Enhancing System Thinking in Education Using System Dynamics

System thinking skills are a prerequisite for acting successfully and responsibly in a complex world. However, traditional education largely fails to enhance system thinking skills whereas learner-centered educational methods seem more promising. Several such educational methods are compared with respect to their suitability for improving system thinking. It is proposed that integrated learning environments consisting of system dynamics models and additional didactical material have positive learning effects.This is exemplified by the illustration and validation of two learning sequences.