International Society for the Systems Sciences: Journals ISSS
Not a member yet
1073 research outputs found
Sort by
Staying relevant: Using Action Research as Reflective Practitioner
No full textAs Information Technology academics we experience almost numbing pressure to excel in our academic careers while providing relevant training to our students in a world where today’s buzzword is tomorrow’s old news. While we spend time mastering new technology in order to provide our students with relevant skills, our academic careers demand research outputs – we have to solve the seemingly “impossible” challenges we face. Reflective practice described by Schön may enable us to achieve both these goals simultaneously.
Reflective practice, guided by Kolb’s learning cycle, illustrates how professionals develop through a cycle of experimentation and abstraction. The cycle starts with the professional identifying the need for development from a specific experience, this is followed by a process of reflection and abstraction which might be informed by theory. After an improved understanding of the event which started the cycle, the practitioner improves his/her conduct, and the cycle is completed.
As academics, we are able to develop ourselves and our students as reflective practitioners. Students are struggling to apply theory to practice in their work. This ongoing concern of bridging the theory-practice gap among students calls for a change in traditional methods of teaching towards students’ teaching and learning. Reflective practice has proven to be beneficial for instructors as well as students as a process for professional development.
In this paper, we show that Action Research can be used as a research methodology to complement the process of reflective practice to achieve both our goals in terms of benefiting our students and advancing our academic careers. We provide guidance of using action research in the classroom to develop ourselves and our students as reflective practitioners in such a way that we can contribute to the scholarly community.
This is demonstrated with a case study involving a lecturer and information technology students at a university of technology in South Africa. Lessons learned are documented to reflect both negative and positive experiences. This paper provides a methodology that is based on action research for the use of reflective practice in teaching
A COLLECTION OF MODELS FOR BUSINESS SYSTEMS
No full textIn this paper, a collection of models that enables the understanding of businesses and their underlying business systems is presented. These models provide systemic views of the logic of businesses and their evolution over time. They cover various facets of businesses like operations, offerings, knowledge processes, innovation, architecture, consulting, responsibility management, and so on. Given the penetration of information systems, these models were created for modelling businesses so that appropriate information systems can be designed to support businesses. Given that there may be gaps in adapting these models to other situations, the viability of these models for a specific situation, needs to be determined based on the value and impact required for the business
RESTRUCTURING K12 SCHOOLS SYSTEMICALLY: TOWARD A PROPOSAL FOR THE CALIFORNIA SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE
No full textThe Education Committee in the California Senate is inviting ideas for legislation. This is an opportunity because public education in California is troubled. Bureaucracy has increased to hyperbureaucracy. Diverse stakeholder and policy-maker views overload schools and teachers with conflicting and ill-designed demands. California schools trail national averages in every objective measure of school quality due to “piecemeal” decision-making with unintended negative outcomes. The system as a whole has problems. “Systemic solutions” are needed, but their complexity, scope and cost hinder feasibility. This proposal offers a systemic solution that is neither costly or unmanageable. The cost and complexity of serving the entire system is managed by identifying and treating key leverage points. Namely, to improve California schools through legislation, we propose the following: [1] Enforce California Education Code #41400-41409 by removing loopholes and requiring compliance to return to and sustain the administer/teacher ratio; [2] Redefine the role of administrators to be supportive of teachers, rather than supervisory; [3] Reframe mandates, reforms, and programs in positive rather than negative terms. Such legislation is anticipated to create effective and systemic decision-making with many anticipated benefits. Cost of certificated non-teaching employee salaries could go down as much as 17%. The savings will allow an increase in teacher salaries. There will be more effective decisions made, as they will be made by those most expert and experienced in the specific people they serve and the subject matter and processes they manage. Well-designed policies and consequences make it easy for people do the right thing, which will be satisfying to all and improve morale system-wide. Shifting terms in problem-based mandates, reforms, and programs to ideal-based will result in more positive attitudes, more community spirit, and higher morale, as well as less unhappiness, less isolation, and less violence. Threats to the legislation’s success may be that systemic solutions are not yet mainstream and that administrators might feel diminished by the reduction in numbers and shifting their roles from supervising to supporting teachers
The Global Human Social System: A Brain for Gaia
No full textNetworks are a key aspect of system organization. All systems can be described as a network of components in which the links between components (nodes) within the system boundary are denser and coupling strengths stronger than between the system and external entities. A special kind of network that is found in all dynamic systems is a flow network in which the links are “channels” and through which flow either materials, energies, or messages (a special form of low-power, modulated energy).
A very important kind of network that processes messages to extract information and construct knowledge is an animal brain. In particular, the human brain and its neocortex constitutes a seemingly infinitely malleable message flow network. Its organization is a hierarchy of functional subnetworks that are arranged in such a way that sensory percepts are constructed in the primary sensory processing areas in the lower-back part of the cortex. Compound percepts are constructed in early association areas just forward of the sensory areas. And increasingly complex concepts are constructed forward of that and into the frontal cortex. From there concepts currently operative in working memory generate motor plans in the posterior frontal lobe and those are forwarded to motor control areas to generate actual outputs.
