Arab Open University

Bahrain Branch
Faculty of Business Studies

T205 Systems Thinking: Principles and Practice

Session 3:

Learning to learn
(Why we study learning in this course?)
1. Paying attention to how we are learning is an essential basis for learning more effectively.
2. To learn how to learn independently in the workplace is essential for putting the thinking into practice.
3. It is important to pay attention not only to the content of what we are trying to learn but to the process of
our learning.

Reflection
(Why to focus on reflection?)
1. Reflection is essential for the development of understanding and of the ability to make use of complex
ideas and concepts.
2. It is essential for raising awareness about how we learn and might improve our learning.
3. It enables you to monitor progress, learn from good and bad experiences and plan for better ways of
doing things.

Reflection is the minds conversation with itself. It requires 2 kinds of thinking:

1. Reflectiveness: to direct our attention onto our own thinking and abilities. This kind of reflection is
essential in reviewing the significance of the learning we are engaged in, its outcomes for us and the
impact it makes on what we want to learn in future.
2. Critical analysis: meanings are questioned and theories tested out. This requires a framework of
questions or some problem-solving activity to help you compare and contrast arguments and frameworks

What is learning?
Learning is not undertaken for its own sake, nor it is the primary goal; but it is undertaken for what it enables us
to achieve. Definitions of learning might be:
1. a quantitative increase of knowledge
2. memorizing
3. the acquisition of facts and procedures for later use
4. the abstraction of meaning
5. an interpretative process for understanding reality
6. changing as a person

So, there are different definitions for learning because of 2 dimensions introduced:
1. Process: through which learning happens.
2. Outcomes: to which learning leads.

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There are different types of learning process. These differences result from:
1. choices or preferences of the learner,
2. the context in which learning takes place,
3. the nature of what it is that we are trying to learn.

Three kinds of learning (MUD)

1. Memorizing. 2. Understanding. 3. Doing.
Give examples of each.

Definition of learning
Learning is an interactive process between people and their social and physical environment which results in
changes to peoples knowledge, attitudes and practices.

Models of the learning process

1. The acquisitive model of learning

This model of learning starts from a focus on the observable behaviour of the learner and on the idea
that this can be changed by feedback from the learning environment.
It is associated with the idea that learning has to do with reproducing some desirable behaviours or
measurable outcomes.
In this model, the learning process is seen as a process of accretion, so learners add to their store of
knowledge those items that are required for them to achieve their current goal.
It is essential that learners have feedback regularly on how effectively they are achieving the desired
learning outcome at each stage. This model has some similarities to an input/ output model, with a
feedback loop for correction of what has been recalled.
Its limitations:
o Says little or nothing about what the learner should be doing or thinking while learning. The
learner is simply a black box taking in the information and generating the output, whatever that
is.
o Learning here is a passive process of absorption of an input, unmodified. What goes on when we
learn, and the influences that affect that process, are left out in this model.
o Much of what we must learn comprises not details to be remembered, but ideas to be understood,
and techniques for analyzing and evaluating information. We also have to learn about attitudes
and feelings. This model pays no attention to this.

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 Model of acquisitive

Tutor Output
The student who
input from the
learns
student

feedback

Assessment/
evaluation by
tutor

learning process

2. The constructivist model of learning

Concentrates on what happens during the process of learning.
Identifies the central role of concepts and understandings that learners bring to new learning and the way
in which new and old ideas interact.
Starts with learners use their existing frameworks of understanding to interpret what is being taught.
Learners are actively involved in processing what is taught, and as a result, the same input is perceived
differently by different learners and may well have quite different outcomes.
The learning process is seen as a product of the relationship between three interconnecting factors:
i. What learners already know or can do.
ii. What learners think the subject they are studying is about and what it takes to learn it.
iii. What teachers do, the tasks they set and the way these are interpreted by learners.

A system map can help clarify this approach to learning. Such maps are a way of showing the component parts
which interact to create a system that is greater than the sum of its parts. Although the component parts may
interact, it is not customary to indicate this by lines or arrows on this particular type of diagram.

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 Teaching activity

C D

Learner Teacher
B
A

A system map of key elements in a constructivist model of learning

3. The experiential model of learning (David Kolb)

There are four distinctive kinds of knowledge, each is associated with a distinctive kind of learning. The
four kinds of learning are:
o Concrete experiencing,
o Reflective observation,
o Abstract analysis,
o Active experimentation.

