MacArthur Foundation Funds Systems Thinking in Education Project
By Janice Molloy
In this time of budgetary constraints and funding cutbacks, the news that the MacArthur Foundation is funding research on the development of systems thinking in middle school students is a heartening turn of events. According to a press release from Indiana University, professors Melissa Gresalfi and Kylie Peppler will be principal investigators on the three-year study called "Grinding New Lenses: A Design Project to Support a Systems View of the World." They are partnering with Nichole Pinkard, visiting professor at DePaul University, and Katie Salen, executive director of the Institute of Play, to create curricula to help sixth graders see and interpret the world with a "systems thinking disposition."
Peppler and Gresalfi are working on two projects. In the first, they will design teaching materials for sixth graders that integrate systems thinking in areas such as science, art, and literature. The researchers' focus is on providing students with technology to play and experiment with to create their own systems. Commented Peppler, "A lot of what's been out there about kids understanding systems 
has been playing simulations and then playing with the variables of those simulations. Instead of starting with somebody else's creation, they'll be creating their own simulations, in a sense."
During the final year of the grant, the researchers will try to understand how teachers use the curriculum modules they've introduced. The goal is to offer teachers new ways to promote systems thinking in the classroom. "Indiana's technology standards centrally focus on systems thinking and there just is not very much curriculum out there," Gresalfi said. "I'm very optimistic that we'll get some Indiana teachers at a minimum who are looking for something to use to address some of these standards."
According to the press release, some of the inspiration for the curriculum will come from the Quest to Learn School in New York City, which was created by Salen's Institute of Play. The combination middle school/high school describes itself as "designed to help students to bridge old and new literacies through learning about the world as a set of interconnected systems." The "Grinding New Lenses" project looks like a strong step toward advancing systems literacy more broadly.
Janice Molloy is content director of Pegasus Communications, managing editor of The Systems Thinker newsletter, and program director of the annual Systems Thinking in Action conference.
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