Teaching systems theory with play

Systems Theory is a cornerstone of social work epistemology. Traditionally, systems theory was a part of human behavior in the social environment (HBSE) content and appeared in CSWE Education Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) through 2008. The 2015 CSWE Educational Policy Statement reflected a shift from an explicitly defined stand-alone competence to the integration of Person-In-Environment (PIE) in competencies related to each of the four phases planned change process. This integration strengthened the connection of systems thinking with practice though it also weakened the articulated prerequisite knowledge for systems thinking. This article reclaims the importance of pre-requisite knowledge to systems theory as four principles of systems thinking and posits that pedagogy, not content, is the source of students’ difficulty learning foundational content. As a teaching note, this article offers experiential learning as the instructional method, and using play with common children’s toys (e.g. a yoyo) as an exercise to learn systems concepts.