We make sense of the world around us by using a variety of internal lenses. Our learning may be more abstract than concrete, more right-brain than left-brain, more visual processing than auditory or kinesthetic, etc. We may lean towards one political party or ideological cause over another. And depending on whether we are night owls or early risers, we may be half asleep or raring to go when the alarm clock rings each morning. With so many perspectives, how can instructors meaningfully address them in college or university classrooms? A systems approach offers a bimodal solution. Systems thinking is the study of communication patterns and relationships that impact people individually, interpersonally, and environmentally (Caplan & Luisi, 2014). Interactions are important at each level and can be thought of as either linear (straightforward) or nonlinear (more complex).
