Systems Thinking -

Telephone Call

Telephone Call

Suitable for Step 1

Duration

30 to 40 minutes

Material Needed

Mime or ‘pretend phones’ (empty match boxes or toothpaste packages), or even real cell phones.

Group size

Pairs

Objective

To strengthen the learners’ ability to describe a given situation or topic in a detailed, structured and clear manner.

Description

  1. The learners sit in pairs.
  2. They simulate a phone call in which one member of the pair describes a given situation or picture to his or partner on the phone (make-believe phone).
  3. The listener is allowed and encouraged to ask questions to clarify the given description.
Contribution to Systems Thinking competence

The method helps learners to focus their thinking on a particular object or situation. Learners can prepare first descriptions of their understanding. They can continue to enrich the description through other methods such as internet research and interviews. Such a description forms the basis for further analysis.

Example

“Describe the flowering of a cotton plant” or “describe the processing of cotton to yarn” are suitable topics for such phone conversations. Similarly, “describe the steps of chips production” is another suitable task.