Session T2B
Special Session - Using Rich Pictures to Improve Systemic Thinking Cecelia M. Wigal University of Tennessee at Chattanooga,
[email protected]
Abstract - Rich Pictures, as defined by Peter Checkland, pictorially and informally capture the structures, viewpoints, responsibilities, and processes of a situation and its inherent relationships. Thus, these pictures aid users to think systemically about a situation. This session will introduce systemic thinking to participants through the use of the modeling technique of Rich Pictures. Vanasupaa, Rogers, and Chen, at the 38th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference discussed the findings of a pilot study on the outcome of the use of Rich Pictures by materials engineering students. Initial findings indicate that using Rich Pictures can broaden students’ ability to participate in systemic thinking. The session proposed here builds on the Vanasupaa et al study to introduce the potential of Rich Pictures to engineering educators. Of specific interest is the building of Rich Pictures by individuals as well as teams of individuals. The goals of this session are: (1) to introduce participants to Rich Pictures as an information modeling technique, (2) to illustrate uses of Rich Pictures for classroom settings (individual and team applications), and (3) to introduce and discuss systems thinking and its applications. Index Terms – holistic thinking, rich pictures, sketching, systemic thinking, INTRODUCTION Traditionally students and practitioners use linear thinking to help them solve design problems. However linear thinking has a tendency to compartmentalize solution options and minimize recognition of relationships between solutions and their elements. In effect, most students and practitioners do not take a systemic view of a situation for problem solving. The work discussed here describes one means of introducing students and educators to think systemically or holistically about problem solving. Rich Pictures, as defined by Checkland [1], pictorially and informally capture the structures, viewpoints, responsibilities, and processes of a situation. In addition, these pictures can illustrate relationships between the structures, processes, and responsibilities. Thus, these pictures aid users to think systemically about a situation. Vanasupaa, Rogers, and Chen, at the 38th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference [2], discussed the findings of a pilot study on the outcome of the use of Rich
Pictures by materials engineering students. Initial findings indicate that using Rich Pictures can broaden students’ abilities to participate in systemic thinking. At the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) the instructor of the Introduction to Engineering Design (IED) course uses Rich Pictures to aid problem understanding and solution generation that are integral to the design process. However, the benefit of the Rich Picture activity is unknown. Thus the use of Rich Pictures is being tested to determine whether it aids students to think more systemically, as inferred by some of the recent literature. Initial studies of Rich Picture use in the IED course were completed during the spring 2009 semester. These studies indicate that teams enjoy developing the Rich Pictures much more than brainstormed lists. Specifically, more interaction occurs between the team members during the Rich Pictures development than during list development. The students concurred this is so. The students also state they can more easily build ideas from what others sketch than from what others provide in a list. This created a richer and more complete illustration of issues. The study discussed here builds on the Vanasupaa et al study as well as the UTC study. The goals of the session are: (1) to introduce participants to Rich Pictures as an information modeling technique, (2) to illustrate uses of Rich Pictures for classroom settings (individual and team applications), and (3) to introduce and discuss systems thinking and its applications. RICH PICTURES AND SYSTEMIC THINKING Rich Pictures: Rich Pictures are most commonly associated with Peter Checkland’s Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) as a means to express a problem situation in a holistic sense. ‘Soft’ systems theory is problem- and process- oriented, rather than technique oriented. [3] Soft systems theory takes as its starting point not a problem but a situation in which at least one person has a feeling that some elements of a situation or process are problematic and hence worth exploring. The methodology moves from finding out about the situation to taking action within it, and does so not by relying on experience but by doing some careful, formally organized systems thinking about the problem situation. [4] Rich Pictures are ad hoc sketches that serve as vehicles to help users explore and explain a situation or problem context to the viewers. Rich Pictures have little to no formal rules to follow, though it is strongly suggested that the developer use
