Abstract for:Assessments of Systems Thinking and the Individual Learner: A Comprehensive Review and Revised Taxonomy

Since the introduction of systems thinking inventory tasks and dynamic thinking tasks in 2000, an increasing number of researchers and educators have confronted various student groups with systems assessments to measure and evaluate their understanding of basic system thinking skills and system concepts. The results showed a surprisingly poor performance. This has motivated many to develop more effective ways of increasing students’ systems thinking skills and better metrics for measuring that understanding. This paper is a comprehensive review of previous studies on the assessment of systems thinking and the development of methods for building competency frameworks. A second branch of literature on Bloom’s taxonomy and learning styles/cognitive approaches was analyzed and linked into the systems thinking literature. Important elements, characteristics, and interventions for developing systems thinking skills in the classroom were identified, and a revised learning taxonomy was developed for use in undergraduate education.