The brain is recognized as the governance subsystem for an individual. In social animals, the brains of individuals construct concepts of other like-kind individuals and manage interactions between individuals to produce social behaviors. Thus, societies are networks of brains interacting and the individual sends and receives messages to other individuals in the society. Individuals, in this framework, resemble neurons in neural networks. We are led to a conjecture regarding an ideal organization of human societies: if human social organization were along the lines of brain (neocortex) architecture, might the society itself function in a brain-like way to do the same kind of message processing, with action decisions resulting, that provides a governance subsystem for the planet? It is briefly argued that the planet does need governance as it moves into the future.
This paper describes the brain-like social network being considered, how it functions as an information-extraction, knowledge-constructing, and action-deciding subsystem of the whole planet. And we discuss the needs and benefits to Earth of having a brain – Gaia’s brain
How might cybernetic approaches be used to develop the sustainability of educational systems to meet the challenges of the future?
No full textThe principles of cybernetics from Weiner’s work on the control and communication in the animal and the machine, as well as many more from the Macy’s conferences, have been embedded in some part in the teaching of many educational programs for decades. However, despite their continuing relevance to support education and knowledge development across fields, as global changes including technological development and environmental degradation continue at pace, we consider the provocation that cybernetic approaches have not experienced sustainability in many education systems.
Here, we consider sustainability of a system as the ability to maintain continuity, and interconnectedness of the systems components to allow humans, non-humans and the planet to benefit from the whole. The education system can be regarded as a system of complex systems, comprising technological, environmental, and human systems. Each of which represents a complex system with its own sets of boundaries, goals, requirements and values, and the interconnectedness and interactions of the ever-evolving nature of these systems form an ontology that shapes the education system as a whole. The difficulty of defining and measuring ways to maintain continuity, and interconnectedness of these components represents a roadblock to sustainability of education systems.
Could taking cybernetic approaches to managing the various system components while maintaining a holistic understanding of their interconnectedness and interactions help us to define, pursue and evaluate the sustainability of education systems? It could be imagined that like First People’s knowledge and pedagogical systems that have functioned effectively and continuously for millennia due to the value of the principles to apprehending the complexity of the world and acting effectively as an interconnected part of it, cybernetic approaches could also play a more prominent role in defining, shaping, deploying and developing sustainable education systems for the future
APPLYING SYSTEM DYNAMICS IN THE ENERGY SECTOR: A Pedagogical Approach Using the 2050 Calculators for Climate Change Mitigation
No full textThe use of active methodologies, case studies and problem-based learning (PBL) can play a major role in critical pedagogy. This includes the use of system dynamics, which is a modelling approach based on variations of stocks and flows, and feedback loops. System dynamics can be applied in several areas, such as in energy and environmental education. We carried out a practical approach with a group of students from the Graduate Program in Energy (PPGE) at the University of Sao Paulo (USP), with the aim at introducing the use integrated modeling techniques for a low carbon transition. The course was jointly lectured by the authors, involving 19 students in total from 2021 to 2022, via distance learning.
The methodology was based on the 2050 Calculators and builds on previous publications and experiences of the second author while teaching at Imperial College London and IFP School. The calculators are system dynamics models for energy, land use, and carbon dynamics, aimed at simulating climate change mitigation pathways by 2050. The tools are available online and in fullly open access for several nations and regions, including a global version. They were used as a didactic tool for elaborating carbon mitigation scenarios and reflecting on energy policy strategies. The students were expected to understand the structure and segmentation of the different sectors that comprise a national energy system, including the definition of key variables and main assumptions involved in the models.
The first part of the course focused on sharing knowledge on energy and carbon dynamics, definitions of scenarios, choice of technologies, and analysis of public policies. Supporting publications on energy and carbon modeling were also provided, including documents prepared by the Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MCTI), in collaboration with the UN Environment and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). In the second part of the course, the 2050 Calculators were interactively demonstrated to the students, who were then divided into five groups for subsequent activities. Each group was asked to assess a country-level calculator, develop some scenarios, and compare them with the respective Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of the chosen country, identifying the main goals and implementation challenges. The selected countries were Australia, Colombia, India, Nigeria, and United Kingdom, which have substantial differences in terms of geography, economy, and demography, allowing the students to have an international perspective and understand the challenges involved under different realities. Each group made an oral presentation and submitted a final report at the end of the course.
The use of 2050 Calculators allowed the students to understand and assimilate the complexity of mitigating carbon emissions in the energy sector. As observed in the classroom assessment at the end of the course, the learning approach was widely accepted and considered interesting and motivating by the students. This was also reflected on the quality of the oral presentations and reports, in which the students provided not only some scenario simulations, but also critical assessments and original propositions for climate change mitigation.
