Big Picture Thinking Research Articles

A narrative orientation for the longitudinal integrated clerkship.

This paper follows through with findings from a longitudinal integrated curriculum (LIC) programme evaluation, which revealed that (1) experiential perspectives and (2) the integration of learning featured weakly in the programme's structure. On examination, these two areas were seen to be linked because, by granting authority to experience, we are called to follow its lead wherever it may take us. Data was collected from students, clinicians and programme administrators using participatory mapping and discussions and analysed through four lenses, one of which was to identify what seemed to be missing or quiet. Two features of the LIC model were not explicitly structurally supported in the programme: integration of learning and experiential perspectives. The authors draw on narrative medicine and visual thinking to propose a novel response to the problem, which locates the clinical educator as embodying a narrative orientation to teaching. A narrative orientation affirms the power of human experience, told through stories, to enable integrative, whole-person, big picture thinking in the medical education curriculum. Teaching ideas are scaffolded through metaphors of form, space and integration. In pursuit of an authentic integrator of learning in the LIC, we already have within our reach the power to grant human experience the authority to teach us wherever we find it and follow wherever it leads. However, its potential is yet to be realised, and this discussion throws up new questions for practical enquiry: how best to support educators to adopt a narrative orientation.

When Bad Things Happen, Could Big-Picture Thinking Help? An Interview With Marlone Henderson, PhD

When Bad Things Happen, Could Big-Picture Thinking Help? An Interview With Marlone Henderson, PhD

What I Think about When I Think about Teaching Ethics: A Philosophical Exploration in Pedagogy

What I Think about When I Think about Teaching Ethics: A Philosophical Exploration in Pedagogy

Toward a big picture of COVID-19.

The paper aims to illustrate and explain the problems and opportunities for improvement in Covid management that become evident when taking a systems perspective. Critical time delays occurred in the regulation of the pandemic that the management cycle of political cybernetics makes explicit. In general, the executive management of the pandemic in global, regional, and national organizations was unprepared in detecting and responding to the onset of the waves and making appropriate decisions towards differential instead of general lockdowns based on available data. This was further complicated by the mutants of SARS‐CoV2 that perpetuated the high dynamics of the pandemic. In addition, the diversity of medical specialisms, without appropriate big picture thinking, led to an imbalanced response that failed to appreciate the role of virology and epidemiology compared to clinical and public health‐related issues. In consequence, laboratory experts suggested everyday regulations for the citizens without taking into account wider considerations for empirical research. There was an insufficient effort made for proposed treatment studies using existing agents based on the established understanding of essential physiology and the role of local and systemic chronic inflammation. In contrast, driven by media popularization, drugs that later proved beneficial were put in doubt and other drugs that lacked benefit and potentially caused harm were driven to clinical trials and utilization. Person‐centered systems view backed by scientific knowledge and established data would have set better priorities. Finally, we need to take a step back and consider the Corona crisis pandemic in the context of the unidimensional utility‐driven handling of natural ecosystems by the culture of industrialized countries. This ever‐accelerating destruction of life spaces for species drives adaptations are the basis of zoonoses. There is strong evidence that future pandemics should be faced with a more systemic socio‐ecological conceptual framework that also reflects the fatal impact of human civilization on natural ecosystems, no matter if SARS CoV2 is a zoonosis or a laboratory accident. It is critical for the future of our species that we collectively learn from this experience, address limitations in our perspectives, enhance our system‐based science and bolster global, regional, and national crisis management. The impact of climate change and biodiversity loss has crossed the horizon and is now clearly in full sight.

Dignity, mega-projects, and the problem of scale

I extend Grossman and Trubina's argument about dignity in urban geography in one direction: the problem of scale. It is worth noting that both of their case studies – mega-events, and large housing estates – involve mega-projects. There is an inherent conflict between the micro-scale of the individual and community – where the lived experience of dignity occurs – and the much bigger scale of the mega-project – where much contemporary city-making occurs. Governance for the micro-scale is inherently skeptical of big urban transformations, prioritizing individual rights to the city: to home, to neighborhood, to public space. In contrast, governance for the mega-scale values big picture thinking and economies of scale, where the common good might trump the dignity of individual urban citizens. Reconciling these scalar conflicts is a foundational problem in the ‘urban age’ of rapid and global mega-urbanization.

