Development of Measures to Assess Systems Thinking

Abstract

Systems thinking is a holistic approach to identifying and understanding relationships and emergent properties among different parts of a system. Numerous jobs in the Army require Army officers to work with or within systems, such as the organization systems officers lead and manage, and the complicated network of cyber systems Soldiers must protect and defend. To prepare Army officers for the systems thinking demands in their jobs, systems thinking is ingrained in various Professional Military Education (PME) courses. A gap exists in the Army where there are no standardized assessments that can provide feedback regarding Army officers systems thinking skills with respect to Army-specific domains. To address this gap, we developed a systems thinking competency model and two systems thinking assessment tools. The competency model was based on literature and interviews with PME instructors, officers assigned to operational units, and academic subject matter experts. The competency model consists of five dimensions: identifying elements, understanding dynamic relationships, shifting perspectives, identifying holistic patterns, and responding to change. The systems thinking competency model was the basis for two assessment tools: the Multirater Assessment for Systems Thinking (MAST) and the Context-Based Systems Thinking Assessment (CSTA). MAST highlights officer actions that demonstrate systems thinking and promote officer skill development. Ratees are scored according to the five dimensions of systems thinking. CSTA was developed in partnership with the Army Mission Command Training Program. CSTA tests Army officers systems thinking skills in relation to warfighting functions. CSTA uses a Large-Scale Combat Operations scenario in a Decisive Action Training Environment.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 21, 2022
Accession Number
AD1175946

Entities

People

  • Ava Loer
  • Christopher S Allen
  • Michelle Wisecarver

Organizations

  • U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Civil Affairs
  • Classification
  • Combat Operations
  • Department Of Defense
  • Digital Information
  • Education
  • Environment
  • Feedback
  • Information Operations
  • Instructors
  • Literature
  • Military Education
  • Military Operations
  • Military Research
  • Military Science
  • Models
  • Psychology
  • Social Sciences
  • Students
  • Thinking
  • Training

Readers

  • Instructional Design and Training Evaluation.
  • Military Leadership and Professional Education.
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.

Technology Areas

  • Cyber