Monday, July 8, 2024

8:30 AM - 12:00 PM

Room 306, Flinders University City Campus, Festival Plaza

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Overview

Room 306 - Level 3

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Details

Facilitators Dr Helen Parker, UNSW Business School Dr Jeremy Grace, UNSW Business School Aim To provide: Practical insights into complexity through experiential exercises; A framework for understanding and managing systemic change, and Facilitation approaches for teaching complexity in higher education. Focus The workshop provides a practical application related to complexity and sense-making research. Overview Higher education courses, particularly at the undergraduate level, focus on cause-and-effect analysis, logical argumentation and linear problem solving. Today’s students enter increasingly volatile career environments with little understanding of the unpredictable nature of complex systems. Teaching complexity is vital in higher education for students to navigate complex issues and tackle the multi-faceted challenges in interconnected modern workplaces. The workshop is for educators who wish to facilitate students’ ability to think through a complexity lens. Complexity teaching methodologies and strategies are discussed, and case studies of successful implementation are presented. The workshop is drawn from the field of sense-making (e.g., Klein et al., 2006 ; Snowden, 2021; Turner et al., 2023) and complexity science (e.g., Taleb, 2013; Uhl-Bien, 2021; Uhl-Bien & Arena, 2017). Workshop plan Introduction (20 minutes) - Welcome and workshop objectives/agenda. - Rationale: the importance of teaching complexity in higher education. The ‘Complexity Game’ (65 minutes) - A large-group game in which participants co-create and physically experience three common system types. - Small group sharing of experiences and observations. - Whole-of-class development of major system concepts, directly from the game insights. - Discussion of the implications for decision-making and how to intervene and effectively manage in different systems. Strategies for Teaching Complexity (25 minutes) - Effective pedagogical approaches for teaching complexity with examples of successful implementation Systems Mapping Activity (55 minutes) - Participant teams engage in a hands-on exercise to create a table-top systems map of a current challenge facing higher education. - Group discussion on potential ‘safe-to-fail’ experiments and higher education outcomes. Closing Remarks and Q & A (15 minutes) - Recap of key takeaways and practical strategies for teaching complexity. - Opportunities for participants to ask questions and obtain further guidance.