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GLOSSARY INQUIRY: SIMPLE SYSTEM
A system that behaves in a straightforward, mechanical and predictable manner, for example, the balls on a billiard table, or an automobile engine.
A simple system’s behaviour can be accurately predicated and controlled because it results from the interaction of a very limited number of variables or parts that interact in direct cause-effect relationships, such as the relationship between temperature and volume in a thermometer. Such systems are determined by external causes; they cannot adapt and are not self-organizing. The framework used to study them is classical Newtonian mechanics.
The principles and methods used to study simple systems have often been applied to education—for instance, by behaviourists who define learning as changes in behaviour directly caused by changes in the environment. In contrast, for complexivists the environment offers only triggers; what is learned is determined by the learner’s own complex structure.
See related terms: System, Complicated System, Complex System.
