J-WEL members: Join us for our Workshop on Teaching and Assessing Systems Thinking in Undergraduate Engineering Education

March 2 - March 3, 2022, online
Please note: This event is exclusive to J-WEL members.

Registration opens today for our Workshop on Teaching and Assessing Systems Thinking in Undergraduate Engineering Education.

Systems thinking is crucial for quality undergraduate engineering education, and instructors could benefit from more well-constructed pedagogical frameworks and effective instructional tools for fostering and assessing students’ systems thinking. In recent years, the New Engineering Education Transformation (NEET) Program at MIT has been focusing on introducing essential Ways of Thinking, including systems thinking, to undergraduate students. In Fall 2020, Dr. Rea Lavi, Lecturer and Curriculum designer in the NEET program, introduced a new first-year course on Ways of Thinking at MIT.

This two-day workshop, titled 'Teaching and Assessing Systems Thinking in Undergraduate Engineering Education', draws inspiration from Dr. Lavi's course as well from his own published research and teaching experience in other settings. In this workshop, participants will be introduced to Dr. Lavi's framework for teaching and assessing systems thinking in undergraduate engineering education. Participants will also have the opportunity to develop their own systems thinking assignments, deploy their assignments with other workshop participants, and receive feedback on their assignments. Participants will also have the opportunity to discuss their own and others’ ideas for teaching and assessing systems thinking.

Work will be mostly carried out in small teams formed around disciplines or systems of interest. The session will be fully active, including collaboration, presentation, discussion, and reflection. The workshop will be led by Dr. Lavi in collaboration with Dr. Katerina Bagiati, Research Scientist in MIT Open Learning. Although the instructors will mainly introduce assignment examples coming from the field of engineering, the target audience for this workshop is faculty and leaders of all STEM schools, as well as members broadly interested in instructional design and course assessment.

How to Register: 
If you are a J-WEL member interested in registering for this workshop, please email us at jwel AT mit DOT edu. The deadline to register is Wednesday, February 16th.