Why Systems Engineers May Have an Edge When It Comes to Personal Resilience

AbstractThis paper posits that individual or personal resilience, that is, the ability of a person to adapt to and recover from adversity (Public Health Emergency [PHE], 2020), is key to overcoming personal challenges and that personal resilience is important to organizational and societal resilience as well. Among the examples of personal resilience listed by Spacey (2017) are unaffectedness, tolerance for ambiguity, change agency, and big picture thinking. Arguably, as is discussed in the International Council on Systems Engineering's (INCOSE) Systems Engineering Competency Framework (Presland, Ed., 2018), these are characteristics that should be possessed by systems engineers, hence the assertion that systems engineers may have an edge when it comes to personal resilience. This paper breaks down these characteristics further and relates them to the systems engineering (SE) competencies. It also provides a few suggestions on how to develop personal resilience, specifically by developing oneself in the INCOSE Professional Competencies.

Theorizing disaster communitas

Disaster scholars have long complained that their field is theory light: they are much better at doing and saying than analyzing. The paucity of theory doubtless reflects an understandable focus on case studies and practical solutions. Yet this works against big picture thinking. Consequently, both our comprehension of social suffering and our ability to mitigate it are fragmented. Communitas is exemplary here. This refers to the improvisational acts of mutual help, collective feeling and utopian desires that emerge in the wake of disasters. It has been observed for as long as there has been a sociology of disasters. Within the field, there have been numerous efforts to name and describe it. Yet there has been far less enthusiasm to theorize it, which means that the disaster literature has not adequately explained the social conditions under which communitas arises (or fails to). In this article, we synthesize numerous case studies to do so. This takes us beyond simple statements of what communitas is and what it should be called, to considerations of the conditions under which it emerges, how it should be conceptualized, the factors that might prevent communitas, and how we might encourage it. While primarily a theoretical work, the identification of communitas’ facilitators and barriers have practical import for disaster risk reduction (DRR) policy as communitas has frequently proven to be a positive and potent force.

Improving Auditors’ Review of Inconsistent Audit Evidence

We examine audit reviewers’ detection of conclusion deficiencies, which occur when preparers draw inappropriate inferences about the audit evidence set as a whole. These deficiencies are particularly concerning when the evidence set contains inconsistencies (i.e., items that do not uniformly support the client’s assertions). We argue that reviewers with a promotion focus detect more conclusion deficiencies than reviewers with a prevention focus. A promotion focus is a frame of mind that broadens attention and encourages big picture thinking, while a prevention focus narrows focus and encourages avoiding mistakes. In two experiments, we provide evidence that a promotion focus improves reviewers’ detection of conclusion deficiencies when considering inconsistent evidence. Specifically, we find that a promotion focus increases reviewers’ holistic thinking, documentation of inconsistencies among evidence items, and the communication of significant issues to the engagement manager, which increases the likelihood that the issues will be resolved appropriately.

In Memoriam: Kirk R. Smith.

In Memoriam: Kirk R. Smith.

The Open-Ended City: David Dillon on Texas Architecture ed. by Kathryn E. Holliday

