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# A Systems Thinking Approach to a Story-Centered Curriculum Design and Application in Japanese Higher Education

## Details

**Authors** Nemoto, Junko and Suzuki, Katsuaki

**Year** 2019

**Publisher** Learning, Design, and Technology: An International Compendium of Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, eds. J. Michael Spector, Barbara B. Lockee and Marcus D. Childress (Springer, Cham)

**Kind of work** chapter

**Discipline** Education

**Secondary disciplines** Systems Science

**Kind of engagement** scholarly

**Applied** true

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17727-4_94-1) 
10.1007/978-3-319-17727-4_94-1

## In authors' words

### Abstract

In this chapter, we will introduce a systems thinking approach with examples of curriculum improvements implemented by the authors. In the third year of the new graduate school master's program, we introduced the story-centered curriculum (SCC) to create a place to keep sharing graduate school conducting research activities over time. In order to formalize the purpose and functions of this activity, we organized this curricular change utilizing three systems thinking approaches: (1) the DSRP framework (Cabrera D, Cabrera L (2015) Systems thinking made simple: new hope for solving wicked problems. Odyssean Press, Ithaca); (2) the expected change process diagram (Spector JM, Yuen AHK (2016) Educational technology program and project evaluation. Taylor & Francis, New York); and (3) a causal loop model (Senge PM (1990) The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. Doubleday/Currency, New York) underpinning our design. In such a complex set of activities and curriculum design efforts, we included many stakeholders. Our systems thinking approach to program change creation is supported and accompanied by a visualization of the current state and the ideal state, confirming the validity of our change activity. At the end of the chapter, we include findings for the future application of our tested systems approach to curriculum design and development.

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To introduce a systems thinking approach to curriculum improvement through the authors' own curricular change, and to report findings for applying that approach to future curriculum design and development.

### Who or what was studied (sample)

One curriculum: the third year of a newly established graduate master's program in instructional systems at a Japanese university, together with its many stakeholders. Participant counts are not stated in the accessible material.

### How they did it (methods)

A practice chapter reporting a curricular change organized by three named systems thinking devices: the DSRP framework, an expected change process diagram, and a causal loop model. Visualizations of the current state and the ideal state were used to support and check the change.

### What they found (results)

The authors report that organizing the curricular change with the three approaches made it tractable and checkable with many stakeholders involved, that visualizing the current and ideal states confirmed the validity of the change activity, and that the chapter closes with findings for future application of the approach.

## Commentary

### In short

Nemoto and Suzuki organize a graduate curriculum redesign at a Japanese university with three systems thinking devices, DSRP among them, citing Systems Thinking Made Simple directly, and use before-and-after visualizations to check the change.

### Response

The chapter puts DSRP to instrumental use rather than citing it. It is one of three named devices for organizing a curricular change, and it is cited to Systems Thinking Made Simple rather than through a secondary account. Pairing it with a causal loop model is a sensible division of labor: a loop diagram renders the relationship pattern and almost nothing else, while DSRP supplies the boundaries, the part-whole structure, and the stakeholder perspectives that a loop diagram presupposes without drawing. Which of the four patterns the authors developed, and how, is not visible outside the paywalled text, and the accessible material does not say.

**Patterns it shows** D, S, R, P

Shows it makes a difference

**Added** 2026-11-02

**How to cite this** Nemoto, Junko and Suzuki, Katsuaki (2019). A Systems Thinking Approach to a Story-Centered Curriculum Design and Application in Japanese Higher Education. Learning, Design, and Technology: An International Compendium of Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, eds. J. Michael Spector, Barbara B. Lockee and Marcus D. Childress (Springer, Cham).