The 21st-century skills course — and especially its Thought-part — emerged out of a multi-year experience with two University of Groningen courses: "The systems track of Challenges of Modern Society" (often referred to as "Systemics") and the "System View on Life". These courses were taught at the University College Groningen. This is a Liberal Arts and Sciences bachelor program that, unlike other University programs, firstly teaches students to think for themselves and take responsibility for their own intellectual development and secondly prepare for life or study after the bachelor.
The contents and form of the Thought Course have been tested and fine-tuned in the "Systems Track" and the "Systems view of life". Students of these courses provided many testimonials. Here are testimonials specific to "the Systems Track" and the "Systems view of life".
Below are two insightful reflections on these courses that are included in full because they show key features that are developed even more in the 21st-century skills course.
Reflection Systems Track
The reflection below is from a student in the Systems Track who reflected eloquently on the role of education. The student was, initially, not comfortable in the course, but who at the end of the (9-week) course said: "I can say with complete honesty that I thoroughly enjoyed what I learned and feel that I have expanded my views, opened my mind".
Note: emphasis added.
Does the streamlining of education in our modern world result in straitjacketed, narrow minded people who conform with our current global system? To address this question, we should examine the fundamental reasons for getting an education. Is the purpose of an education to create like minded people with similar knowledge bases so as to maintain harmony in the current system we have developed? Alternatively, is education the means by which we explore, question past practice and continue to build up knowledge? The Oxford dictionary definition of education is ‘the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university’. I personally think that “education” is much more than the Oxford dictionary description given above.
I think that education is a continuous process by which we sub-consciously learn and evolve throughout our lives. If we do not educate ourselves, our our mental growth, ability to think, act and question the opinions of others is stunted. Failing to engage, question, and formulate our own views may be less effort, but settling into that comfort zone does not benefit the world or ourselves. We need to continue to expand our mind and open ourselves up to difficult and contradictory beliefs to further the development of becoming both informed and wise. During my systemics course, I feel that I have learned an invaluable amount about process of how to think critically and independently. I have learned that I must start by questioning the sources of everything that I read, hear, watch and get taught by and look at the evidence available at each step to see if the conclusions are justified. Before the course, I was very much a firm western systemic member with a narrow view on the world which mostly came from a mainstream media outlet such as the BBC together with my structured syllabus taught by a UK school education. The skill and understanding of how to maintain an open mind and think about information critically with no bias or prejudgment is difficult to perfect. I am by no means there yet, but I do feel that my progress in working towards this goal has started through this course. Discussing controversial topics and analysing them from a foreign viewpoint stimulates a mixture of emotions such as disgust, betrayal, confusion, resentment and even anger at the start. However, during this course, I have understood that these emotions are not always helpful in allowing you to digest and evaluate alternative viewpoints which was never demonstrated to me in my mainstream education.
Admitting and understanding that there are always two-sides to every argument has really sunk in during this course. The maintenance of an open mind when faced with a new question is a skill to which all wise people should aspire. These principles were taught but not strictly implemented at school. The power to critically appraise information and expand our knowledge is key to shaping and improving our current society. This is something I feel I have learned through the systems course and I will continue to improve and utilize along the path of my lifelong education. While accepting controversial opinions and arguments was at times a huge struggle for me, I think that I am better prepared now to listen to another viewpoint recognizing my own bias and information sources. At the start of the course, I was very defensive of my views regarding certain issues such as climate change. However, towards the end of the course, I surprised myself by writing an essay defending and presenting the opposite side to this complex problem which was a different view to that which I held at the start. If the majority in the system such as the media, education and senior members are conformist and united in their views, it methodically conditions the population to think and believe those views thus perpetuating and continuing them and potentially failing to explore different angles.
Attitude and behavior to studies is key in allowing you to process and recall information learned. If you approach a topic with contempt and dispassion it will usually result in you rejecting the information and forgetting what you could learn. At the beginning of the course, I realize now, I was very closed in my views and opinions. I did not recognize that all my sources were from the mainstream media and establishment. I also felt we had very opinionated people in Yang and the topics we were discussing were very controversial and the explanations sometimes vague which made me feel massively out of my comfort zone. The homework set, made me feel very uncomfortable and confused that opinions I once held were sometimes very complex and hard to understand which tested my ability and endurance.
My mindset at the start required perseverance. I did not feel fully comfortable and happy with the subjects and the structure of the course at the start. However, over the course, as I began to gain confidence to contribute my opinions and questions on any topic discussed, I really became more invested and engaged with the course. Looking back upon the course, I am pleased to be able to say with complete honesty that I thoroughly enjoyed what I learned and feel that I have expanded my views, opened my mind and hopefully become a little bit less susceptible to accepting media sources without question. This course has left me a better educated person. I feel I have understood more in 9 weeks of lectures and seminars than I would have learned listening to a teacher teach for a set exam about these topics with set syllabus.
Reflection Systems View on Life
The reflection below is by one of the students who stresses that the "Systems View on Life" was all about skills.
