■ Research Paper Educating Systems Thinking for Sustainability: Experience with a Developing Country Nam C. Nguyen * † , Doug Graham, Helen Ross ‡ , Kambiz Maani ‡ and Ockie Bosch ‡ School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Gatton, QLD, Australia This paper describes an approach to teaching systems thinking and associated cap- acity building for a team of professionals and managers from a developing country (Vietnam), engaged in the sustainable management of a world biosphere reserve. Vietnamese environmental and development managers and UNESCO were attracted to a systems approach to managing the Cat Ba Biosphere Reserve because it offered a way to address components of sustainability holistically, while transcending organ- isational and disciplinary ‘silos’. Key features of the training approach include learn- ing as a group of professionals, with senior organisational support and commitment to apply systems approaches in the workplace; enjoyable adult learning approaches tailored to the needs of participants; complementing teaching of systems thinking and techniques with participatory methods for working with the participants in devel- oping solutions to their sustainability issues; and building in evaluation at every stage, through participatory methods taught in the course. The paper highlights the import- ance of teaching systems thinking and provides an example curriculum and teaching strategy based on adult learning principles. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Keywords systems thinking; systems education; capacity building; adult learning; sustainable development INTRODUCTION We are living in a complex and changing world. Policy makers and managers today are expected to cope with increasing complexity, change and di- versity (Jackson, 2003). Complex environmental * Correspondence to: Dr Nam Nguyen, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Gatton Campus, Gatton, Queensland 4343, Australia. E‐mail: n.nguyen@uq.edu.au † National Economics University, Vietnam ‡ Professor Received 23 June 2010 Accepted 5 May 2011 Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Systems Research and Behavioral Science Syst. Res. (2011) Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/sres.1097