System Thinking- Complex Problem Solving

I could not start talking about systems thinking without saying that explaining this full concept won’t be possible here, as the name suggests, systems thinking is related to too many aspects to be listed or something like it. But also, I can not help but mention its similarity, in some aspects, with behaviorism - an approach in psychology that we will quickly mention later on. With that being said, let's start exploring  the concept.

System thinking englobes the many aspects of a single problem assuming that none of its aspects exists in isolation, they are all correlated to many other aspects and by altering one, others will consequently change, therefore to obtain a certain result one should have in mind all the aspects that can relate to that, in this way, promoting an effective change according to one’s desire. 

To better visualize it, we could think about the price of oil - which is related to many things. The lower the price, the more we explore. The more we explore, the less we have left. The less we have left, the more it will cost (due to the harder work to get it and to its scarcity, which values the product in the current economic system we live in), the more it costs, the less people will use it. The less people buy it, the less it will be valued (as a higher demand values the price in our economic system), and so on. 

As we can see, we could keep going with this system and find out many other aspects that influence the price of oil, not only that, but each aspect influences other aspects themselves. To alterate any of its aspects responsibly, one would need to think about all of its aspects in order to sustain a healthy system - and this flow of reasoning can be transported to many other situations.

This kind of thinking is used in numerous businesses, mastered by the most dedicated and responsible professionals, who aim for higher levels of complex problem-solving in order to succeed. There is, though, a misconception that simulates that careers and companies involved in mathematical, physical or financial sectors are the ones who most need to use system thinking, seeing that a single mistake could lead to a big repercussion or even a big money loss. However, bringing that to the educational universe, I would dare to affirm that there could not be something as complex as a human being,  where a mistake could lead to a lot of setbacks in a person’s life, which, we all know by this point, is related to many other aspects as well. This, by itself, should be enough to show how important it is for teachers to master the system thinking. 

Inside the classroom, we deal with many different situations. As teachers we must be able to consider our students' behavior as a complex event, correlated to a lot of aspects. As mentioned before, nothing exists in isolation, that includes a person’s behavior. We should not blame the kid, its personality or its parenting as if a single aspect would be responsible for the child’s behavior completely. 

We need to start comprehending the influence that we, as teachers, have on our students. The environment, the other children, his/her emotions, desires and parenting are also some important aspects. In behaviorism, all behavior is sustained or not according to the consequences it produces on the environment, that is a positive or negative response. That, in some ways, relates to system thinking by considering the whole process involved in a single behavior. By managing this theory and concept we can effectively elicit positive behavior in our students in order to build the foundations of system thinking they’ll need later on.

As educators, there are some ways in which we could think of systems thinking, I’d like to mention two. We should use it ourselves, in order to better solve classroom issues and also better help students with upcoming situations. In another perspective, we should also empower them with this ability, so that it comes to the point they’ll no longer need our help to solve their problems - a skill that will be carried to the professional world. 

To learn more, don’t hesitate on watching System Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World - MIT Open Course https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-Yp8A7BPE8&t=2s

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