Defining and Assessing Systems Thinking in Diverse Engineering Populations

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Engineers play an important role in addressing the complex problems of our global society, such as access to water and global health care. Employers, policy makers, and educators agree on the need for engineers who can identify and incorporate into their decision making relevant aspects of systems in which their work is embedded. To date, there is limited research to guide educators in fostering systems thinking, and few of these studies offer clear and comprehensive definitions that can be translated into teaching approaches and learning assessments. This project will develop and test a definition of systems thinking as a holistic approach to problem solving in which linkages and interactions of the engineering problem with its constituent parts, the larger sociocultural context, and potential impacts over time are identified and incorporated into decision making. In the field of engineering, research on systems thinking tends to emphasize the ability to recognize potentially relevant components of an engineering problem, rather than how these components are embedded in broader economic, sociocultural, and temporal contexts that must also inform decision making and solutions. Furthermore, elements of systems thinking, such as an awareness of a particular sociocultural context or the ability to coordinate work among members of a cross-disciplinary team, are not always recognized as core engineering skills. Considering these professional skills as lying outside the core of engineering can alienate individuals whose strengths and passions are related to, for example, engineering systems that consider and impact social change. A broader consideration of what constitutes engineering may be particularly relevant for women and racially/ethnically minoritized students who are more likely to be drawn to work where the social impact is relevant. This study examines systems thinking among diverse individuals across a range of expertise to develop a scenario-based assessment tool that educators and researchers can use to evaluate engineering students' systems thinking competence and can help broaden understandings of what is a core engineering skill. The primary aim of this study is to expand current conceptions of systems thinking within engineering. The project will define and assess systems thinking across a range of expertise and identify life, educational, and work experiences that contribute to this expertise. The study will consist of three phases. Phase 1 consists of interviews with engineering students and practitioners to understand individuals' concrete experiences with systems thinking, the approaches they have used to solve complex engineering problems, and the relationship of their prior life, educational, and work experiences with their systems thinking practice and skill. Phase 2 involves think-aloud interviews in which participants are presented with an open-ended engineering problem scenario and asked to discuss how they would explore a possible solution. This phase allows for the comparison of the strategies individuals with different levels of systems thinking skill employ as they are solving a problem and their rationales for decision making. This phase will yield an in-depth understanding of different levels of systems thinking ability and provide the empirical foundation for a systems thinking assessment tool. Phase 3 will build on findings from Phases 1 and 2. First, using the empirically grounded classification of the problem-solving approaches associated with different levels of systems thinking ability, Phase 3 will develop and test a scenario-based written assessment tool. This assessment tool will distinguish between levels of systems thinking expertise. Phase 3 will also build on the ongoing examination of how educational and life experiences may be associated with differences in systems thinking ability.