Systems Thinking for Instructional Designers

M. Aaron Bond is Senior Director for Learning Services at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA.Suha Rahif Tamim is Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Instruction and Teacher Education in the College of Education at University of South Carolina, USA.Samantha J. Blevins is Senior Instructional Designer & Learning Architect in the Center for Innovative Teaching & Learning at Radford University, USA.Beth R. Sockman is Professor and Co-Department Chair in the Department of Professional and Secondary Education at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, USA.

"Readers of this book can quickly draw quickly from these 25 rare and accessible narratives that demonstrate diverse education problem definitions and solutions found by professionals employing principles of systems theory and systems thinking. These cases resonate from diverse institutional settings ranging from K-12 (urban and rural), higher education (college and university), and health care contexts. Written in the voice of instructional designers and others, the editors of this book offer a symphony for education practitioners. This is a must-read for leaders who can benefit from the many lessons learned and shared by systemic change leaders."—Eugene G. Kowch, Associate Professor of Education at the University of Calgary, Canada"The authors provide a welcome introduction to systems thinking through carefully constructed teaching cases from the world of education and related topics. The cases enable systems thinking faculty and students to explore this growing field through many accessible yet detailed examples which demonstrate the value of a systems approach to addressing chronic, complex problems."—David Peter Stroh, Founding Partner of Bridgeway Partners and Founding Director of AppliedSystemsThinking.com"I’m so pleased to recommend this book to all change agents. This text is an important addition to the literature in the field, particularly given the strong link to practice and the ability to apply the lessons from these cases to the ongoing activities of those who wish to understand the systemic implications of their own change agentry. Given the diversity of cases, there’s something for everyone in this text. This one should be on any practitioner’s bookshelf when looking to make system-wide change."—Alison A. Carr-Chellman, Professor and Dean of the School of Education and Health Sciences at the University of Dayton, USA

• 1. Integrating Systems: A Practical Guide 2. System Thinking the Vision for Change in the Reading Intervention System (K-12) 3. System Collide and Cooperate (Education/International) 4. Rethinking Classroom and Instructional Support Management in Adult Higher Education (Higher Education) 5. Supporting Student Voice to Protest and the Impetus for Change (K-12) 6. Improving School Culture Through Systematic Changes (K-12) 7. Community Health Assessment: Best Practices through a Systems Thinking Approach (Health care/International) 8. A Systems Approach to Designing Instructional Credentialing Protocols: Addressing Chaos, Transparency, and Performance (Health care) 9. Applying Systems Thinking to Consider the Interdependencies Among Subsystems (Higher Education) 10. Implementing a Personalized Learning Initiative in a Large Urban School District (K-12) 11. Systems Thinking in Undergraduate Health care Education and Simulation-Enhanced Interprofessional Education (Higher Education) 12. Applying Instructional Design Principles to a Common Challenge in Health care Research (Health care) 13. Inclusive Histories: Using Systems Thinking and a Team-based Approach to Develop and Implement a U.S. History Curriculum Rooted in Social Justice (K-12) 14. A Journey to Quantified Blood Loss in a Tertiary Perinatal Setting (Health care) 15. Structuring and Supporting an Online Doctoral Program: Administrative and Academic Challenges (Higher Education) 16. Let's Idea Relay: Strategy for Harnessing Collective Intelligence (Higher Education) 17. The Case of Situated Learning Experiences for Secondary School Adult Certification (Education/International) 18. A Case Study of Social-Technical Systems Approaches and Educational Video Animations (Health care/International) 19. Systems in k-12 education and their impact on providing excellence in supervision (K-12) 20. COVID-19 Forces More Engaged Online Learning Strategies: A Systems Thinking Approach for Successful Course Delivery (Higher Education) 21. Innovativeness: The Capacity for Building and Sustaining Change (K-12) 22. Community Based Adult ESOL Instruction: Challenges and Successes of Moving to Online Teaching (Education/International) 23. Creating a Sustainable After-School Elementary School Literacy Program in Partnership with University Pre-Service Teacher Technology Course (K-12) 24. Registration Strengthening Program in 16 Districts (Health care/international) 25. Scaling down and changing up: Leveraging microlearning for professional development in the pharmaceutical industry (Healthcare) 26. Fortifying Systems Thinking and Change through Needs Assessment (Industry)