers existing knowledge, but adapting to an unknown future requires new knowledge. 2. New knowledge is created as relationships are discovered between parts of reality not previously thought to be related. 3. The arbitrary walls between school subjects, and studying them in isolation from each other, block the relating process essential to knowledge creation. 4. What needs to be known in the future can’t yet be taught, but the process by means of which that knowledge is created can-and must-be taught. ....Marion Brady [|www.marionbrady.com]

Interactive Experience with Generic Structures
Generic structures are system epigrams. They are brief, but take a beginning student hours to fully explore and understand the meaning of the feedback loop and results. They are interesting because they appear in a variety of different natural and manmade systems. They are memorable because of the simplicity and the basic symbols used in dynamic modeling. They are surprising when various parameters are changed and input flows are tested to give a variety of results.

The process of exercising generic structures using model simulation engages a system student in focusing on the above epigram characteristics of each generic structure. At first, the system student treats the generic structure as an object separate from them self. The instructor keeps pressuring the system student to dig deeper by listening to their initial insights and then telling them there is more to the story. This increases the system student’s doubt about whether they will be able to penetrate the generic structure and gain insight into why systems behave the way they do.

After many simulations, the system student finally becomes one with the generic structure, inserting themselves mentally into the system under study and absorbing the lessons of the generic structure into their daily life. This process unsticks the system student from their mental models from the past and makes the generic structure stick with them in the present as their new mental model. This is the experience of learning as constructed by the system student.

This process is repeated with each generic structure. The system student experiences doubt, but relies on determination to experience faith that they can experience the generic structure using model simulation and gain insight into why systems behave the way they do.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">A system student, working outside the traditional core curriculum, learns how to create new knowledge to adapt to an unknown future. New knowledge is created as the system student discovers relationships between elements in natural and manmade systems that they did not previously think were related. In other words, their mental models change.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">The arbitrary barriers between traditional subjects, and studying them in isolation from each other, block this process essential to knowledge creation. Systems are everywhere in all subject areas. Feedback loops are the key to understanding how systems work. Cause and effect become a feedback loop in a system and are found in generic structures. The process of studying the generic structures of systems is essential to knowledge creation.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">What we need to know in the future, no one can teach, but everyone ought to learn the process to create the knowledge they will need to survive an unknown future. The process everyone needs to learn is how to gain insight into why systems behave the way they do using model simulation of generic structures.

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">A methodology: for step by step process of developing and communicating a dynamic model. **
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">This process was adapted by Dr. Wayne Wakeland for his System Dynamics course SysSc 514 at Portland State University from [|Introduction to System Thinking] by Barry Richmond, 2001,Figure 8-2. Another reference is [|Business Dynamics] by John Sterman Chapter 3. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Each step is recursive. In addition, completing a step might require going back and changing something from an earlier step and having to repeat steps again in order to get back to where you were.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Define/articulate the Issue/Problem (focus the effort)
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Explicit purpose
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Reference Behavior Pattern (RPB)
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Diagram
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Formulate Model
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Develop and Represent Dynamic Hypothes[es]
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">dynamic organizing principle
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">map the hypotheses
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Think operationally : make the map simulate-able
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">ID storages
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">characterize flows
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">ID feedback loops
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">specification and calibration (determine equations and parameters)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Test Model
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Debugging
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">mechanical mistake tests
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">robustness tests
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">diagnosing surprise behavior
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Verification
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">understanding model behavior/dynamics
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">hypothesis tests
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">exploring dynamic behavior
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Validation
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">replicate RBP
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">challenge the boundaries (extensive and intensive)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Model Application and Transfer
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Design and Evaluate Policies
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">policy/theory
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">sensitivity
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">scenarios
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Make Learning Available (communicate)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">develop a drama
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">design a learning progression
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">implement a learning progression
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">create in-character feedback and coaching sequences