Thoughts on Using Systems Thinking to Develop Chemistry Students’ Professional Skills

York, Sarah; Fowler, Whitney C.; Orgill, MaryKay

doi:10.1021/bk-2020-1365.ch006

Cited by 6 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…33,38−42 There have been multiple lists of ST skills published in the literature, 1−3 including several studies in the context of chemistry education. 17,33 In our previous study, we used the five characteristics of systems thinking in chemistry education (STICE) to identify the baseline ST skills (skills demonstrated without explicit scaffolding) employed by undergraduate chemistry students (Figure 2). 43 This previous work helped us to understand what ST skills students do and do not readily demonstrate so that educators can be informed on which ST skills to explicitly scaffold in their instruction.…”

Section: Current Limitations In the Educational Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While universities around the world aim to equip chemistry graduates with the competencies and content knowledge required to be successful in their future careers, students have not fully developed professional skills (e.g., collaboration skills, communication skills, leadership skills, learning skills, scientific thinking skills, etc.) that are required by employers. − The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Learning Compass 2030 highlights the importance of cognitive and metacognitive skills, social and emotional skills, and physical and practical skills for 21st century skills; all these skills are becoming essential as classrooms and workplaces become more diverse . Building the capacity to understand and achieve the SDGs and expectations of a 21st century workplace requires evidence-based approaches to postsecondary STEM education.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research suggests that developing ST abilities requires carefully designed instruction with a focus on students’ learning and applying ST skills. ,− There have been multiple lists of ST skills published in the literature, − including several studies in the context of chemistry education. , In our previous study, we used the five characteristics of systems thinking in chemistry education (STICE) to identify the baseline ST skills (skills demonstrated without explicit scaffolding) employed by undergraduate chemistry students (Figure ). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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“Systems Thinking (ST) Encourages a Safe Space to Offer Different Perspectives and Insights”: Student Perspectives and Experiences with ST Activities

Szozda,

Lalani,

Behroozi

et al. 2024

J. Chem. Educ.

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Researchers and educators have been exploring systems thinking (ST) in chemistry education to better equip citizens for 21st century challenges; however, little is known about students’ perspectives and experiences. In this study, we investigated students’ perspectives of ST and their experiences with ST activities. We designed and implemented a ST intervention, performed individually and collaboratively, as well as follow up interviews. Twenty-four university undergraduate and graduate students participated in this study and reported a variety of experiences and perspectives. For students’ experiences, we found that (1) while collaborating, participants recognized and appreciated different perspectives, (2) participants included chemistry concepts and connections in their system maps despite having difficulties, (3) system maps emphasized problems/solutions and causes/effects and differed in terms of organization and intended purpose, and (4) limitations to system map construction included time, knowledge, and technology skills. Students also expressed positive perspectives of a ST approach based on their experience engaging with the ST intervention and believed a ST approach (1) is beneficial to learning, (2) captures interest and engagement, (3) allows perspectives to be shared and gained, and (4) provides personal, social, and professional relevance. Based on these findings, we suggest aspects to consider when planning and implementing ST activities and identify future research required to better understand the impacts of ST in chemistry education.

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Section: Current Limitations In the Educational Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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“Systems Thinking (ST) Encourages a Safe Space to Offer Different Perspectives and Insights”: Student Perspectives and Experiences with ST Activities

Szozda,

Lalani,

Behroozi

et al. 2024

J. Chem. Educ.

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“…The improvement of the school's innovation and entrepreneurship ability curriculum system not only affects the students' vocational ability education in terms of educational factors. It also plays a good guiding and normative role in the campus atmosphere, teacher-student communication and the school's material environment in vocational colleges [16][17][18][19][20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of the influencing factors of students' vocational ability based on joint improvement of convolutional neural network and multimodal data

Yuzi Hu

2024

jes

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Students' professional ability includes innovation and entrepreneurship ability, independent ability, quality ability, professional ability and adaptability. The school's practical training teaching and professional setting, as well as the unique talent training model have a profound impact on training and development of students' professional ability. The continuous progress and development of society indicates that the competitiveness of occupational positions in the future will continue to increase. The talent market will also put forward newer and more difficult requirements for the quality of students. In study and life, cultivating students' good professional ability is the fundamental purpose of colleges and universities. Employers tend to pay more attention to overall quality of candidates when selecting employees. Whether students can enter the society smoothly after graduation has become an important task. It can be seen that it is very important to analyze the cultivation of students' professional ability and the influencing factors of professional ability. This work combines convolutional neural network (CNN) with the analysis of factors influencing students' vocational ability. First, this work proposes an improved residual block (IRB). It increases the width of the residual network by adding a residual connection channel to learn richer features. Second, this work proposes an improved attention module (IAM). It combines channel attention with spatial attention to improve model performance. Third, this work combines IRB and IAM to propose an SVAIFANet. The model can be applied to the analysis of factors influencing students' vocational ability. Fourth, this work conducts various experiments for proposed method, experimental data verify correctness for this method.

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“…Effective communication skills are no longer considered a luxury in chemical enterprise. Instead, meaningful writing and persuasive speaking for a broad range of audiences have become integral parts of the standard core professional skills required for scientific and professional success in the workforce − and graduate school. − Despite recent discourse emphasizing the importance of scientific communication, especially in a scholarly sense, it is a perennial problem originating at the undergraduate level. , It is well documented that undergraduate science students frequently struggle with written − and oral − communication skills. ,− This persists into graduate school, − ,− the medical fields, − and the workforce. ,,,, To meet this challenge, educators have been urged to adopt curricular changes that will foster strong communication skills in their students. ,,,− …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Scientific Method as a Scaffold to Enhance Communication Skills in Chemistry

et al. 2022

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Scientific success in the field of chemistry depends upon the mastery of a wide range of soft skills, most notably scientific writing and speaking. However, training for scientific communication is typically limited at the undergraduate level, where students struggle to express themselves in a clear and logical manner. The underlying issue is deeper than basic technical skills; rather, it is a problem of students’ unawareness of a fundamental and strategic framework for writing and speaking with a purpose. The methodology has been implemented for individual mentorship and in our regional summer research program to deliver a blueprint of thought and reasoning that endows students with the confidence and skills to become more effective communicators. Our didactic process intertwines undergraduate research with the scientific method and is partitioned into six steps, referred to as “phases”, to allow for focused and deep thinking on the essential components of the scientific method. The phases are designed to challenge the student in their zone of proximal development so they learn to extract and ultimately comprehend the elements of the scientific method through focused written and oral assignments. Students then compile their newly acquired knowledge to create a compelling and logical story, using their persuasive written and oral presentations to complete a research proposal, final report, and formal 20 min presentation. We find that such an approach delivers the necessary guidance to promote the logical framework that improves writing and speaking skills. Over the past decade, we have witnessed both qualitative and quantitative gains in the students’ confidence in their abilities and skills (developed by this process), preparing them for future careers as young scientists.

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Thoughts on Using Systems Thinking to Develop Chemistry Students’ Professional Skills

Cited by 6 publications

References 72 publications

“Systems Thinking (ST) Encourages a Safe Space to Offer Different Perspectives and Insights”: Student Perspectives and Experiences with ST Activities

“Systems Thinking (ST) Encourages a Safe Space to Offer Different Perspectives and Insights”: Student Perspectives and Experiences with ST Activities

Analysis of the influencing factors of students' vocational ability based on joint improvement of convolutional neural network and multimodal data

The Scientific Method as a Scaffold to Enhance Communication Skills in Chemistry

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