Reviewed by: The Open-Ended City: David Dillon on Texas Architecture ed. by Kathryn E. Holliday Joel Barna The Open-Ended City: David Dillon on Texas Architecture. Edited by Kathryn E. Holliday. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2019. Pp. 448. Illustrations, notes, index.) David Dillon, with a Ph.D. in literature from Harvard, came to Dallas to teach at Southern Methodist University in 1969. In 1980, he wrote an essay for D Magazine, provocatively titled “Why is Dallas architecture so bad?” In 1981, he became the full-time architecture critic for the Dallas Morning News, a position he held until 2006. During that twenty-five-year stretch, he wrote more than one thousand articles for the newspaper, while also contributing to national and regional architecture magazines and other publications. In the mid-1990s, he moved back to Massachusetts, where he taught at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and continued his prolific writing output. He died in 2010. The quality and the volume of his writings, which have touched on and helped shape many significant changes in Dallas and the North Texas region, made Dillon respected in his field and beloved in the city that was his sometime-home. In 2011, donors came together to fund creation of the David Dillon Center for Texas Architecture in the University of Texas at Arlington’s College of Architecture, Planning, and Public Affairs. University buildings and programs are almost never named for anyone but a big donor any more. In that context, the existence of the Dillon Center is testimony to the impact of his career. The Open-Ended City was edited by Kathryn E. Holliday, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Texas at Arlington and the founding director of the Dillon Center. In her introduction, Holliday says that she chose the sixty-odd pieces that make up the book with the goal of showing Dillon’s role as an interpreter of architecture outside the confines of the profession, and as a key figure in creating a new tradition of architectural criticism in Texas. Holliday’s argument is bolstered by an afterword, “The Tradition of Architecture Criticism in Texas,” by architectural historian Stephen Fox of Houston, who writes: “Dillon demystified architectural criticism in Dallas. He demonstrated that the goal of criticism was not stylistic commentary but a clarification of the processes through which decisions are made about how the public landscape is shaped” (406–407). Though mostly centered on contemporary projects in Dallas and Fort Worth, Dillon’s essays tackled issues that affect virtually all American cities. The early1980s was a wild time in land development in Dallas and throughout Texas. New buildings were going up fast, driven by one of the state’s periodic oil booms and, most of all, by a bubble in financing from newly deregulated banks and savings and loan institutions. Much of the building was nondescript, and as the boom continued, block after block [End Page 491] of old buildings were razed, leaving scattered new towers amidst acres of surface parking lots. Some downtown streets held no more urban vitality than freeway ramps. Throughout Texas, cities became, in Dillon’s words, the hole in the doughnut. The architectural press played a role as gatekeepers—independent assessors of taste who could translate the cloistered traditions and aesthetics of architecture for the public and also stoke the market. But over time, architectural criticism decreased until it had largely retreated to specialized academic and professional journals. However, things have changed in Texas downtowns, largely for the better. People have moved into them by the thousands; entertainment districts bring people from the suburbs to what in the 1980s had been a frightening wasteland. As the essays in The Open-Ended City show, David Dillon played an important role in making that transition happen. From the first essay to the last, he condemned simplistic “big-picture thinking” (the reason he thought Dallas architecture was so bad in 1980) and argued for design that would bring actual human connection back to city streets. Holliday writes that Dillon “maintained a persistent belief in the ability of an engaged citizenry to demand higher quality and greater accountability for urban context,” and that he championed...

Bærekraftig utvikling gjennom skapende praksis

Faget Kunst og håndverk er grunnskolens linse til gjenstandenes, byggenes og bildenes verden; det allmenndannende faget innen visuell og materiell kultur. Faget rommer praktisk problemløsning, estetiske erfaringer, nærhet til materialer og et vurderende blikk. Kunst- og håndverkslærererne står i verkstedet med materialene i hendene og har mulighet til å sette små dagligdagse handlinger og meninger inn i en større sammenheng og utfordre elever til å ta ansvar for det de gjør og det de kanskje velger å ignorere. Artikkelen søker å forsterke fagets samfunnsmandat gjennom å peke på hvilket potensial det har til å fremme økoliteracy og kimer til å bebo denne verden bedre gjennom fire innganger: estetisk erfaring, innovasjon, praktisk arbeid og kritisk refleksjon.

Encouraging bigger-picture thinking in an intervention to target multiple obesogenic health behaviours

Research has shown that use of the third-person perspective to visualise a behaviour results in increased motivation to engage in the behaviour relative to the first-person perspective. This effect is claimed to operate in part because the third-person perspective leads the individual to “see the bigger picture”, linking the visualised behaviour to broader goals and identities. Reasoning that this effect could be harnessed to encourage engaging in multiple behaviours that serve the same broader goal, the present study manipulated the visual perspective participants used to imagine themselves exercising, and assessed effects on cognitions and behaviour related to both exercising and healthy eating. Baseline exercise levels were measured and explored as a moderation effect. As predicted, it was found that for participants who engaged in more exercise at baseline, visualising exercise using the third-person perspective resulted in them reporting stronger intentions to exercise and taking more leaflets showing local exercise classes. For those who engaged in less exercise at baseline, there was no effect of perspective. In terms of eating, there was a main effect of perspective, such that participants who imagined themselves exercising using the third-person perspective ate significantly less chocolate than those who used the first-person perspective, irrespective of baseline exercise levels. These results suggest that use of third-person perspective visualisation can be used to encourage engagement in multiple behaviours that serve the same broad goal, which may serve as an intervention technique that will be especially helpful for health outcomes with multiple contributing behaviours, such as obesity and overweight.