978-1-4244-4714-5/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE October 18 - 21, 2009, San Antonio, TX 39th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference T2B-1
Session T2B simple sketches, lines, arrows, and symbols to convey ideas. The basic practice is for the problem solver, using a large sheet of paper and colored pencils or pens, to illustrate the structures, processes, concerns/issues of a problem situation as well as their interconnections. [5] [6] Structures, processes, and concerns are best illustrated by sketches. Interconnections are often represented using lines, arrows, and circles. The use of words is often minimized. Systemic Thinking: The aim of systems or systemic thinking is to spell out in detail what the whole system is, including its environment, objectives, and parts (subsystems) and how the objectives are supported by the activities of its parts. [7] Some researchers promote that the aim of systemic thinking is to define a system by its statically and dynamically interrelated parts (subsystems). [8] In both, the starting point is the consideration of the total system and then its contents, objectives and interaction with the contents, objectives, relationships, and resources of the environment in which it operates or is applied. This holistic view requires systems thinking to begin with analysis— separating a study into individual pieces—and to emphasize synthesis—looking at the relationships between parts to form new conclusions. The Benefit: The primary benefit of using Rich Pictures is that they encourage situational holistic or systemic thinking rather than reductionist thinking. [1] This allows the problem solver to consider a larger realm of issues as well as a larger number of solutions. Specific to engineering problem solving, this systemic thinking has a higher probability of producing a successful initial solution. SESSION EXPECTATIONS It is anticipated that the audience for this session will include those who teach courses with a design curriculum who want to introduce holistic thinking to their students. Administrators and other faculty who are looking to think more holistically about their curriculum and administration may also be interested in attending. It is desired that the activity of this session will supplement the research being done on the use of Rich Pictures to increase students’ ability to think systemically.
Of specific interest will be whether there is a difference between how students and educators initially set up understanding of problem situations. It will also be interesting to compare Rich Picture development between the two populations (students and educators) with respect to the ability to think systemically. In addition, the building of Rich Pictures as a team exercise will provide initial data for a possible comparison between team and individual use of the modeling technique. Justification for Session: ABET is looking for graduating engineering students to be systems thinkers. However, as stated by Vanasupaa et al, there is little information on how we, as educators, can cultivate systems thinking in our students. This session will introduce one method that has potential as a technique to teach and measure systems thinking. The exercises introduced can be duplicated and used in the classroom. This session also provides a forum for participants to discuss systems thinking and what it may mean to us as educators and practitioners, REFERENCES [1]
Checkland, P. and J. Poulter, Learning for Action. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 2006.
[2]
Vanasupaa, Linda, Erika Rogers, and Katherine Chen, "Work in Progress: How Do We Teach and Measure Systems Thinking?” Proceedings of the 38th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, October 22nd – 25th, 2008.
[3]
Checkland, P. B. (1988), “Soft Systems Methodology: An Overview, Department of Systems,” Journal of Applied Systems Analysis Vol. 15, pp. 27 – 30.
[4]
Checkland, P.B. (1981) “Rethinking a Systems Approach,” Journal of Applied Systems Analysis Vol. 8, pp. 3 – 14.
[5]
Monk, Andrew and Steve Howard, “The Rich Picture: A Tool for Reasoning about Work Context”, Interactions, March + April, 1998, pp. 21 - 30.
[6]
Gao, Jing, “Let’s Sketch Better: A Different View on Rich Pictures”, Proceedings of The Eighth Pacific-Asia Conference on Information Systems, July 2004, pp. 2261 – 2267
[7]
Churchman, C. West (1968) The Systems Approach, Dell Publishing Co., Inc.
[8]
Kast, F. E. and J. El Rosenzweig (1972), “The Modern View: A Systems Approach,” Systems Behaviour, John Beishon and Geoff Peters (Eds.), Harper & Row, pp. 14 – 28.
978-1-4244-4714-5/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE October 18 - 21, 2009, San Antonio, TX 39th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference T2B-2