Kolbs definition of learning: the production of knowledge through the transformation of knowledge.
Kolb views learning as a process (which has a kind of value added quality).

concrete
experiencing

active reflective
experimentation observation

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 abstract
conceptualization/
analysis

The Kolb model of learning

Describing the cycle:

The cycle can start anywhere.
Each stage leads to the following one:
o Concrete experiencing: your store of experience.
o Reflective observation: observations made depending on your experience.
o Abstract analysis: depends on the raw material, which is the observation.
o Active experimentation: combines concrete experience and abstract analysis.
When we put our experimental ideas into practice, we generate another episode for concrete
experiencing so that the cycle can begin over again.
The learner should work through each of the four stages in the model and give it enough time to achieve
effective learning.

Ways of thinking

1. Logical thinking
It attempts to be objective: The conclusion shouldnt depend at all on your point of view.
It is necessary: The conclusion always follows from the premise.
It is sequential: if (a) then (b).

2. Causal thinking
A way of linking events or activities together.
There is more scope to say: it all depends.
It is sequential also.
There might be multiple causes:

Car crash insurance claim

(Convert this relationship to as multiple as you can).

Logical and causal thinking arent so good at helping us to think about systems for four reasons:
i. They tend to design a pattern for similar situations
ii. They attempt to be rational and objective, and ignore subjectivity
iii. We cannot always predict the behaviour of complex systems.
iv. They are very simple and lack interconnectedness and feedback loops.

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3. Reductionist thinking
Breaking the whole picture into smaller parts which will lead to simple cause-and-effect relationships.

4. Holistic thinking
Deals with wholes rather than parts.
The problem is that it is not always clear what is whole and what is part. A person is a whole, and can be
a part in another situation.
Start with looking at the whole, and if this doesnt make sense look at the bigger whole of which it forms
a part.

5. Multiple partial views

Partition the whole into sections to understand how the whole looks.

6. Perspectives
A better way of looking to multiple partial views, to look from point of views (perspectives).
Three different ways to gain new perspectives to get a helpful picture of the whole:
o To be clear and explicit about your point of view.
o To see the system through the eyes of others (role playing).
o To look for unintended consequences. Look at what the system actually does, then assume that is
its purpose, then describe the system as one to achieve that purpose.

7. Distinguishing worldview from perspective

Both work with differences of opinion.
Perspective: how things look from your current position.
Worldview: how you see the world, regardless of your current position. A sense of what is fair and
right.
If swapping circumstances would not change your view, then the difference is more likely to be one of
worldview.

Spray diagrams and mind maps

Have similar look but different functions.
Spray diagrams are used for representing the structure of an argument, to encapsulate the relationships
between the ideas of others or for note taking.
Mind maps are used for brainstorming on your own, where you are trying to get your own ideas out on
paper in a relatively unstructured way.
Its elements
o central circle or blob for main topic;
o blobs for sub-topics (optional);
o words on the lines or at the ends of lines;
o branching sets of lines;
o title.
Conventions
1. Put the keyword or phrase in a circle.

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 2. Related ideas expressed in one or a few words are attached to lines radiating from this circle (a
single-layer spray) or from secondary circles creating fans (multiple-layer sprays).
3. Words may be written along the lines or at the ends of lines (e.g. a, b, c, etc.).
4. The lines do not show directional links.
5. Similar ideas on the radiating fans can be linked by loops.
6. Different colors can be used to group or highlight particular fans or clusters of ideas.
Guidelines
1. Write down the central idea you wish to explore, leaving space all around it.
2. Identify branches from that idea that you want to explore further. Write them down around the
central idea and link each to it with a straight line. Keep going by considering each branch to see
if further branches (or ideas) link to it.
3. Start by working fairly freely and then look at the diagram to see whether any of the strands are
effectively the same idea.
4. If you get stuck or loose the thread, start with a new central keyword and create a subsidiary
spray diagram rather than clutter up the original. Alternatively, leave your spray diagram or mind
map for a while to allow time for fresh thinking before adding to it or redrawing it, combining or
grouping similar ideas.

(I)

a e
d f
c

Subtopic
1 Subtopic
2

Main g
topic

Subtopic 3

h
i j
(II)

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 a Main topic

b
c

Two formats for a spray diagram or mind map

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List of readings and resources:

1. Concept file 1 (Learning):

- Readings 1, 2 & 3
2. T551 (Primer):
- Sections 1 & 2
3. T552 (Diagramming):
- Appendix A.1.1
4. Diagramming CD (CDR0630)
- Spray diagrams section