Technology, Future Learning and Flourishing Thinking

The 21st century era of rapidly changing technology entails cognizance of the changing nature of knowledge, learning and environments. New models of knowledge building and knowledge co-creation are emerging. Personalized learning takes on new dimensions with mobile devices and new tools for sharing and meta-thinking. Evidences from research in learning sciences and neurosciences point to the importance of understanding human cognition and behaviors in optimizing the use of technology for learning. Future learning entails a powerful use of the cognitive propensity to learn by imitation and modeling as well as the novelty of inquiry and creation. Didactics are replaced by conversational learning with social media as powerful platforms. Apart from the analytics and logic, future learning incorporates big picture thinking, multiple perspective thinking and connective thinking to flourish problem-solving and creativity. The address will conclude with some implications for design and practice.

Group cognitive remediation therapy for younger adolescents with anorexia nervosa: a feasibility study in a Japanese sample

ObjectiveCognitive remediation therapy (CRT) aims to increase patients’ cognitive flexibility by practicing new ways of thinking as well as facilitating bigger picture thinking, supporting patients with relevant tasks and encouraging an awareness of their own thinking styles. CRT has been applied in the treatment of adult anorexia nervosa (AN), and has been shown to be effective and acceptable. In adolescents, CRT has been piloted on both individual and group format. However, no studies are published in CRT for adolescents with AN in a Japanese sample. The objectives of this study were to assess the feasibility, to estimate effect sizes for the purpose of designing a larger study, and to assess the acceptability of a CRT group for younger adolescents with AN in a Japanese sample.MethodsGroup CRT interventions were carried out with a total of seven adolescents with AN. Neuropsychological and psychological assessments (motivation, self-efficacy and depression) were administered before and after the group intervention. The participants completed worksheets (documents of participants’ thinking about their thinking style and the relation of the skills that they learnt through each session to real-life) and questionnaires after the group.ResultsThere were small effect sizes differences between the part of the pre and post neuropsychological tests and the pre and post ability to change (motivation). There were medium effect sizes differences between the pre and post depressive symptoms and importance to change (motivation). There was a large effect size shown between the pre and post weights. All participants were able to reflect on their own thinking styles, such as having difficulty with changing feelings and the tendency to focus on details in real-life. Adolescents’ feedback was positive, and the rate of dropout was low.ConclusionCRT groups could be feasible and acceptable for younger adolescents with AN in a Japanese sample.Trial registration UMIN No. 000020623. Registered 18 January 2016

Benefits of group cognitive remediation therapy in anorexia nervosa: case series.

SummaryBackgroundCognitive remediation therapy (CRT) is a treatment targeting cognitive difficulties in psychiatric disorders. CRT has been used with patients with severe anorexia nervosa (AN) in individual and group formats. Research of group CRT in AN is limited.MethodsEvaluation of a series of CRT groups delivered in inpatient and intensive daycare services was performed. Participants’ self-reported cognitive flexibility and central coherence, as well as motivation to change were assessed pre- and post-group. Additionally, patients’ evaluative feedback was collected after completion of the group.ResultsThere was a significant improvement in the patients’ self-reported cognitive flexibility and bigger picture thinking, as well as in their self-efficacy to change. The feedback questionnaires highlighted that patients found the sessions useful and reported confidence in using some of the skills and strategies they learnt in the group.ConclusionIn line with evidence from small-scale reports, this larger scale case series study indicates that group CRT leads to increased flexibility and bigger picture thinking, as well as improved confidence in the ability to change for participants. CRT in a group format seems to be a practical and helpful intervention for patients with AN in intensive treatment programmes.

