𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 & 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽

After 116 hours and 96 CPD points worth of online learning over the last 3 weeks at OpenLearn by The Open University, I have gained further clarities on the similarities and parallels between Systems & Design Thinking and Future of Education, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), and Leadership.

As an educator who applies Systems & Design Thinking into education and coaching, I found many shared visions among thinkers, scholars, and researchers from over 390 referenced contemporary literature on how we should adapt, given the increasingly complex and unpredictable world our future generations must navigate.

A deep dive into Systems Thinking and learned how to be a responsible practitioner.

'... we live in a world of complexity, of non-linear phenomena, chaotic processes, a world not easily captured by common sense, ... ... So far remarkably little use has been made of systems thinking or of the more recent work on complexity’ (Chapman, 2002)

Drawing from my experience in coaching Design Thinking and Human-Centred Design, introducing Systems Thinking has proven crucial and effective. It ensures that learners begin exploring any selected problem space with a comprehensive and systemic perspective before engaging in problem-solving and innovation.

The Education Development Fund's 2022 report, Why Systems Thinking is important for the Education Sector, also recommended similar approaches, as did the World Economic Forum in their 2023 advocacy for embedding Systems Thinking in Education.

This prompted me to thoroughly explore the history, theories, and evolution of Systems Thinking through the free courses Mastering systems thinking in practice & Strategic planning: systems thinking in practice. 'Too often, today’s problems are solved by utilizing easy and comfortable approaches to obtain simple solutions. ... ... In reality as many discover, simplicity and common sense approaches are far from effective in dealing with complex, dynamic and diverse problems.' (Robin Asby, 2009) From the two courses, I learned: The definition of Systems Thinking as a fundamental skill for us to

• See the “whole” through a critical lens

• Recognize patterns and interrelationships

• Appreciating other perspectives

• Learning how to structure more effective, efficient, and creative systems
  

The differences between

• Systematic and Systemic Thinking and Action

• Purposive and Purposeful Systems

• Various types of System Maps

• Key Systems Thinkers and five Systems Thinking Approaches since the 1950s

• Traditional and Complexity perspective of consultants

• Strategy and Systems

The main purpose of Systems Thinking is to

• Make sense of the relationships between different entities associated with a complex situation.

• Surface and engage contrasting perspectives associated with complex situations.

• Explore and reconcile power relations, boundary issues, and potential conflict amongst different entities and/or perspectives.
  

As a Practitioner of Systems Thinking, I should always strive to

• Create space for, and help support the framing of, better ‘systems’, rather than continuing as if they are given realities that we simply have to live with

• Use systems thinking as part of a process of learning to avoid the traps of reductionism and dogmatism

• Enables effective action among stakeholders in complex situations through collaborative action or social learning.

  
  

Collection of Diagrams and notes from the two courses, all rights reserved to the course provider OpenLearn and their collaborators.

Connecting Systems Thinking with the future of education, rethinking the interconnectedness and missing links.

To explore how we might connect Systems Thinking with Education, I then spent some time on two other courses Looking globally: the future of education and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) in STEM. From the course Looking globally: the future of education, I learned: 1. The profound philosophy of internationally acclaimed educationalist Sir Ken Robinson 2. 3 models of Education Systems (Human-Capital, Rights-based & Capability) 3. Environmental, Demographic, and Technological Drivers of the Future of Education Personally, I am more aligned with the Capability Model, where the pedagogic focus is on the development of autonomy and the capacity to make choices through one’s life.

Collection of quotes on the three education models, all rights reserved to the course provider OpenLearn and their collaborators. 

Systems Thinking is advocated by some here, with several authors (e.g. Robeyns, 2006 and Tickly and Barrett, 2011) argue that there must be a connectedness, in thinking and practices, between giving attention to individual capability agendas within education and to the promotion of wider social and political liberties.

As advocated by UNESCO in Educating for a Sustainable Future, A Transdisciplinary Vision for Concerted Action 1997, 'Education designed around sustainable development makes children aware of the growing interdependence of life on Earth – interdependence among peoples and among natural systems – in order to prepare them for the future.'

While most school systems still use an industrial approach to learning, moving children along systematically in managed groups based on age and focusing on knowledge not capabilities, how we design an education system depends on how we see the purpose of education:

What should students know, do, and value by the time they graduate from school?

Expanding Systems Thinking into teaching & learning as an evidence-based research practice, echoing the Design Thinking process. As part of a systemic approach, I continued my exploration from Education Models to the practice of,  Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) in STEM, an approach to Education that embraces diverse approaches to conducting reflection and research on teaching and learning, including situating the inquiry in one or more disciplines, and builds a cross-disciplinary evidence base for effective learning and teaching practices.

Areas of investigation in SoTL, all rights reserved to the course provider OpenLearn and their collaborators. 

The five principles of SoTL Felten (2013):

1. Inquiry focused on student learning and engagement

2. Grounded in context

3. Rigorous and methodologically sound research design

4. Conducted in partnership with students

5. Appropriately public for evaluation and uptake by peers

6. Reflection, critical reflection and reflexivity

• Reflection is a tool for SoTL researchers to reflect on their practice, to deepen their understanding of student learning; to deepen their understanding of student learning and to generate ideas for innovations to enhance student experience.
  

• Critical reflection by educators is the sustained and intentional process of identifying and checking the accuracy and validity of existing teaching assumptions, and thereby continuously accessing new lenses to view their academic practice and alter their perspectives (Larrivee, 2000).
  

• Reflexivity requires critical self-reflection of the ways in which researchers’ social background, assumptions, biases, positioning and behaviour impact on the research process and on the knowledge outcomes.
  

