Interactive models
STEP uses simulation modelling to explore how education systems change over time. Try a short school improvement game that introduces some basic ideas behind systems thinking.
Shift the system
Test your understanding of a basic education system
This game is based on a simplified causal loop diagram of school improvement. The model shows how leadership, management, teacher quality, resources, class size and learner success interact over time.
How the system works
Schools do not improve like light switches turning on.
A decision made this year may only matter three years from now. A cheap intervention may buy time, but not change the system. An expensive one may look useless at first, then suddenly start to matter. And sometimes the number that increases is not the number you should be proud of.
The diagram below is the map of the game. It shows the main moving parts: leadership, management, teachers, resources, class size, learner attrition and learner success. The arrows show how one part of the system can push another part up or down. A "+" means that two things move in the same direction. A − means that they move in opposite directions. R marks a reinforcing loop, where change can build momentum and B marks a balancing loop, where the system pushes back. The double line on an arrow marks a delay.
Your job is to read the system, spend your tokens, and see whether your strategy holds up over ten years.
Can you improve learner success before the system pushes back?
How to play
You have 100 tokens and ten years to improve the school system.
Spend your tokens on interventions that target different parts of the system, including leadership, school management, teacher quality, school resources, community support and class size.
Some choices are cheap. Some are expensive. Some act quickly. Others only start to matter after a delay.
Your goal is to finish the ten-year period with the strongest learner success outcome you can achieve.
Before you play, look at the diagram. It is the map of the system, but it will not tell you exactly what to do. The challenge is to decide where to intervene, when to wait, and when to change strategy.
Give it a go!
This is a simplified teaching model. It is intended to support systems thinking and discussion, not to forecast the performance of a specific school or evaluate a real policy intervention.