I have to change to stay the same

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose that to survive and thrive the library needs to aim for a more active role in people’s lives and in the communities that surround them. Public libraries are places of learning. They strive to enrich, empower and inspire people to support their full participation in society. But our fast-changing society (Pink, 2005) requires people to develop new competencies, such as creativity, empathy, collaboration and big-picture thinking. However, current processes of the public library are still primarily aimed at providing and improving access to information produced by others. Although of great importance, these processes are fundamentally passive and do not actively stimulate people to share knowledge and insights or to engage in conversations. It explores how this can be done and what effect this change might have on library space based on the ideas and perspective of the Dutch Ministry of Imagination. Design/methodology/approach – The Ministry, a cooperation between architect Jan David Hanrath and librarians Rob Bruijnzeels and Joyce Sternheim, conducts research and realizes new types of libraries and library architecture. To turn the public library into a more dynamic and active social setting, the Ministry has developed a new work process supported by matching criteria for the layout of library space. Findings – The new concept has been brought into practice in the Chocolate Factory in Gouda, The Netherlands, which since then has become a permanent testing ground for new library work. Originality/value – This paper is a thought piece that will be of interest not only to those concerned with public libraries, but also to everyone who is searching for ways to turn the library into a learning environment in which a continuous process of knowledge creation takes place, through interaction with the collection, but – most importantly – through interaction between people.

Experimental Modification of Appraisal Style: Benefits of Seeing the Big Picture

Big picture appraisal (BPA) entails viewing difficult situations and one's reactions to them in terms of a larger context. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether big picture appraisal could be induced using cognitive bias modification (CBM); whether the trained appraisal style could be observed on other tasks; and whether emotional reactivity would be affected. Participants read vignettes that differed between conditions only by the final word or phrase, presented as a to-be-completed fragment. As predicted, participants showed generalization of training effects to the interpretations of new vignettes and showed effects of training on the Scrambled Sentences Test, a measure of cognitive bias that entailed unscrambling sentences under time pressure to form statements that were consistent or not with big picture thinking. In addition, participants in the big picture as compared to the control condition showed a trend toward less negative mood following failure feedback.

Personal Knowledge Management in Outreach and Instruction

The role of librarians today continues to evolve in response to the needs of their academic community. Personal Knowledge Management PKM is one example of an untapped arena for outreach and instruction for librarians. To fully embrace this new facet of contemporary research and academic work will require librarians to learn new skills and utilize creative, big-picture thinking to create services and guidance for the faculty and students that they serve. This article will provide an introduction to PKM theories, exploring some of the key tools that support PKM practices. The article will present several examples illustrating some of the outreach and instruction opportunities for librarians as well as exploring some of the possible future directions of PKM where librarians could play a vital support role for their academic communities.

A Systematic Review of Central Coherence in Young People with Anorexia Nervosa

Objectives: It is hypothesised that Weak Central Coherence (superior attention to detail with poorer bigger picture thinking) is a possible endophenotype for Anorexia Nervosa (AN). Currently the neuropsychological profile of children and adolescents with AN in unclear. The present review aimed to summarise the available literature with regards to the central coherence abilities of children and adolescents with AN, and clarify their neuropsychological profile. Method: The search found seven eligible studies. Meta-analyses were not possible due the variation in tasks used. Results: Evidence of less efficient global processing in children with AN was observed in a number of studies. The strongest evidence was observed from studies using the Rey Osterrieth Complex Figures Test (ROCFT). A visual comparison of ROCFT from child and adult AN studies highlighted similarities in global processing profiles. Conclusions: Evidence of inefficient global processing was observed across a number of studies. However methodological flaws in the current literature were highlighted and made interpretation difficult. These are discussed and recommendations for future research are made.

Using Pathway Maps to Link Concepts, Peer Review, Primary Literature Searches and Data Assessment in Large Enrollment Classes: An example from teaching ecosystem ecology

As with many other complex topics, teaching ecosystem ecology can be particularly difficult in terms of helping students understand the relationships between the various component parts. We addressed this challenge in a general ecology course by developing a lesson plan based on pathway maps. Pathway maps are very similar to concept maps but allow students to specifically address whether the links are positive or negative relationships. While the students created pathway maps collaboratively during class, they explicitly concentrated on the relationships between different concepts in ecosystem ecology. Each group of students then reviewed the pathway maps of another group to identify pathway map links that might be incorrect or poorly described. Students then investigated these flagged links of their own pathway maps by searching the primary literature for data that supported or refuted the questionable link in their pathway map. Each group then wrote a short paper presenting and interpreting the data that they found. The Pathway Mapping activity appeared to promote both big-picture thinking about ecosystem ecology and also a useful venue for students to evaluate a model (their pathway map) with data (from the primary literature). We feel that the Pathway Mapping framework is quite flexible and could be used to positive effect in a large number of courses.