Subject: Cognitive Maturity

Posted by Anne Gallagher on 11/22/2007
In Reply To:Cognitive Maturity Posted by Alice Squires on 11/16/2007

Message:

Hi Alice,

I am a systems coach for K-12 education with the Waters Foundation. I work in Portland, Oregon and have been working with teachers and students for 7 years in integrating ST within the classroom. I have finally had time to sit down and read the emails sent in response to your question. I don't have a concrete answer, however, we have always used our "Habits of a Systems Thinker" to guide us as we develop lessons that integrate the systems concepts and tools and ask ourselves, "what habit are we wanting to develop and teach through this lesson?" so we can ensure we are being purposeful in our teaching. In K-12 education we often use rubrics to determine where student learning is at (often a 4, 5 or 6 point scale). But there always has to be the question answered "what does it look like, sound like, act like at each of those point scales. So if we want kindergarteners to "look at things from multiple perspectives", then we would have to ask ourselves how would we know that is happening, what would that look like, what would they-- 5 and 6 year olds-- be saying and doing? This gives us a guideline and benchmark of how well they are acquiring the ST concepts.

My job with the Waters Foundation this year is to video tape K-12 classrooms of teachers who are using systems thinking within their curriculum. To hear and see how it impacts the students' thinking, their communication, their understanding, their perspective, etc. and to have this documented for our website, video pod casts, trainings, etc. It is funny that one person talked about those ideas that should start in 6th grade. Part of my work is also doing a video case study on a 6th grade classroom to look at the change in the teacher's pedogogy and the students' learning throughout the year (this teacher is using ST and the ST tools on a consistent basis).

I attached a copy of our HOST that we use in our work. Don't know if any of this helps, but good luck to you and if you have any other questions, feel free to write back.

Anne Gallagher
Systems Thinking in K-12 Education
Portland, Oregon

Follow Ups:

Cognitive Maturity - Florence Duarte 11/22/2007 
Cognitive Maturity - Anne Gallagher 11/23/2007