Characterising the Literature on the Teaching and Learning of System Thinking and Complexity in STEM Education: a Bibliometric Analysis and Research Synthesis

Bielik, Tom; Delen, İbrahim; Krell, Moritz; Assaraf, Orit Ben Zvi

doi:10.1007/s41979-023-00087-9

Cited by 15 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 103 publications

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“…The aim of this research was to identify the existing limitations when working on environmental education in ECE, PE, and PTT classrooms from an environmental justice perspective. It has long been emphasised that environmental problems must be understood as a complex system [24] involving social, economic, environmental, ethical, and health factors [12,41]. Therefore, the latest 2030 Agenda strategy and the SDGs [42] call for an integrated approach to understanding environmental degradation and lifestyles.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These elements are interconnected and are systems thinking, critical literacy, and action competence. Systems thinking enables students to understand, explain, and interpret complex and dynamic problems in science classrooms in a holistic way [24]. To achieve this, it is crucial to identify the components of a system and their interrelationships [25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Educational Practice in Education for Environmental Justice: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Guevara-Herrero,

Bravo-Torija,

Pérez-Martín

2024

Sustainability

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The environmental crisis makes it necessary to reconsider the practices of environmental education (EE) and guide them towards a transformative perspective to promote critical reflection and the ability to make decisions in the face of complex problems, including a perspective of justice. Using the PRISMA systematic review protocol, this article analysed 49 classroom intervention published on international journals to identify the limitations when working on EE in early childhood education, primary education, and pre-service teacher training classrooms from an environmental justice (EJ) perspective. Considering the variables “contents”, “depth of the interventions”, “actions required of students”, and “resources”, the results show a predominance of interventions that promote content knowledge from an ecological perspective and demand actions far removed from reflection and participation, using self-made materials. By not encouraging students to reflect on environmental issues in a holistic way to change their behaviour, it was confirmed that they move away from systems thinking, critical literacy, and action competence. Therefore, there is a lack of integration of the EJ perspective in classroom practices. To achieve educational success in terms of social change for environmental protection, it is necessary to promote research work focused on the didactics of EE including a social justice perspective.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educational Practice in Education for Environmental Justice: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Guevara-Herrero,

Bravo-Torija,

Pérez-Martín

2024

Sustainability

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“…Various authors imply that systems thinking is connected in some way with models or modeling (Ben Zvi Assaraf and Knippels, 2022;Bielik et al, 2023). However, very different aspects of modeling have been emphasized in the systems thinking literature: Various frameworks explicitly include modeling as a systems thinking skill, which, however, can describe different skills.…”

Section: Modeling In Systems Thinking Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Students’ systems thinking while modeling a dynamic ecological system

Lankers,

Timm,

Schmiemann

2023

Front. Educ.

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The world is facing global ecological changes, making it essential to prepare the future generation with the necessary understanding to effectively navigate and address complex tasks. Previous research has shown that both systems thinking and scientific modeling are particularly relevant in investigating the comprehensive understanding of such complex phenomena. However, there has been little research on the interrelation between systems thinking and scientific modeling. To address this research gap, we conducted a thinking-aloud study with nine high school students by confronting them with a simulation of a dynamic ecological system. Our qualitative content analysis of the students’ statements indicates an interrelation between systems thinking and scientific modeling. The students infrequently show systems thinking during the exploration, whereas when developing a graphical model, the students are involved in identifying the system organization and analyzing the system behavior. When predicting future system states, students engage in modeling the system evolution. Furthermore, during verbalizing analogies and experiences, students refer to the system organization and behavior, whereas in mental modeling, students additionally model the system evolution. These results illustrate a central difference between the two perspectives. Thus, scientific modeling focuses on students’ activities during their understanding process, while systems thinking addresses students’ analysis of systems and their properties. While the phenomenon exploration may not require systems thinking, pattern recognition and model development are frequently associated with identifying the system organization and analyzing the system behavior. Systems thinking must also be applied when deriving possible future system states by modeling the system evolution, an activity that is closely related to the prediction phase of scientific modeling. Interestingly, in our study, the students also demonstrated the modeling of system evolution in their mental modeling. In conclusion, a complementary consideration of systems thinking and scientific modeling affords a deeper understanding of students’ cognitive processes in dealing with complex phenomena.

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“…Because of the dynamic nature of the connection between the system's different levels of hierarchy, complex systems are difficult to understand, even for experts (Hmelo-Silver and Azevedo, 2006). Recent review studies indicate that there are only few studies on science teachers and systems thinking (York et al, 2019;Bielik et al, 2023). further, little is known about (preservice) teachers' abilities to appreciate complex phenomena-such as the COVID-19 pandemic-as systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using concept maps to evaluate preservice biology teachers’ conceptualization of COVID-19 as a complex phenomenon

Bielik,

Jagemann,

Krell

et al. 2023

Front. Educ.

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IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic showed the critical importance of supporting teachers’ and students’ systems thinking when making sense of complex phenomena. This study sets to explore preservice biology teachers’ (PBTs) mental models of COVID-19 as complex phenomenon using concept maps.Methods27 PBTs concept maps of COVID-19 outbreak were collected and taken for analysis. Structural and complexity attributes were identified in participants’ concept maps and the relationships between them were tested, providing statistical analyses using exemplary concept maps.ResultsThe results suggest that the appearance of many concepts in a map (structural attribute) does not necessarily indicate high level of complexity, but rather the amount of simple structural relationships (complexity attribute). On the other hand, the results indicate that higher structural sophistication (e.g., high number of connections and junctions) could be associated with the complexity level of the map.DiscussionThis study provides a practical method for evaluating the complexity level of PBTs’ systems thinking, suggests a possible link between structural and complexity attributes in their concept maps, and demonstrates the need to further support PBTs in developing their systems thinking skills in the context of complex biological phenomena.

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Characterising the Literature on the Teaching and Learning of System Thinking and Complexity in STEM Education: a Bibliometric Analysis and Research Synthesis

Cited by 15 publications

References 103 publications

Educational Practice in Education for Environmental Justice: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Educational Practice in Education for Environmental Justice: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Students’ systems thinking while modeling a dynamic ecological system

Using concept maps to evaluate preservice biology teachers’ conceptualization of COVID-19 as a complex phenomenon

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