Systems thinking is vital in both designing education and understanding how different elements work together. Systems are complex, interrelated structures that impact various aspects of our lives. Designers must consider the big picture, the dynamic nature of systems, and the influence we have within them. Examining systems in areas like food, cuisine, and education reveals their intricate connections. By identifying and reimagining the parts of systems, we can initiate redesign and reform.
Systems are organized and purposeful structures of interrelated and interdependent elements. They are often invisible to us, but systems influence almost every aspect of our lives.
A system can be seen as a goal-driven group of interacting, interrelated, and interdependent elements that make a complex, integrated, and coherently organized whole. Systems are made up of sub-systems that can interdependently affect the behavior of the whole. To understand and design systems you need to see the wholes - both the system and its sub-systems - and the complex interrelationships between parts.
In that sense, thinking in systems means starting from the system as a whole and working back down to the parts. It also involves understanding that the properties of the whole may be emergent from the interactions between the parts. This is particularly true of complex organizations and of society as a whole - such as issues related to public policy, education, healthcare and more.
Designers of systems understand that they need to consider the big picture, while balancing short- and long-term perspectives. They recognize the dynamic, complex, and interdependent nature of systems and acknowledge that we are all part of systems in which we function – and that we influence systems even while being influenced by them. Finally, they recognize that systems are characterized by complex feedback loops that constrain the identification of strict or linear cause-effect relationships and that data for manipulating systems is both measurable and non-measurable.
Let’s take food and cuisine as an example. It is clear that there are many interlocking and interdependent systems, many of which are hidden from us. For instance, the global supply chain systems that allow us to purchase food from across the world from our local grocery store are probably not something we know a lot about, nor do we think much about the inhuman conditions in which the meat that we eat is produced and shipped to us. The food industry is also connected to other systems such as the global financial systems that allow for the transfer of funds and capital to keep this entire machinery in place. These global systems interact with local systems of restaurants and stores to get food on our tables. Changes in systems (such as the rise of food delivery apps) can fundamentally change how we purchase and consume food.
In the case of education, schools exist at the intersection of a range of systems that develop curricula, train and deploy educators, and bring children to school to educate and feed them. In fact it can be argued that schools within this system play a far greater role than just transfer of information. Schools are sites for communities to come together, for children to learn to socialize, to explore sports and the arts and much much more.
If we focus on assessment of learning in particular - it becomes clear that testing and assessment systems extend far beyond specific classrooms and schools and need to include broader political and policy systems, textbook publishing systems, and companies that create standardized tests, technologies for scoring these tests, coaching systems that exist outside the formal school systems and much more. The inclass test that the student takes, filling out bubbles with a pencil, can be understood only by seeing it as lying at the intersection of a wide variety of socio-technical-economic systems. It is no surprise then that educational reform is difficult to achieve since there are a range of entrenched systems that help keep it the way it is.