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Systems thinking and practice
What is systems thinking and practice? The essence of systems thinking and...
What is systems thinking and practice? The essence of systems thinking and practice is in ‘seeing’ the world in a particular way, because how you ‘see’ things affects the way you approach situations or undertake specific tasks. This unit will help you to learn about the problems of defining a system and meet some of the key concepts used in systems theory: boundary, environment, positive and negative feedback, etc.
After studying this unit you should be able to:
- develop confidence in using systems concepts and language;
- describe accurately the set of key systems concepts;
- understand what is distinctive about systems thinking as opposed to other forms of thinking;
- understand how systems thinking is useful in analysing and improving situations;
- understand the notion of a system as a creation of the observer, i.e. as an intellectual construct, as opposed to using the term system in other ways, i.e. as entities that exist ‘out there’;
- identify and represent systems of interest (that are not ‘out there’).
- Duration: 8 hours
- Published on: Monday 25th July 2011
- Level: Intermediate
- Posted under: Systems (Computer)
Systems thinking and practice
Introduction

What is systems thinking and practice? The essence of systems thinking and practice is in ‘seeing’ the world in a particular way, because how you ‘see’ things affects the way you approach situations or undertake specific tasks. This unit will help you to learn about the problems of defining a system and meet some of the key concepts used in systems theory: boundary, environment, positive and negative feedback, etc.
This unit is from our archive and is an adapted extract from Systems thinking and practice (T551) which is no longer taught by The Open University. If you want to study formally with us, you may wish to explore other courses we offer in this subject area [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .
Archive content
This is an extract from an Open University course which is no longer available to new students. If you found this interesting you could explore more free Systems (Computer) course units or view the range of currently available OU Systems (Computer) courses.
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- Creative-Commons: The Open University is proud to release this free course under a Creative Commons licence. However, any third-party materials featured within it are used with permission and are not ours to give away. These materials are not subject to the Creative Commons licence. See terms and conditions. Full details can be found in the Acknowledgements section.
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