Tjeerd, you’ve done it again! This course, just like Systemics, has been a joy. The topics of every week’s homework and classes were interesting every time. And just like the last time, I have learned skills and knowledge that will be very useful for my future. The most important things that I have learned and developed these past eight weeks can be divided into three skills, each associated with their own relevant knowledge. The three skills, in order of impact it has on me, are meta-development, structuring thoughts, and openness. These skills are not isolated skills. In many situations they are synergistic, stimulating and building upon the others, creating a stronger whole. Even though these skills are not at all exclusive to the UCG curriculum, they are rather typical for UCG courses.
Meta-development
Starting with what I think is the most impactful skill I learned in Systems View on Life: meta-development or meta-learning. What I mean with that is understanding the way humans learn and develop. Knowing how we develop and learn is a useful skill and valuable knowledge to have. It allows you to reflect on your own behaviour and development.
The knowledge about this skill was presented most clearly and completely in the homework of week 5 about self-actualization and wisdom. The diagram (figure 1 – open ended development) in the paper is a very helpful guideline and explanation of what that looks like. An example of self-actualization was given with the conversation between Jordan Peterson and Iain McGilchrist, showcasing what self-actualization looks like in practice; a critical view on conventional beliefs and morals.
This self-actualization process was very clear (especially if you’ve had systemics) in Cassie Jaye in The Red Pill. There you can see her struggle with her conventional beliefs and you see her go through the process of becoming autonomous, rather than just following the crowd. Linking back to the diagram from your paper, you can clearly see her pro-active behaviour, her post-conventional autonomous principles, a more mature self and more autonomy towards the end of the documentary and even more so in her TED-talk where she reflects on this. No one told her to try to understand views opposite to hers, she did it herself, allowing her to develop principles that don’t fall in the norm (feminism) and thus making her more autonomous and mature.
Structuring thought
Moving on to the next skill that I learned from this course: structuring thought; the process of going from random or unconnected thoughts fleeting around in our heads to coherent, solid and well-defined ideas that can withstand criticism in the real world. This is something we practiced most when developing our ideas, both by simply trying, as well as with your help guiding us through the process of thinking of an idea and refining it.
Structuring thoughts also came up during the homework and the classes. In week 4 in the Three Worlds by Karl Popper we could see what an undeveloped idea of an intellectual looks like. Furthermore, structuring ideas could be seen in our last homework, where we had to test a yet undeveloped idea from you.
An important part of structuring thoughts and developing ideas is precision. Without precision your ideas and thoughts are subjected to criticism that can easily counter your idea or thought. This was shown very clearly in the interview with Jordan Peterson, who demanded utmost precision of the interviewer, thereby almost destroying his views and often undermining his questions. This demonstration of precision was then put into practice for ourselves when we worked on making our ideas precise and solid.
Openness
On to the last important skill I developed in this class. Openness showed itself in two definitions of the word in our classes. The first being the skill to view the world with an open view (right hemisphere). The second way it showed was in the sense of being open to new experiences and different opinions or views.
Viewing the world with an open view was most prominent in the book the Systems View of Life by Capra and Luisi. The way of thinking proposed in this book and later in the course coming back in the film Mindwalk is one that was (and still is a bit) unfamiliar for me, as I have always been taught to think about the world in a mechanical way. There is a problem and you solve that problem and then your job is done. However, as the first week’s homework (peak mining) shows, this isn’t how reality works. When you solve a problem in isolation, often you will create 3 more problems in other parts of the world due to the interconnectedness of reality. This point was driven home in the documentary about chaos theory showing us how many things in the real world are non-linear and can thus not be looked at in a mechanistically linear way. This way of viewing the world through the right hemisphere, rather than the left, is still quite unfamiliar for me, but I am learning it more and more. And in the future, I might be able to apply this way of viewing the world, even to scientific situations (that are often looked at mechanistically), in a way Eric Smith did.
The openness to new experiences and different opinions or views also came back in this course, but not nearly as much as it did in Systemics. In the last three weeks of homework this was discussed, most prominently in The Red Pill, where Cassie Jaye went headfirst into opposing opinions and views. But, we also discussed this when talking about the different views of liberals and conservatives in week 6 and 8.
UCG Courses
In Systems View on Life we haven’t necessarily learned much dry content in the way we do in normal courses like Calculus or Living Cell. We don’t learn how to differentiate. We don’t learn the intricacies of animal cells. We do, however learn skills like I talked about before. Skills that are useful in life in general and that are not taught in normal courses.
The people studying here are intelligent. The fact that you are studying here is generally enough proof of that. This also means that we don’t have much trouble understanding and remembering things. What UCG can offer is more than that. True UCG courses teach you more than what is generally taught in a classroom. True UCG courses are taught in a similar way as this one. Not by following a textbook word by word, but by exploring the world and learning from that. Thereby learning skills that are useful even outside the classroom.
Once again, Tjeerd. Thank you.