The caution of assumptions and biases is similar to our practice of Design Thinking. The informed design and iterative process of Design Thinking is also echoed by SoTL, as it brings the researcher mindset into teaching and provides the educator with research language and methodology for reflection and evidence-based exploration for improving student learning (Shaffer et al., 2019)..

The SoTL inquiry process, all rights reserved to the course provider OpenLearn and their collaborators. 

The Systems Thinking practice of appreciating multiple perspectives is also echoed in SoTL: In education, all practitioners have four lenses through which they can conduct critical reflection to identify blind spots in their practice and gaps in their thinking that they have never been aware of (Brookfield, 2015).

These lenses help educators to consider aspects of academic practice from a different perspective:

1. The lens of students’ eyes: how do they see what their educator does? What meanings do students ascribe to the educator’s decisions? How do they experience the educator’s exercise of power and authority?

2. The lens of colleagues’ perceptions: it is about asking colleagues for feedback about what is going well and what is not: ‘What am I missing?’ or ‘What do you think is going on here?’

3. The lens of theory: here, educators refer to the theory to open up to alternative explanations and interpretations of what they are doing.

4. The lens of autobiographical experiences: educators review their own experiences to view their practice. For example, an educator’s setting up of group work for his students will be informed by his own experiences as a student who was reluctant to participating in group work.

   
   

These four lenses guided by the research questions of the SoTL inquiry can be used to support critical reflection on multiple levels, which is similar to how Systems Thinking dissect the layers in an ecosystem.

4 Levels of impact in SoTL, all rights reserved to the course provider OpenLearn and their collaborators. 

Inclusion in the future of leadership: appreciating Diversity (Systems Thinking) with Empathy (Design Thinking).

As someone who firmly believes that 'True leaders create more leaders, not followers', I concluded my exploration of Systems Thinking and its relevance to Education and Teaching & Learning by examining the Future of Leadership in the course Leadership and Followership.

In this course, I learned:

• The various types of Leadership (Transactional, Transformational, Adaptive, Inclusive, Shared, Collaborative, Authentic, Politically astute, and Holacracy.

• The importance of emotional intelligence, integrity and resilence

• The types of followers and importance of developing Followership as Leaders and future leaders.

• The concept of Un-Lead through Liberty, Equality and Fraternity by corporate change-maker Céline Schillinger, author of Dare to Unlead: The art of relational leadership in a fragmented world (2022),
  

In reflection to my approach to education and coaching, my leadership type leans towards:

• Collaborative Leadership: "... accepted responsibility for building – or helping to ensure the success of – a heterogeneous team to accomplish a shared purpose.' (Hank Rubin, 2009, founder of the Institute for Collaborative Leadership)

• Adaptive & Inclusive Leadership: "...requires strategic foresight, empathy, resilience, and effective communication" (Goniewicz and Hertelendy, 2023), "...adaptive leaders prepare and encourage people to deal with change" (Northouse, 2022)

• Authentic Leadership: "genuinely desire to serve others through their leadership. They are more interested in empowering the people they lead to make a difference than they are in power, money, or prestige for themselves." (George, 2003)
  

With Inclusive Leadership in particular, the emphasis of appreciating multiple perspectives in Systems Thinking is echoed in a report commissioned by the Employer Network for Equality and Inclusion (ENEI, 2016), drawing from a survey completed by almost 1000 employees from a range of organisations, and 61 interviews with 11 participating organisations, defines an inclusive leader as an ‘exemplar of inclusive behaviour’ who:

• Listens to and seeks out the views of diverse people and takes account of these views, without bias, in the decisions they make

• Appreciates that a diverse group of people will generate more creative solutions to problems and encourages this

• Inspires people through a shared vision of future success and motivates them to deliver it

• Leverages difference for high performance and provides responsive excellence to customers’, clients’ and service users’ needs

• Provides positive feedback to boost people’s self-efficacy

• Puts effort into helping diverse people identify their talents and develop them for performance now and future advancement

• Communicates authentically and honestly in a way that inspires trust, loyalty and well-being.

The report also describes 11 core competencies present in an inclusive leader, among which serveral qualities are also essential in the practice of Design Thinking:

1. Unqualifed acceptance - Being inclusive in considering followers that involves being non-judgmental and accepting each follower as a unique individual

2. Empathy - Putting oneself mentally and emotionally into their followers’ place in order to more fully understand their experiences and perspectives

3. Listening - Actively listening to followers, that involves not only listening to the content but also the underlying meaning and emotional signifcance behind followers’ views and opinions

4. Persuasion - Being able to influence followers by showing them the benevolent merits of the direction that they are being led in rather than through formal authority or force

5. Confidence building - Providing followers with opportunities and recognition so that they see themselves as valuable contributors to the team and organisation

6. Growth - Encouraging followers to reach their full potential by providing opportunities for them to make autonomous and unique contributions and to emulate servant leadership behaviours

7. Foresight - Having the ability to see events and anticipating where they might lead, and being sensitive to warnings of potential negative events ahead of time (foreseeing the unforeseeable)

8. Conceptualisation - Having a vision about possibilities and articulating that vision to followers (knowing the unknowable)

9. Awareness - Being fully open and aware of environmental cues in the face of challenges; being mindful and insightful rather than allowing stress to interfere with clarity of thinking

10. Stewardship - Articulating the belief that the organisation’s legacy is to contribute in a purposeful way to society

11. Healing - Helping followers cope with any burdens or personal troubles in their lives

    

    
    
    
    
    
    

Moving Forward

With these new frameworks and models, I am look forward to further expand on their combined implications on problem-solving and critical thinking skills among students, with the potential support of Universal Design for Learning and Artificial Intelligence.