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Free course

Systems thinking and practice

Free statement of participation on completion
Systems thinking and practice

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 free course 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.

Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

  • display 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'.

First Published: 10/08/2012

Updated: 27/06/2019

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