Subject: Systems Language - causal connection

Posted by Richard Turnock on 2/6/2010
In Reply To:Systems Language - causal connection Posted by Tim Joy on 2/6/2010

Message:

I’m not surprised that students don’t understand causal loops.

For students up through high school, the pre-calculus math problems from a book or on a test have only one right answer. That’s about 12 years of behavioral training to focus on getting the one right answer. Except for creative writing, other school subjects also have one right answer to a question. There might be various methods or paths or techniques to arrive at the one right answer. The math problems have a clear and specific boundary.

How does that compare to using causal loops? There is no right answer to a causal loop. It is not the purpose of a cause loop to find the one right answer. A causal loop is a diagram that aids in visualizing how interrelated variables affect one another.

Causal loops depend on a student’s ability to use logic and reason, question assumptions and develop a hypothesis. Causal loops are a qualitative way to make visible assumptions about the relationships between selected variables. The boundary might be expanded to include other variables or additional relationships.

Public school curriculum does not provide the scaffolding needed to prepare students to understand causal loops. If a teacher is going to introduce causal loops for the first time to students who have never seen one before then you need a plan that includes more than just drawing one on an overhead projector.
After presenting a one page summary of causal loops, one web site claims that the reader “should now be able to analyze:
• How factors are related, and how one factor will change when another changes
• How factors may feed back in either balancing loops or reinforcing loops
• How external factors impact on the system
• How gaps operate
• How delay affects the system
• All the complexities of a system”
Hahahaha.
Richard