A demonstrated awareness of the importance of both a whole system and the interdependence of its parts, including the cultural and economic interdependence of many societies in the globalized environment; also a demonstrated ability to understand phenomena from multiple, equally valid perspectives.

There are two ways to examine holistic thinking:

1. The student’s perspective is internal (i.e., the student is part of the system in question)
2. The student’s perspective is external (i.e., the student is not part of the system in question)