How does the teaching of climate change and sustainability fit into the teaching of the traditional content and skills of the core science strands? In this article, Rosemary Hipkins responds to this question that was asked by a teacher who is concerned that complex context that dominates the narrative of teaching can cause confusion for students…

This commentary on the special issue, entitled "Models and Tools for Systems Learning and Instruction," highlights the accomplishments of the papers in this collection. It also points to some avenues for further strengthening research on promoting systems understanding. Collectively, the papers make advances in our understanding of how…

James P. Lantolf is George and Jane Greer Professor Emeritus of Language Acquisition and Applied Linguistics and former director of the Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research at the Pennsylvania State University, USA. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Applied Linguistics in the same academic unit at Xi'an Jiaotong…

Ziegler and Phillipson (Z&P) have provided a valuable discussion of the identification and development of giftedness under a systemic umbrella, including issues of differing theoretical approaches and efficacy. This commentary considers their discussion within a novel systemic framework that links also individuals and environment, but in terms of…

Current gifted education clearly has its problems as outlined by Ziegler and Phillipson. The focus on personal traits and the assumption of an autocatalytic development of gifts into extraordinary achievement has not been proved a valid approach for designing effective supportive measures. At least one of the reasons proposed by Ziegler and…

Ziegler and Phillipson (Z&P) advance an interesting and ambitious proposal, whereby current analytical/mechanistic theories of gifted education are replaced by systemic theories. In this commentary, the author focuses on the pros and cons of using systemic theories. He argues that Z&P's proposal both goes too far and not far enough. The future of…

In this article, the author discusses how an instructional leader can overcome organizational inertia and create a genuine systemic change by starting small. To make a successful change, an organization must do the following: (1) Find the right staff and a powerful idea; (2) Provide a sponsor; (3) Start small; (4) Get results; (5) Find a…

The example of a man blinking at a light serves as the starting point for an inquiry into the complex relationship of stimulus and physiological response. Countering the charge of reductionism, the organism in its environment is shown to be a case of energy flow and transformation. (AM)

Encourages teachers and trainers to investigate instructional design alternatives in order to find approaches that fit varied student learning needs and constraints. The Instructional Design Library, a series of 40 guides to different types of designs, is recommended as one avenue for exploring a systematic approach to instruction. (MER)

Clarifies and stimulates interest in the concept of the human systems approach; presents a theoretical framework that incorporates systems and subsystems in industrial arts; and suggests an activity for teachers to implement an idea that was stimulated by the theoretical framework and a need in industry. (CT)

Curriculum theorists should develop three classes of propositions: (1) definitional propositions, which involve the curriculum design and curriculum system; (2) normative or descriptive propositions, which involve goals in planning the curriculum and designing an evaluation scheme; and (3) predictive propositions, which involve the correlative…

Discusses a systems approach to accounting instruction and examines it from the viewpoint of four components: people (titles and responsibilities, importance of interaction), forms (nonpaper records such as microfiche, floppy disks, hard disks), procedures (for example, electronic funds transfer), and technology (for example, electronic…

By incorporating a discussion of systems into the beginning accounting class, students will have a more accurate picture of business and the role accounting plays in it. Students should understand the purpose of forms, have a basic knowledge of flowcharting principles and symbols, and know how source documents are created. (CT)

Compares a soft system model of teaching with a hard systems model for learning, essential components of which are perception, memory, and concept formation. Proposes a combination of soft systems thinking and hard systems instruction as a scientific basis for the craft of teaching. (SK)

Learners must acquire a general strategic orientation in their problem solving, to determine what counts as relevant information in problematic situations. A dynamic systems approach is called for in determining whether general or context-specific instructions are needed to promote transfer of relevant information to novel conditions. (Author/JDD)