The 2050 Calculators are available at: www.imperial.ac.uk/2050-calculator
 
Applying Systems Engineering framework for architecting a Smart Parking System within a Smart City
No full textA Smart Parking System is an important feature in any Smart City, as it hopes to address a persistent challenge in urban mobility. Various technology-based solutions have been developed. However, in such complex societal systems, it is important to consider various stakeholders and interfaces with other systems to choose an architecture that works efficiently for the given context. In this paper, we present the application of the Systems Engineering framework to develop a Smart Parking System architecture to meet the needs of a hypothetical Smart City. The framework shows the application of methods to analyse the context, prioritise needs, define and formally model alternate architectures, choose between the alternatives, and the use of a simulation model to validate requirements derived for the chosen architecture. Such systematic application of Systems Engineering methods can help planners and designers to negotiate complexities and avoid getting locked into sub-optimal technological solutions
Using the Viable System Model and Its Real-time Monitoring to Address Climate Change
No full text Stafford Beer’s Viable System presents a template of the different management functions of any organization that can be scaled from small to large. It is an appropriate model to address the related contextual aspects of the planetary climate. It can coordinate the real time – or almost real time – monitoring of essential variables that affect planetary health
Human survival should be a purpose almost everyone supports. It depends on a healthy environment: livable temperatures for humans, flora and fauna including mitigation measures. A planetary System Five would embody these values.
System Four, focused on the future, scans emerging trends, weak signals and opportunities for implementing both improved technology and equitable human development.
System Three manages and the inside and now of the organization. It features resource bargains where trade-offs can be explored. Because resources are limited choices should focus on key variables.
System Two keeps track of conformance with agreed standards and protocols for gathering and recording information. Routine aspects monitored need to be standardized to be fully comparable.
System Three Star is an audit function that mops up the variety that isn’t already accommodated. It may be a sporadic ‘ miss anything’ check or it might investigate specific events.
The System One operations would look at different aspects of the human system’s interactions with their natural and social environments. Some of these would be efforts to provide clean water, clean energy, more natural agriculture and aquaculture and health and education services for the populations.
This template’s levels of recursion from the planetary to the community could keep track of homeostats reflecting essential variables and identify gaps or shortcomings in sustainability efforts. Much of the recommended information is gathered but not always integrated. Such an effort could be revenue-neutral by catching trends before they became crises.
 
Identifying systemic levers for transformation: : collaborative holistic system analysis by interdisciplinary scientists to support the climate justice movements to meet the 1.5° target
No full textBackground
The impact of climate change and loss of biodiversity are threatening the resources of human existence and peace. Time is short for reaching the internationally agreed climate and sustainability goals by 2030.
Civil societies, politicians, industries, and institutions search for policies and actions to facilitate, enable and realize transformations within all sectors: agriculture, forestry, energy and water supply, climate mitigation, buildings, transport, mobility, health and education. The transformation also concerns individual changes of behaviour. The main challenges lie in the complexity and interconnectivity of our system.
However, many actions still follow a linear way of thinking. Growth-focussed pathways, goals and strategies prevent integrated and futureproof ecological, economic and social transformation. The climate justice movement “Fridays for Future” (FFF) has initiated first new ways of thinking and acting. Beyond scientific research the “Scientists for Future” (S4F) support the climate justice movement FFF on strategic communication and how to deal with opponents of an effective climate policy. Within this context, it was evident that a common understanding of the interdependencies, of levers and enhancements of transformation processes is essential.
Methodology
The steps for this holistic system analysis have their origin in the methodology of the “Sensitivity Model” by Prof. Frederic Vester, and in approaches by Donella Meadows and other pioneers in systems thinking and sustainability.
In the recursive work- and learning process a set of 19 qualitative and quantitative variables was developed, which was later expanded to a total of 21 variables.
The guiding question
“How can Scientists for Future S4F support the climate justice movement (especially Fridays for Future) through scientific communication and other actions in such a way that sufficient decisions in all sectors are made so quickly that the "Paris climate targets" can still be achieved?”
The project focused on a national level in Germany, while also considering the integration into European and international contexts. During the analysis, it became clear that the pursuit of sufficient climate protection is closely linked to achieving the 17 sustainability goals (SDGs).
Validation, Conclusion, further Action
The interpretation of the factors of influence, their impacts, and the analysis of the identified “control levers” and feedback cycles led to the conclusion that the effectiveness of public demonstrations or statements can only influence decisions on climate protection over a "long" distance, i. e. indirectly. However, the influence of decision-makers of the economy on political decision-making is much stronger than the influence of individual scientists or the entire movement. That influence mainly occurs through public "communication" (fast) and "education" (slow). It is necessary to influence "decision-makers in economy" and national regulatory frameworks in such a way that substantial effects on achieving the Paris targets can arise.
The analysis showed the usefulness of systems thinking in order to establish an integrated view and action plan. The results will be communicated in regional S4F groups in order to establish a “Common Understanding” of the system and its relevant levers and control loops to support transformation towards sustainability and viability
Interactive Workshop: Systems Thinking Made Simple (DSRP)
No full textThis interactive workshop is for anyone interested in learning and practicing the foundational ideas of DSRP. We’ll show you how systems thinking emerges through application of these four simple rules developed by Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera at Cornell University. We’ll provide an overview of the research, concepts, principles, and practices that support this work along with tangible examples of how it can be applied to wicked business, social, and personal challenges every day. Since practice is the key to mastery, the workshop will include ample breakout time for participants to apply and discuss the rules in small groups. By the end of our time, you will be able to apply the four rules and will be better able to get what you THINK to match what is REAL