Systems Thinking makes it possible to analyse and understand complex phenomena such as those involved  educational research questions (indeed any human activity) which are often very complex, and is a useful tool to use when commencing research to better understand the complexities involved.

Systems Thinking is the process of understanding how things, regarded as systems, influence one another within a whole. In nature, systems thinking examples include ecosystems in which various elements such as air, water, plants, and animals work together to survive or perish. In organisations, such as schools or classrooms, systems consist of people, structures, and processes that work together to make an organisation “healthy” or “unhealthy”.

Systems thinking has been defined as an approach to problem-solving, by viewing “problems” as parts of an overall system, rather than reacting to a specific part, outcome or event. Systems thinking is not however one thing but a set of habits or practices within a framework that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system can best be understood in the context of relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than in isolation. This approach to systems thinking focuses on cyclical or repeating processes rather than linear cause and effect.

A system is an organised group of related objects or components that form a whole. Systems thinking is thus an holistic approach to the identification and solving of problems where the focal points are treated as components of a system, and their interactions and interrelationships are analysed individually to see how they influence the functioning of the entire system.

System

The structure, properties, behaviour and interactivity of people and components (inputs, processes and outputs) within and between natural, managed, constructed and digital environments.

Systems Thinking

A holistic approach to the identification and solving of problems where parts and components of a system, their interactions and interrelationships are analysed individually to see how they influence the functioning of the whole system. This approach enables students to understand systems and work with complexity, uncertainty and risk.

Defining Systems

The several ways to think of and define a system include:

• A system is composed of parts;

• All the parts of a system must be related (directly or indirectly), else there are really two or more distinct systems;

• A system is encapsulated, has a boundary to make it distinct from other systems;

• A system can be nested inside another system;

• A system can overlap with another system both sharing parts;

• A system receives input from, and sends output into, the wider environment; and

• A system consists of processes that change inputs into outputs.

Systems thinking can also be described as the process of understanding how a group of interacting, interrelated, interdependent components influence each other within the whole. Rather than viewing each problem as an independent entity, it must be considered in the context of its relationship to other parts of the system. Systems thinking teaches students how to solve problems, communicate, use data, and design policies for greater success.

By making or modifying a model and plugging in data, researchers can almost immediately see the influence of their choices. This type of interactive modelling is a key advantage of systems thinking.

Let's say you have been dealing with unhappy customers (students or teachers) with a product (educational technology). We know they've been complaining about too many bugs in the product and slow response times from our support (as customers create more support tickets). At the same time, we've been shipping more features to make them happier. Let's use make a connection circle so that we can make sense of this.

From this story, we can identify the key elements: unhappy customers, bugs in the product, response times, support tickets and new features. We'll document them around our connection circle:

Now we need to document the relationships between them. For example, we know that unhappy customers create more support tickets. More tickets means longer response time which in turn produces even more unhappy customers. We try to introduce new features which lower the number of unhappy customers. But they also produce more bugs and those lead to more unhappy customers again. Let's map these relationships to the connection circle:

The connection circle is now nicely showing the key elements of the system and the relationships between them. There's even one feedback loop that we can see here:

The completed connection circle and an identified feedback loop make you better understand the system. This understanding could help make needed changes.